A. The meeting was called to order by the chair, Dr. Ali Eydgahi, at 11:06 a.m.

In the absence of the Recording Secretary, Capt. Levy volunteered to take the minutes of this meeting, and Dr. Eydgahi approved.

B. Approval of Minutes

Dr. Gupta moved to approve the minutes of the previous meeting; seconded by Dr. Mollett. A correction to the spelling of Dr. Robert Walther’s name was noted. The minutes were approved as amended by a voice vote.

C. Chair’s Remarks

Dr. Eydgahi informed the Senate that the person elected Recording Secretary at the previous meeting is a faculty member but not a Councilor of the Faculty Assembly seconded to the Senate, and thus is ineligible to hold elected Senate office. The position is therefore declared vacant. Nominations for a new Recording Secretary should be made to the Chair with a vote to be held at the next Senate meeting. The Chair reminded the Senators to ensure that nominees are both willing and eligible to serve.

D. IT Issues on Campus – Dr. Ron Forsythe, VP-Information Technology

Dr. Forsythe asked for questions from the Senate on IT issues of concern on the campus.

Student Internet Connection: There are considerable problems with access to the internet from the residence halls. This is largely due to the serious worms and viruses (Blaster, SoBig, etc.) which struck the internet at the beginning of the semester. IT was successful in ridding University-owned staff/faculty systems of these bugs, but student-owned systems being brought on campus reintroduced the bugs every time another computer was hooked up. IT responded by separating the faculty/staff connections and the student residence hall connections into two separate networks. It is the student network which remains infested with the bugs. In order to rid the student computers of these bugs, it is essential that students leave their computers turned on and plugged into the network at all times, especially overnight, as that is when IT sweeps and “delouses” the computers. Computers that are not turned on and plugged in at this time reintroduce the bugs when they are reconnected. Students need not be logged on, but the computer must be on and connected. Resident Advisors are requested to inform students on their floors of the importance of this to restoring adequate operation of the student network.
Residence Hall Telephones: Student Senators stated that students feel IT is not responding quickly enough to complaints about phone problems. Dr. Forsythe said there are only three people to manage the telephone system for 2000 students and 500 faculty/staff. Part of the problem is some bad trunk lines from Verizon. Additional lines are being ordered. IT is gathering data to pass back to Verizon to detail the problems, and the President of Verizon is personally involved in the matter. Dr. Forsythe said that if Verizon does not respond adequately, the issue will be taken to the Public Service Commission and/or the Federal Communications Commission. At the moment, there is a backlog of 300 help requests. However, IT historically clears 87% of complaints within 36 hours, although that figure is lower recently due to the worm/virus and trunk line problems. Therefore, students should allow time for the system to work rather than calling up once an hour; this only congests the Help Desk and slows responses. Also, users requesting help must make their request directly to the IT Help Desk; complaining to the RA on the floor will not produce results.
On-Line Courses: The student network disruptions have made it impossible for many students in WebCT/Internet courses such as ENGL 305W and CHEM 101W to keep up with work and submit assignments. Dr. Forsythe will look into this, but it is related to the student network internet overload from the bugs, and he restated the importance of leaving computers on and plugged in overnight to allow IT to fix those problems. Two options suggested for students in these courses are:

Use classroom computer lab systems, as they are on the faculty/staff, not student, network, allowing better internet access.
IT will move the Residence Hall computer labs from the student network to the faculty/staff network, also allowing better internet access.

Cable TV: Dr. Forsythe will look into some minor issues raised. One specific problem to be examined is Hawk’s Landing, which is on the local rather than University cable system. However, this is a very low priority compared to the other problems discussed.
Criminal Justice Department Web Site Hosting: CRJS is supposed to host a web site for a professional organization; this has been approved by the UMES Administration. While the site was supposed to go on line last month, the CRJS representative said that they were not receiving what they thought was appropriate responsiveness from IT. Dr. Forsythe promised to look into this.
Voice Mail: Several complaints about voice mail problems, such as messages cut off after a few seconds, or no answer from the voice mail system, were made. Dr. Forsythe said that 25-50% of the voice mail ports have ceased to function and that funds are needed to restore them. Dr. Holden promised to provide the necessary funds.
Dr. Forsythe again requested all members of the UMES community to leave their computers on and physically connected (although not logged on) overnight to allow system updates and virus clearing.
Faculty/staff internet problems: The faculty/staff internet system was reconfigured during the battle with the Blaster virus. In addition, a lightning strike took out several switches, and hurricane-related power outages caused more damage. However, this network is currently functioning fairly well.
Email

