Accomplishments

University-wide Computing

To succeed in its mission to provide information technology that will enable the campus community to communicate and work effectively, Information Technology has built an excellent computing infrastructure, often in partnership with other campus units. Significant infrastructure accomplishments include:

• installed a fiber-optic backbone (1988–91);
• recabled all campus buildings, standardized in TCP/IP (1988–91);
• installed a satellite uplink (1990);
• implemented campus-wide e-mail (1990);
• implemented the BANNER® administrative system (1990–94);
• implemented the Admissions and Recruiting module to streamline admissions process (1991);
• renovated studio classroom/teleconference facility distance education programs (1995);
• implemented Voyager automated management system in the Library (1995);
• implemented voice mail for students, faculty, and staff (1996);
• upgraded the dormitories for communications, which included Cable TV/Movie Channel, high-speed data connections, and enhanced telephone services (1995–2001);
• established an electronic interviewing center for the University Career Center (1995);
• began moving computer labs into the residence halls (1990–94);
• upgraded lecture halls with multimedia equipment (1994–2001); and
• acquired and further developed EDS to provide information on a timely basis (1993).

In 1976 and again in 1989, two failed attempts were made to replace the administrative computing system developed in-house. In 1990 a third attempt succeeded thanks to a partnership between Information Technology and administrative staff, who selected and rapidly implemented the BANNER® system. BANNER® is an integrated software application suite that addresses five major administrative functions: Student Services (Admissions, Degree Audit, Housing, Registration, and Scheduling), Financial Aid, Finance, Alumni/Development, and Human Resources/Payroll. Applications are run against data stored in an Oracle relational data base management system. In addition, the entire printing and mailing systems were upgraded. This conversion realized substantial savings and efficiencies for both Information Technology and administrative areas.

E-mail, voice mail, and cable in the dorms all experience heavy use and significantly enhance communication both on- and off-campus. All students, faculty and professional staff have e-mail accounts and access to WWW, USENET news services, and Gopher through desktop computers or lab facilities. In 1996, MTU sent over 80,000 messages a day via e-mail. E-mail and WWW access have made it significantly easier, given our remote location, for members of the University community to maintain professional relationships with colleagues around the globe. Efforts are under way to use the WWW to streamline administrative processes such as the annual reporting of faculty vitae and student recruiting.

One consequence of the success of electronic communication is that students, faculty, and staff now expect dial-in access to the University’s network and the Internet from off-campus. The University’s modem pool is currently too small to meet the dramatic increase in demand. In 1996/97 the Computer Advisory Committee established the Modem Task Force to address the issue of modem availability for MTU constituents and to recommend how an expanded service should be provided and funded. The Modem Task Force recommended that MTU expand their services by offering a fee-based subscriber service and that the University consider using an outside provider for the service. The recommendations of the Modem Task Force are being implemented in 1997/98. The University will also continue to maintain a free public-access dial-in service as required in its membership charter to Merit Network, Inc. (a regional high-speed data communications network of public universities).

The mission of integrating information and education technology is enhanced by these infrastructure accomplishments, but the full promise of technology-assisted instruction has yet to be realized. New services which need to be better publicized and utilized include electronic classrooms, teleconferencing capability, distance education delivery capability, and library databases. To broaden usage, Information Technology has scheduled a series of departmental talks in 1997 to introduce MTU faculty to these new services. The new CTLFD (Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development) is also charged with facilitating this interaction. The Fall 1997 seminars co-offered by CTLFD and Information Technology on using information technology were fully subscribed. Information Technology has also been working with the local school systems through the K–12 Telecommunications Advisory Board to develop technology plans.

Academic and Student Computing

Most students, faculty, and staff have access to state-of-the-art machines, software, and multiple platforms. Departmental self-studies reveal that computing is well integrated into the curricula and student computing facilities are given high priority by most academic units. However, the University does not support a central instructional computing center or support personnel to assist faculty with integrating computing and multimedia into the classroom. Information Technology and the CTLFD are beginning to address this issue by sponsoring workshops. Except for a few of the smaller units, departments appear satisfied with the level of the hardware available to students and with the network. While student fees continue to grow, the rate of increase has slowed and may be stabilizing.

External accreditors report satisfaction with MTU’s accomplishment of educational goals related to computing. At its last visit in 1993, ABET stated that "computer services at the university, the college, and department level appear to be adequate, reasonably accessible to faculty, staff and students, and are used extensively in the engineering courses" [6.3]. ABET also noted excellent progress in areas they identified as problems in their previous visit. The Society of American Foresters’ accreditation team registered similar satisfaction with computing at their last visit [6.5A2].

Continuous Improvement

MTU has an effective system for managing and planning for technological change which utilizes consensus building across campus.

• Information Technology continuously plans for improvement in infrastructure that will keep MTU on the cutting edge of technology.
• Each campus unit is required to submit an annual report which identifies its philosophy of computer use and develops one-year and three-year plans for computing.
• Shared governance brings faculty, staff, and students together in committees to address computing issues and solve problems. The CAC and ad hoc committees (17 since 1991) have addressed questions that relate to large equipment purchases, networking standards, lab fees, lab quality, printing, systems administration, high-speed computing, Macintosh issues, e-mail standards, and classroom networking. Committee reports are usually approved and implemented.

New initiatives already planned by Information Technology for 1997 and 1998 to continuously improve the infrastructure include:

• acquiring and implementing remote computing technologies for delivery to on- and off-campus MTU students and faculty,
• establishing a WWW interface for the administrative student system to enable students to check their records and information,
• piloting a University calendar and resource scheduling system to reduce the time needed to schedule campus-wide meetings,
• developing methods to streamline the faculty vitae information gathering process, and
• adding electronic capabilities to seven lecture halls on campus.

A threat to MTU’s future computing capability is staff turnover, driven in part by non-competitive salaries. In 1996/97, five of the six engineering departments and several other units lost their systems administrators and Information Technology lost five professionals. As Information Technology notes in its self-study [2.6H9], this is a common problem at universities. MTU’s remote location in a small town may exacerbate this problem. Human Resources’ compensation policy compared systems administrators to other professional staff on campus to establish salary ranges; because the market for systems administrators is more competitive than most other professional staff, this policy is being revised. Another strategy for reducing turnover is release time and funding for professional development and continuing education. Because continuing education and travel to conferences for systems administrators are not allowable charges against student lab fees, Information Technology is dispersing a pool of matching funds ($8,000 in 1996/97) to the Systems Administration Council for this purpose. Another possible solution is the School of Technology’s recent decision to implement a curriculum for training systems administrators. This will create co-op opportunities in Information Technology and improve the availability of local qualified professionals.

Integrity

The Goal 6 Committee found the descriptions of technology available on campus to be accurate. Episodes of questionable management of resources for information technology during the transition to distributed computing have been identified and policies and systems (described earlier) have been instituted to maintain higher standards. In particular, the Provost’s policy on student-lab-fee income [1.5D1] states that all such income must go into a separate account and that expenditures from that account can only be used to support student computing. In their annual computer reports to the CAC, departments must show budgets which comply with this policy. The CAC recently discovered a significant violation and new fees were disallowed, but no reimbursement had been made as of this writing.

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