Technology Fee Advisory Committee Mtg
Minutes: January 17, 2006

Members Present:
Rian Nostrum, Aaron Axvig, Karl Altenburg, Oluwayemisi Fayermiwo, Brian Hokkanen, Jeff Gerst, Kevin Brooks, Gary Fisher, Marc Wallman, Brian Fier, Cathy Hanson, Ann Denton

Members Absent:
Kalpana Katti, David Wittrock

Tech Fee student assessment

Jeff Gerst introduced tech fee members and talked about the make-up of the committee. Student member Otto Borchert is being replaced by Brian Fier and we still need student replacements for Joe Mathern and Valerie Johnson.

Gary Fisher, Assoc. Director of the Wellness Center is replacing Jane Cumber. Ann Denton is taking Jeff Gerst's spot while he serves as chair of the committee.

Ex-Officio's to the committee include Carl Altenberg (CITPG), Dave Wittrock (Dean Graduate School), Tom Moberg, (ITS CIO), Craig Schnell (Provost /VPPAA).

Committee assignments and general feedback

Jeff indicated that he would like to reconvene the various committee groups.

Proposal Review Process Committee

• Review the proposal submittal process, which includes instructions, form(s), and criteria used in the process
• Evaluate the instructions, form(s), and criteria used during the process
• • Jeff Gerst, Chair
  • Student member
  • Student member
  • Marc Wallman

Public Information & Focus Groups Committee

• Research information regarding the need to raising the Technology Fee assessment to students
• Determine ways to best communicate with students and the campus regarding the Tech Fee issues
• Evaluate possibilities for campus open forum discussions or focus groups
• Look at the possibility for developing a "Tech Fee" workshop for those submitting proposals
• • Brian Hokkanen, Exec. Commission of Technology (student)
  • Brian Fier
  • Rian Nostrum
  • Kalpana Katti
  • Tom Moberg (Ex-Officio)

Monitoring Process Committee

• Send out notices with regard to progress reports
• Evaluate the progress report form for changes -ask award recipients to identity outcomes based on milestones. Remodel form as needed (What was requested, spent, unspent money, etc)
• Determine more consistent and timely reporting structure (6 month & final reports due dates)
• Discuss guidelines /consequences for when progress reports are not received
• • Kevin Brooks , Chair
  • Staff/faculty member
  • Student member
  • Student member

Special Interests Committee:

• As designated by the chair

Budget discussion:

Approximately $1,680,751 will be available for the Spring 06 funding cycle. Of that, we generally like to keep ~$300,000 available as contingency money.

There are issues with the 07 bond payment of $115,000 being slated for a ConnectND payment. TFAC need to look into this issue and raise some concern as the students are already paying fees to support the ConnectND project.

Jeff indicated that we now will be requesting the project directors to include fund accounting numbers on their progress reports along with an accounting of unspent money. Money left over at the end of a project will not automatically be "carried" over, but will need to be turned back into the technology fee pool. This initiative will help us track and account for tech fee money. Some projects may be funded for more than a year, but the money will still revert back to the pool and then be redistributed accordingly.

Governance structure:

A University wide committee, chaired by Tom Moberg has recommended changes in Information Technology Governance to the Provost. Tom distributed a document that shows what that governance looks like and how TFAC would essentailly be gaining 3 more student members derived from the IT Student Advisory Group. TFAC would then have a total of six student representatives.

Contingency printing money:

We agreed to have 16k available as a contingency for printing if the Responsible Printing Initiative did not meet the anticipated expectations of being ready to start charging students for printing. This money will most likely be used because of unanticipated issues with the RPI project. ITS working with the vendor to resolve the problems.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 24, 2006 at 4:15 p.m.

No further business, meeting adjourned

Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Hanson