Minutes from the Graduate Student CFT meeting 9/29/2004

In Attendance:

Ed Peyronnin

Todd Gaines and Tamla Blunt; Plant Science Cartel

Kelli Wemp; Agriculture Extension

Matt Cleveland:  Animal Sciences

No Old Business from last year.

New Business:

• Ed passed out the budgets for the year; we have until June 30 to spend the money.  Ed wanted to know how many computers each department wanted to purchase so that he could make one large purchase, standardizing machines and getting a discount on the purchase.  Ed will also purchase the SAS licenses and have the programs installed on the computers.  Discussion on SAS setinet protocols and having those installed correctly.

• There was a discussion on a request from a student in the Soil & Crop Dept that wanted to use his personal laptop, plug into the network from any room in the building and be able to print to the printers in the Graduate Student computer lab.  Because the cartel pays for printers and all costs associated with printing it was decided not to allow this as it releases control of the costs, etc.

• Discussion on the consolidation of the computer labs in the Animal Sciences bldg.  Currently there are 4 labs and they would like to consolidate to one central lab on the main floor.  There was also discussion on the reduction of the number of computers needed for the grad students in ANSCI.  Ed recommended that Matt convene the grad students to talk about the budget, lab consolidation and the reduction of the number of computers.

Technical issues:

Worms and viruses are prevalent and the university is experiencing local variants of some worms.   Ed strongly recommended that each computer has a password to increase security and to make sure that everyone that is plugged into the network is a managed client.

Need a VPN client and wireless card to use the wireless network in the ANSCI and PLSCI buildings.

Question on the computers in the grad student lab saving documents to the C:// drive instead of the My Docs setting

Ed will check on getting  photoshop installed for the PLSCI grad student lab and getting Adobe writer on Linux.

Other Issues:

The University Tech Fee Advisory Board needs a volunteer from the College of Ag Sciences CFT.  This advisory board determines where the $15 per student fee gets spent.  Tamla Blunt volunteered to be the CAS UTFAB representative for the year.

Meeting adjourned at 12:45 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Tamla Blunt, Secretary