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University
of California, Berkeley
MINUTES OF THE E-BERKELEY
STEERING COMMITTEE
Meeting of June
27, 2002
Chancellor's
Conference Room - California Hall
Members present:
EVC and Provost Paul Gray, Chair, AVC Greg Brown, VC Beth Burnside, AVC Ron
Coley, Director Jon Conhaim, Director Martha Fateman for AVC Jack McCredie,
Professor Ken Goldberg, Dean Ralph Hexter, Director Phyllis Hoffman, VC Jim
Hyatt, Executive Director Helen Kelly, Dean Mary Ann Mason, Chief Technology
Officer Tessa Michaels, VC Horace Mitchell, AVC David Moers, Director Ralph
Moon, Director Barbara Morgan, Professor Philip Stark.
Also attending: From Business & Administrative Services: Faye Fields,
John Watanabe, and Liz Church. From IST’s Administrative Systems Division:
Kelly Haberer, Gary Thackeray, Vahid Nadi, and Susan Andrews. From the Animal
Care & Use Committee: Marcy Brown. From CISCO Systems: Carol Stillman.
1. Welcome
and Approval of Minutes from April 18, 2002 Meeting
Paul Gray welcomed
the Committee members, and stated that although the budget implications for
the coming year will have an impact on e-Berkeley, it is most important to
focus on bringing ongoing projects to fruition and on creating new initiatives.
Minutes from the April 18th meeting were approved as distributed.
a)
Human Resources Management System
Kelly Haberer reported in place of David Scronce, who was ill. She commented
on the outline prepared for the meeting packet, and gave the following highlights:
- The final
data conversion from the Payroll/Personnel System (PPS) to HRMS will take
place on June 30
- Two payroll
cycles have tested successfully.
-
Campus training has been ongoing, involving the Early Adopters, Central
Offices, HRMS Help Desk and Data Services, and will continue through the
fall.
-
There are performance issues with the HRMS PeopleSoft portal and SSL (needed
for security), and resolution of these problems will be sought by working
with the vendor.
-
The conversion will happen on Sunday (June 30); Central Offices will start
using the system July 1, and the Early Adopters will go online July 8.
Kelly
explained that, although the portal is not yet in production, HRMS has a web
interface and that is what departmental staff will use. (The portal will be
needed later for Self-Service and Recruitment modules.)
David Moers observed that collaboration across many campus groups had been
excellent.
b)
Travel System
Faye Fields handed out an E-Travel Progress Report with a draft UC Travel
Policy brochure. She reported that four classes have been conducted and 200
staff members have been trained in the policy. In an effort to streamline
the reimbursement process, travel workflow was reviewed by CUMG and BFS focus
groups that made recommendations for interim improvements. Requests for Information
for an online travel system have been sent to vendors and responses will be
reviewed by the end of July. Liz Church contributed information about security
measures and website development. Integration with other campus systems will
be carefully coordinated, with testing and deployment of the interim solution
scheduled for September for early adopters. ACTION:
Committee members were asked for feedback on the Travel Policy brochure.
c) BRIDGE Fundraising Proposal
Philip Stark announced progress on fundraising for the BRIDGE project in the
amount of $100,000 from Hewlett Packard, 50% to be used to make instructional
materials compliant with new standards such as SCORM [see below], and 50%
to look at institutional and cultural issues (through the Center for Studies
in Higher Education). He presented a document summarizing meetings VP Maslach
held with faculty in May regarding their ideas on improving undergraduate
instruction through technology. Faculty members who are interested in proposing
courses for BRIDGE will meet during the summer to discuss this document and
next steps; Patricia Iannuzzi from the Library is helping with this process.
Philip said that in order for this to work, a clear campus vision needs to
be formed, and proposals for funding need to be coordinated across campus.
The theme continues to be the use of technology to improve undergraduate instruction,
with emphasis on lower division classes. Dean Mason suggested that the Center
for Studies in Higher Education be considered as a focal point, and that the
new Director Steven Brint would surely be interested.
Philip also reported on the reply from the Academic Senate to his letter of
February 2002, regarding educational technology. The reply expressed concern
that through BRIDGE the administration would usurp the role of the Senate
in approving courses. He will draft a response assuring the Senate that this
is not the case.
Ed.
Note: SCORM
stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model. It is a collection of
specifications defining a web-based learning environment. It is part of the
Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative – a collaborative effort
between government, industry, and academia to establish a new global distributed
learning environment.
