The next meeting of the Senate IT Committee has been scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 1pm to 2pm, most likely in the Curriculum Room of the Library. Agenda items include:
- Welcome
- Email archiving policy
- Office Ethernet ports
- Public Printing Policy
- Discussion of Karen Boroff’s suggestions (*)
- Misc
Any additional suggestions will be more than welcome – please post them right here.
(*) Karen Boroff wrote: [ … ] Last September, Rutgers University announced that it was building a new business school building at its New Brunswick campus and also allowing students to enter its business school as freshmen. In response to that announcement, a small team of Stillman faculty put forth recommendations to its college governance group on how to respond to this competitive threat. Some of these recommendations are under the domain of your committees, so we present these to you for your consideration. We sense that some of these ideas, while they have arisen within the Stillman School, would have appeal to faculty campus-wide. If you have any questions about what is put forth here, you can contact me or any of the members of our team, who are coded on this email. Last, some of these issues blur over from facilities to technology and back to facilities and that is why you are both coded on this.
Ideas:
- Move The Career Center and Admissions to the New Student Center. This will have prospective students and their parents see the link between the two. The space for The Career Center should include office space just for recruiters who can work while they are on the road. The space should have interview rooms (which can be study rooms or small meeting rooms during the off-season recruiting time).
- Classrooms should be equipped with smart desks for the faculty. In this way, faculty do not need to bring their laptops to each classroom. Instead, using a smart card, they can access course content from a share drive, flash drive or Blackboard.
- Currently, most blackboard or whiteboard space is totally consumed by the materials projected from the screen. Most whiteboards have to be mounted to one side or the other of the board, or use technology to move the image to one side
- The desks in Corrigan and most classrooms are not functional when students use both their laptops and their notebooks.
- The chairs in Jubilee are not comfortable—remove them and put in free-standing chairs of all the same type.
- The blinds in Arts and Sciences Hall are not effective in keeping out outside light, making it difficult for students to read projected materials.
- There has to be soundproofing in Corrigan. The music students use that building for practice but the practices can be heard in other classrooms, which is a learning distraction. The same is true with the noise from the Physical Plant side of the building.
- Many of the classrooms just look old and tired—cinderblock walls, dirty windows, unpainted walls, old desks, broken desks pushed to the back of the classroom, mismatched chairs and desks—the image is one of a worn and shabby teaching environment.
- Classrooms need more electrical outlets—while students have batteries in their laptops, as they go from class to class, laptops do need to be recharged and many of the classrooms are not so equipped.
- The restrooms are old; some of the johns and sinks have rust stains, door closing fixtures are missing, paper towel dispensers do not work, coverings for the toilet tissues are missing, receptacles for sanitary waste are missing—a simple walk-through by anyone will confirm these deficiencies and these images do not convey a sense of professionalism.
- Put in intelligence in room assignments so that a given course gets the technology the faculty member needs.
- Faculty members have to know their room assignment at least 7 working days before classes begin. This gives faculty members time to troubleshoot the tech issues of the room and otherwise plan their lectures and other assignments given the physical layout of the room.
- Fix the clocks so that these all tell the right time.
- If there is any hope to mount executive education programs in any discipline, space has to be offered that conveys a sense of “executive” care. Linoleum floors, cinderblock walls, rustic washrooms, no break-out space, and the like, are impediments.
Our committee members would be willing to attend a meeting of your subgroups, if you believe that would be helpful, as you explore these topics.”
[ … ] Last September, Rutgers University announced that it was building a new business school building at its New Brunswick campus and also allowing students to enter its business school as freshmen. In response to that announcement, a small team of Stillman faculty put forth recommendations to its college governance group on how to respond to this competitive threat. Some of these recommendations are under the domain of your committees, so we present these to you for your consideration. We sense that some of these ideas, while they have arisen within the Stillman School, would have appeal to faculty campus-wide. If you have any questions about what is put forth here, you can contact me or any of the members of our team, who are coded on this email. Last, some of these issues blur over from facilities to technology and back to facilities and that is why you are both coded on this.
Ideas:
- Move The Career Center and Admissions to the New Student Center. This will have prospective students and their parents see the link between the two. The space for The Career Center should include office space just for recruiters who can work while they are on the road. The space should have interview rooms (which can be study rooms or small meeting rooms during the off-season recruiting time).
- Classrooms should be equipped with smart desks for the faculty. In this way, faculty do not need to bring their laptops to each classroom. Instead, using a smart card, they can access course content from a share drive, flash drive or Blackboard.
- Currently, most blackboard or whiteboard space is totally consumed by the materials projected from the screen. Most whiteboards have to be mounted to one side or the other of the board, or use technology to move the image to one side
- The desks in Corrigan and most classrooms are not functional when students use both their laptops and their notebooks.
- The chairs in Jubilee are not comfortable—remove them and put in free-standing chairs of all the same type.
- The blinds in Arts and Sciences Hall are not effective in keeping out outside light, making it difficult for students to read projected materials.
- There has to be soundproofing in Corrigan. The music students use that building for practice but the practices can be heard in other classrooms, which is a learning distraction. The same is true with the noise from the Physical Plant side of the building.
- Many of the classrooms just look old and tired—cinderblock walls, dirty windows, unpainted walls, old desks, broken desks pushed to the back of the classroom, mismatched chairs and desks—the image is one of a worn and shabby teaching environment.
- Classrooms need more electrical outlets—while students have batteries in their laptops, as they go from class to class, laptops do need to be recharged and many of the classrooms are not so equipped.
- The restrooms are old; some of the johns and sinks have rust stains, door closing fixtures are missing, paper towel dispensers do not work, coverings for the toilet tissues are missing, receptacles for sanitary waste are missing—a simple walk-through by anyone will confirm these deficiencies and these images do not convey a sense of professionalism.
- Put in intelligence in room assignments so that a given course gets the technology the faculty member needs.
- Faculty members have to know their room assignment at least 7 working days before classes begin. This gives faculty members time to troubleshoot the tech issues of the room and otherwise plan their lectures and other assignments given the physical layout of the room.
- Fix the clocks so that these all tell the right time.
- If there is any hope to mount executive education programs in any discipline, space has to be offered that conveys a sense of “executive” care. Linoleum floors, cinderblock walls, rustic washrooms, no break-out space, and the like, are impediments.
Our committee members would be willing to attend a meeting of your subgroups, if you believe that would be helpful, as you explore these topics.”
