Information Technology Committee February Meeting

The ITC started our meeting off with receiving an update on the Learn@UW outage. The start of the semester is one of the busiest times for Learn@UW, as everyone checks out their course webpage. Unfortunately, on the first day of classes this semester, the extra load exposed a problem with Learn@UW, and in order to fix the system it had to be shut down. Service was restored that day, but Learn@UW serves the entire UW system, not just the Madison campus, so any outage affects a lot of students and faculty. The committee had to resist the urge to try and design a “fix” for the system during the meeting, and let the staff that supports Learn@UW work on a solution. It is well-known that the other busy time of the semester is the end of the semester. I think this outage affected the faculty more than the students. Personally, it didn’t bother me at all that I couldn’t look at the course webpage on the first day of classes. I’m far more concerned about it being available at the end of the semester, when there is a final coming up and last bits of homework to turn in.

The UW is finalizing a contract for a mass text messaging system. This was already in the works before yesterday’s senselessness at NIU. This will add one more tool that the UW can use to get the word out to the UW community. A campaign to get people signed up for the service is being developed, and it’s something that ASM could get involved with. Other campuses that have text messaging systems don’t have a very high percentage of their students signed up – no campus is over 50%, and even Virginia Tech is only at about 35%. There is also an effort to look at the cellular infrastructure on campus, and how much load could it handle. At the Obama rally, some people could get through, and others couldn’t. Yesterday, cell call volume at NIU was 12 times greater than normal, which made a lot of cell phones useless. This summer the phone lines for the Twin Cities were jammed the night of the bridge collapse. I think part of any campaign should be getting people to think about how to shift the notification load to outside the immediate area. Instead of calling everyone in your family all across the country, can you get a hold of one person and ask them to call around for you?

The committee talked about information safeguarding. Recently, some UW IDs were exposed on the web, and some of those IDs were still based on social security numbers. Several years ago, all students were forced to switch to a non-SSN based ID number, but faculty and staff were not required to switch. The UW has done an inventory, and there are about 8,000 SSN-based ID numbers still active. (A few students still have SSN-based ID numbers, if they were previously a student and subsequently returned.) The UW is moving to finally force the elimination of SSN-based ID numbers once and for all.

In other ID card news, the current UW ID card is about to get an upgrade. The “One Card” will consolidate a number of existing UW ID cards into one. For example, many people carry a card for building access in addition to their UW ID. The “One Card” will be able to do both. The goal is to start issuing them by June 1st, so all incoming SOAR students will have the new card. Housing wants to start using the One Card for access to their buildings, instead of the current key frobs. This is going to present a challenge. I’m hoping that the new cards will be available this semester, so upperclassmen that live in the dorms won’t all have to get new cards on their first day back on campus next fall, but it doesn’t sound likely they’ll be ready before finals.

The agenda and supporting documents, along with past meeting minutes, are on the ITC website: itc.wisc.edu

Morgridge Center for Public Service Advisory Board Meeting February 13, 2008

The Morgridge Center for Public Service Advisory Board is a committee that meets each semester to discuss issues that deal with student volunteering and community outreach programs. Yesterday we talked about how the Morgridge Center received a gift of money and they now want to increase the number of staff they have. This presents a problem though becuase of the limited amount of space at the Red Gym. They are looking to make a new administrative home and have a satellite location in the new Union South, the plans have not been finalized yet. The committee was also concerned with service learning courses appearing on the time table. Currently the only way to know if a class offers a service learning component is to check the notes, the board aims to get a box in the advanced search option where students can check off if the are looking for a service learning class. This is important because of the new Civic Engagement Certificate UW-Madison will soon be offering. Another point of the meeting was that the 10,000 hours show (a concert put on for students who volunteer for more than 10 hours a year) will be on April 2nd. The board wanted more students to know about the show and thought ASM could help. They were also excited becuase now Sororities have to volunteer 10 hours a year and they can add to the total to reach 10,000 volunteer hours. If you are interested in logging your volunteer hours to get a FREE concert the web site is... http://10000hoursmadison.rso.wisc.edu/

Open Forums: Help guide the Chancellor Search

There are three upcoming forums for the University and the community to share thoughts about the qualities and talents in the next chancellor.

The schedule:

• Wednesday, Feb. 20, Room 1325, Health Sciences Learning Center, 750 Highland Ave., 7 to 8:45 a.m.
• Tuesday, Feb. 26, Main Lounge, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St., 11:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
• Thursday, March 6, Dag Hammarskjold Room, Union South, 227 N. Randall St., 4 to 5:45 p.m.

The forums are spread across campus and across time slots to make it possible for interested persons to be able to attend one that fits their schedule. If none of the times work for you, or you prefer not to speak in front of a group of people, that's OK! You can email the search committee at chancellorsearch@bascom.wisc.edu at any time.

Please help us get the word out about the forums! If you're in a student organization, or a community group, please let them know about the forums.

Undergraduate Academic Advising...

ON THE HORIZON:

The Council on Academic advising (CAA) is currently discussing a proposed campus-wide review of advising goals and practices for 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students. The Council has created a subcommittee to develop (1) a focus/charge for the review and (2) a process for conducting the review.