3.
Approval of New Policy: Email Required for Students
Philip Stark briefly
outlined the proposed policy developed by the EBITF to require students to
have an email address, and said that he has polled the Graduate Assembly,
ASUC, and the student representative of the Educational Technology Committee,
for comments. Generally the students’ response was favorable, and the
policy was approved by the e-Berkeley Steering Committee after a brief discussion.
4.
E-Berkeley Management Updates
a)
E-Berkeley Budget
Jon Conhaim and Helen Kelly provided a status report on the funding available
for Ongoing E-Berkeley Projects, listed in a table with current estimates
of the operating cost for the projects ($616,770) and available funds ($328,000).
The shortfall is due to the FY 2002-03 budget cuts, and Jon reported that
he has been meeting with Jack McCredie and the project managers to discuss
the best strategies for sustaining these projects.
Funding for Innovative Projects remains at $130,000 for the nine projects.
A separate handout listed the Innovative Projects, which will be carried out
over the next fiscal year. Jon Conhaim will meet with managers of these projects
in July to get started.
Larger projects exceeding the $20,000 limit for proposals will not be funded
by e-Berkeley.
b)
Project Management Training
Jon Conhaim presented
an overview of the project management training provided in early June for
representatives of departments with E-Berkeley projects. There were 22 participants
from the following departments: Bancroft Library, BAS, COIS, Educational Technology
Services, Graduate Division, IST, Office of the Registrar, Undergraduate Affairs,
and University Relations. The instructor was Alex Walton, an aerospace engineer
with a degree in project management. Feedback from the students was very positive,
and a Project Managers Users Group has formed.
c)
Registration Process for e-Berkeley Projects
On July 15, online registration of IT projects will be launched. Anyone can
register projects using a simple web form, and the system will automatically
notify data owners and collaborating units about upcoming projects. The system
will also supply information to managers contemplating the creation of new
IT systems.
5.
E-Berkeley Symposium
a) Current Plans
Helen
Kelly updated the group on the symposium, which will be held in Spring 2003
and will focus on an internal audience (deans etc.). The theme of the symposium
will be The Use of Internet Technology in Education, similar to the BRIDGE
philosophy. A strategic plan will be developed from the symposium. Christina
Maslach is the Executive Sponsor of the symposium, and a program committee
will hold planning meetings during the summer. Faculty members will be interviewed
this summer and fall regarding their experiences using technology in education.
b) University of British Columbia e-Strategy Initiative
Jon Conhaim attended the UBC conference called the e-Strategy Town Hall meeting,
an event signaling the one-year mark of their e-Strategy initiative. Jack
McCredie was the keynote speaker, addressing the difficulty of implementing
change at a large institution. Jon noted that UBC and UCB have encountered
many of the same issues in bringing processes online, and there may be some
collaborative work we can do. UBC has the experience of developing a student
portal, which Berkeley could learn from, and they are interested in the RePS
program that we have developed. The President of UBC, Martha Piper, was recommended
as a speaker for the Berkeley spring symposium.
6. Demonstration: Research Protocol System (RePS)
Kelly Haberer introduced the RePS demonstration, noting that VC Beth Burnside
is the sponsor of this project. RePS is a new web-based application that will
allow principal investigators and instructors to prepare and update protocols
required for certain types of research. RePS allows the entire protocol creation,
review and approval process to be done online. A video was shown of Professor
Rick Van Sluyters, who traced the development of RePS from a program designed
to assist with Animal Care and Use protocols into a system to embrace other
research oversight committees. A diagram of the system was displayed, showing
the security and technical setup, after which Marcy Brown of the Animal Care
and Use Committee demonstrated the system. The demonstration was enthusiastically
received by the Steering Committee.
7. Announcements
Paul Gray asked for any further announcements, and there were none.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 noon.
Future Meetings
Wednesday, August 28, 2002, from 10:00 – noon, Chancellor’s Conference
Room, California Hall
Monday, September 23, 2002, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Chancellor’s Conference
Room, California Hall
Wednesday, October 30, 2002, from 10:00 – noon, Chancellor’s Conference
Room, California Hall
___________________________________________________________________
Email
group: e-berkeley_steering@listlink.berkeley.edu
Please send corrections
and comments to: SheilaPress, avc_asst@uclink.berkeley.edu