TASC MEETING
Minutes
December 1, 2006

Call to Order
Mike Duff called the meeting to order at 3:38pm. Members present were Marcus Stein, Patrick Eustis, Ashley Berken, Janet Woolman, Dr. Todd Furman, Michael Graham(attended by phone) and Michael Duff. Others in attendance were Shannon Davis and Brenda Gallow. Members absent were Nick Kohrs, Dr. Wayne Fetter and Chad Thibodeaux.

Minutes
Mike Duff accepted the November 03, 2006 minutes by acclamation.

CITO Update
Mike Graham attended the meeting by phone. Mike was pleased to report that there are zero bandwidth errors coming thru the network as of Monday or Tuesday of this week. Mike said OTM and Bellsouth finally came together in Lafayette to fix the problem. OTM had a throttle issue set wrong. Mike stated we are now running at 12megs. Early next week we will start to turn everything back on and see how it goes by the beginning of the Spring Semester. Hopefully, in the interim, we will be able to add more bandwidth. Mike said he put a notice in the Contraband advising everyone the myspace would open up, and asked everyone to regulate themselves, because if the site gets bogged down again, it will have to be shut down.

LONI will be doing additional work in January and February.

Mike stated Bellsouth has a new state bid that has come out, so we may be able to buy more bandwidth directly from them. Presently we are working to get the cost down. Cost should come down and we should increase the bandwidth no later than the start of next year from 12megs to 45megs and possibly up to 100megs.

Mike gave a big ‘Thank You’ to Chad Thibodeaux and his staff for working to get the bandwidth up and running smoothly.

In relation to the bandwidth, Mike advised the committee with LONI coming, his staff will increase the network capacity on campus to be able to pump huge amounts of data across the network and out to the internet as well as around the campus. The university is going to spend about $250,000 to $275,000 to take the core from a 1GB backbone to a 10GB backbone. He said this will enable the capacity to be able to handle everything that we are doing. Mike told the committee, the problem he is encountering is with the Luminus project. He said by committing all of his resources for bandwidth and the new Cisco network, we will be short in terms of what we can do for the servers. Therefore, Mike would like the committee to consider purchasing the servers to be able to run Luminus. The cost from Sun (the vendor) is about $145,000. This will handle Luminus, the new Calendar Server, the new Email Servers and basically wrap everything into one unified package system. Mike stated he would email the committee the specifications for their review, so they could make a decision at the first meeting next year. Mike said one of the things he would like to do early in the semester is add a link to the web page that says: University Portal. He wants to put up a survey (unless the committee has another idea) to see what everyone wants to call it; i.e. My McNeese, or something else, in order to customize it and make it more friendly, and ultimately have information relevant for the students right on the front page. John Bailey will be involved in forming a committee and he will talk to the TASC Committee about obtaining students’ input on how to form the front page in terms of what information will be permanent and what information for students will be customizable.

Mike supplied the committee with a couple of handouts containing information on 2 types of Kiosk. The Stealth Series is a lower end model. It cost about $3,000 for the actual device and for installation, network and everything else the cost will run from $5,000 to $7000. The Arch Series has a little more capability and more information could be added such as advertisements. It would run about $5,000 for the actual device and with everything else the total cost would run from $8,000 to $10,000. Costs on both are for indoor models. The outdoor model costs run about 3 times more. Ashley Berken wanted to know, what does a kiosk do? Mike Duff and Marcus Stein answered it could be used as directory assistance and electronic bluebook. Ashley asked if the indoor model would access the internet. Mike Graham said they could be entirely customizable and compatible to whatever the committee wanted. Mike Duff suggested the committee take the information home and figure out what they would want the units to do and come back with written ideas. Mike Graham suggested having a vendor come down and explain the different packages once the committee had a list of suggested ideas.

Old Business
Mike Graham stated he did not get any information regarding the print management system, but should have something by the next TASC meeting.

Ashley asked whatever happened with the telescope. Is it still on hold? Mike Duff said the last time it was discussed, the committee was not sure if this would pan out to work long term or fizzle out and die within a few months, plus with all the unanswered questions and the huge chunk of money it would cost, at this time it wasn’t the best idea. Janet Woolman agreed, and stated there wasn’t enough evidence of support for this project.

Marcus Stein asked about the status of the monitors. Shannon Davis reported training has been given to Dean Osburn and Candace Townsend. They have a training meeting setup December 5 at 2:30pm. On that day training will begin and soon after students will start seeing media.

New Business
Mike Graham stated the proposal that the committee does not yet have is Engineering. Their proposal has not been turned in due to not knowing what has been funded by the Department of Ed Emergency Grant. Dr. Kiritsis would like to wait until he knows what the Grant will fund so not to duplicate his request. He promises to turn the Engineering Proposal in by the first meeting of the next semester. Mike Graham asked the committee to give Dr. Kiritsis one more meeting to have the proposal turned in. The committee agreed.

Mike Duff suggested the committee take the proposals received home and review them so they could begin discussion and possible voting at the next meeting in January. Mike Graham said he would get Dr. Kiritsis to send his proposal electronically and Mike would forward to the committee for review. All agreed. Janet Woolman stated she had 4 proposals from the Library to give to the committee for review.

CoTASCO Update
Shannon Davis reported he was approached by a student proposing the hours at Holbrook be extended during finals week. Shannon said he looked at the last couple of semesters’ headcounts to determine the feasibility of extending the hours at Holbrook and found there were approx.10 to 20 students in the lab until 12:00am. Committee agreed to extend hours at Holbrook on Thursday, 12/7 and Saturday, 12/9 thru Monday, 12/11 until 2:00am, but if the lab is empty at 1:00am, it is ok to close down.

Next TASC Meeting was set for January 12, 2007 at 3:30pm in the McNeese Room.

Adjournment
Meeting was adjourned at 4:03pm.