Sporadic access due to email file corruption: Faculty/staff were granted storage space of 250 MB, but this is too big and causing corruption. Faculty/staff will be reduced to 100MB; all faculty/staff are encouraged to archive their old email and delete what they no longer need.
Three major hardware failures occurred, defeating the triple-redundant (two-point-failure tolerant) system. Some machine swapping has been accomplished, and restoration is going in reverse alphabetical order. J-Z were done last week, D-I were done yesterday, and A-C are in work.
All personal files (wedding albums, movies of pets, entertainment music files, etc.) must be removed from the F: (server-backed) drives and kept only on the C: (local machine only) drives. If you do not remove it, IT will do it for you but without saving to the C: drive.

Spam/Junk email: A request for assistance in installing spam/junk email filters was made. IT will send around some suggestions by email and flyers. SGA will take care of distribution to students.
Student, unlike faculty/staff, email is discarded after a certain amount of time.
Attempts to send URL links by email have been blocked. Dr. Forsythe suggested using “cut and paste” rather than “drag and drop.”
If there are any problems or questions which are not being properly addressed by IT staff, Dr. Forsythe can be reached at x7859.

E. Committee Reports

Academic Affairs: Nothing to report.
Campus Security: Nothing to report.
Diversity: Nothing to report.
Athletics: Nothing to report.
No other committee chairs present.

F. Election for Chair of Senate Committees

Some chairs have indicated they do not wish to continue as chair. However, there are questions as to the process to replace them. Dr. Eydgahi said that it appears there is a need to review the Senate By-Laws so as to cut through unnecessary limitations on procedure. He will establish and appoint a new Ad Hoc committee to investigate and report.

G. Old Business

The Student Senators brought up several issues which had been previously unresolved.

Breakfast at the Hawk’s Nest: Students not on meal plans, such as commuters, need somewhere to get breakfast. Dr. Holden will look into this. However, the Hawk’s Nest is now open on weekends. The Student Senators said this is not widely known, and advertisement of this fact is needed to encourage patronage.
The students have security concerns about walking back to Hawk’s Landing from campus at night. Dr. Holden said that while street lighting is not within his power, additional lighting around the building is, and he will work on that.
The gravel parking lot at Hawk’s Landing is adjacent to some unlit areas, and is also largely flooded or muddy due to erosion of the gravel. Dr. Holden said this lot was created as an emergency measure due to the inadequate number of spaces per unit when the University acquired the property. Additional lighting will be addressed, but for a number of administrative and financial reasons, paving the lot is not feasible in the foreseeable future. However, it will be re-graveled.
Gate security at the Clusters: Students with medical emergencies have had difficulty getting friends responding to assist through the gate. Dr. Holden said that if there is a medical emergency, emergency services (University Police or 911) should be notified to assist, not “friends,” and there will be no trouble getting emergency services personnel in.
Student Apartment Complex Security: While the gate security at the Clusters has been successful in barring undesirable elements there, those elements have moved to the Apartment Complex, especially the ill-lit areas in the back end (Buildings 3 and 4). Students asked for additional security access control for this area similar to that provided in the Clusters. Dr. Holden promised to make a walk-through at night to evaluate the situation.

G. New Business

Education Program: The Student Senators indicated that some students or potential students are being scared off by the recent news reports about the program. It was noted that these are problems regarding the past, and have already been largely addressed. In addition, NCATE, the national accrediting agency for education programs, will be here next month in the final step towards accrediting the program. This should alleviate these concerns.
Business, Management, and Accounting Program: Is this program accredited? Not yet. It was planned last year, but should happen this year. It was pointed out that in many cases, program accreditation requires a very high standard. For example, in Aviation and (historically) in Business, only 10-15% of all college programs are accredited. Thus, lack of program accreditation may not be particularly significant. The most important issue is that UMES and all its degrees are accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and that provides acceptance in job hunting, graduate school admission, transfer of credit, etc.

H. Adjournment

Adjournment was moved by Dr. Walther, seconded by Mr. Ifill, and approved on voice vote at 12:09 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Capt. Ronald B. Levy

Temporary Acting Recording Secretary