At the moment, the focus of the review is expected to be primarily an exploration and articulation of overall “goals & principles of undergraduate advising. Other points of interest will include (a) actual advising practices on campus, (b) the nature of student/parent expectations for advising, and (c) the interconnectedness of undergraduate advising with other aspects of campus and student life.

CAA has not yet established a firm time line for the review. But the Council plans to have preparatory work -- a charge/mission statement and review process guidelines -- completed and adopted by the end of the spring 2008 term. The hope is that next year's CAA members will join the Council and serve with an expectation that the 08/09 work of CAA will focus heavily on the advising review. However, CAA does not expect the review to be its only work next year -- the Council will continue to serve its many other functions.

Anyone with questions or comments regarding this advising review can connect J. Edward Connery (student rep to CAA) at jeconnery@wisc.edu. I will be glad to relay any additional input received from fellow students.

OTHER NOTES FROM CAA:

The proposed review is the largest agenda item as of late. However, Council members have also discussed ideas about “early detection” methods for staff and faculty to identify students who may find themselves in academic difficulty – for a variety of reasons. This was not an action item, but members seemed genuinely interested in sharing best practices and hopefully helping students before "things get really hard." (Editorial Note: CAA is only one group of campus staff, but they seem to represent a great deal of good will and awareness of student needs on the part of advisors from all areas of campus.)

-ed connery (jeconnery@wisc.edu)

Meeting 2/1/08

The Alcohol and Other Drug Task Force is a standing committee that meets year round to address alcohol and drug issues and climate on our campus. Our group includes representatives from Housing, UWPD, UHS, Athletics, city alcohol position, Student Organization Office, as well as many others. Each year we send a list of recommendations to the Chancellor's Committee on Alcohol for their consideration. Some of these have included policy changes at Camp Randall Stadium - ticket recovation, and others include tailgating in lots near first year student residence halls.

The Task Force meets first Fridays, including during breaks, at 9am in 89 Bascom (in the section of Bascom with the Offices of the Dean of Students.

After the first meeting, it is clear, we really need some student input as far as policies, programs, educational initiatives and other activities that will help our campus deal with alcohol and drug issues. Pleae feel free to contact me or to contribute ti this blog.

Raul Leon

rleon@wisc.edu

Alcohol Issues

As many of you may have already seen or heard CNI released research-based strategies to reduce downtown drunkenness and related crime and violence. Here is the link to that document http://www.capitolneighborhoods.org/pdf/CNIAlcReptFINAL2008.pdf.
As a native to Wisconsin and someone who grew up in a Milwaukee suburb; I think the situation could be a lot worse, but I think we can all agree there is a problem. It is important to be imformed that the city, police, and community members are very aware that this problem encompasses much more than the UW-Students and the UW Campus in general. The CNI Executive Committee minutes from past meetings can be found at http://www.capitolneighborhoods.org/about_us/executive.html.

The question to ask yourselves is how can we take the focus off of students, are there things we can do, are there things we cannot do? What do you think about the strategies and what do you think, if implemented, will be the effect on the community and city? I encourage everyone to answer these questions and send me an e-mail of what you think. This will be a good opportunity for your thoughts to reach the EC of CNI.

jpavlic@wisc.edu

CURAFA

The Committee on Undergraduate Recruitment, Admissions, and Financial Aid met on January 31st.

The first order of business was to listen to an update from the Admissions Office. They are currently behind in the admissions process due to the implementation of a new system. The office is for the first time ever going completely paper-less, meaning that all parts of the application will be scanned into a computer. This will make reviewing the applications much easier in the future. However, since this is the first year they did this, they had to learn the new system, causing them to fall slightly behind. The admissions office will be working hard to finish everything by the March 14th deadline.
The delay in receiving decision letters has been the cause of many phone calls and e-mails from impatient students. Wisconsin has what is called "rolling admissions" meaning that students receive the decision as to whether they are admitted or not soon after their application is reviewed. Many schools have systems in which they have "cut-off dates" or "early-admissions", meaning that if the student applies by a certain date, they know which date they will hear their decision by. The fact that there have been so many phone calls/e-mails regarding decisions led to a short discussion on the differences between rolling admissions and early acceptance.

The next order of business was to hear an update from the Office of Financial Aid. At this point in time, they are on schedule for next year. Their focus is almost completely on the 2008-2009 school year now, as they are already going over the financial aid applications for next year. We also discussed a federal grant for teachers that is in the process of being negotiated. Although it is not a need-based grant, it will be included on the FAFSA form, and would give $4000 to any student who is majoring in education. However, the student must teach for at least 2 years in a low-income area. If the student changes their mind or wants to teach in an area that does not qualify, the individual would have to pay back the grant as a loan, with interest. We feel that this could be misleading to some students who see the word "grant", and discussed how to make this information known to students interested in eduation who are filling out the FAFSA.

At this point in the meeting, I had to leave. However, I know that the remainder of the meeting was to be spent drafting a letter to Chancellor Wiley thanking him for his support of the CURAFA throughout his years.

If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to post them.