MERC

Nov. 1, 2007, Institutional Representatives Meeting Notes

9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Attendees

• Robert Athearn, East Central College
• Michael Ash, State Fair Community College
• George Beshears, Truman State University
• Todd Bossaller, Missouri Valley College
• Jerry Brisson, Maryville University
• Larry Dickerson, Kansas City Art Institute
• Chad Gaines, Central Methodist University
• Rita Gulstad, Central Methodist University
• John Heard, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
• Russell Helm, University of Central Missouri
• Jeffrey Hogue, Southwestern Baptist University
• Jeremy Kintzel, MO Department of Higher Education
• Rick Kubb, Maryville University
• Joel LaReau, Ozarks Technical University
• Lloyd Marchant, Moberly Area Community College
• Susan Maze, William Woods University
• J. Rick Mihalevich, Linn State Technical College
• Kevin Palmer, Columbia College
• Robert Paulson, State Fair Community College
• Jack Reaves, Stephens College
• Jon Rickman, Northwest Missouri State University
• Jason Rinne, Missouri Valley College
• Ginny Schorle, St. Louis Community College
• Chad Shepherd, St. Louis College of Pharmacy
• Robert Walker, Missouri Southern State University
• Greg Wirth, St. Charles Community College
• Linsey Williams, University of Missouri

MOREnet Staff: Natasha Angell, Megan Barney, Chip Byers, Bill Giddings, Bill Mitchell, Nancy Piringer, Randy Raw, Greg Silvey

Welcome and Introductions – Joel LaReau, VP Information Technology, Ozarks Technical Community College and Chair, MERC Board of Directors

Joel LaReau opened the meeting by welcoming all of the participants and asking them to introduce themselves to the room.

MERC/HELIX Financial Reports – Greg Silvey, Director of Fiscal and Contractual Services, MOREnet

Silvey reported that for both the MERC Financial Report and the HELIX Conference Financial Report for the year ending June 30, 2008 minimal activity occurred during the first quarter of FY08. Silvey indicated that there is no revenue to report as member fees have not yet been collected. Silvey indicated that all members should be billed within the next few weeks.

Next Generation Network Update – Chip Byers, Director of New Initiatives, MOREnet

Byers summarized the NGN project goals as 1) to replace the managed circuit core network with long-term fixed cost assets, 2) to provide for cost effective growth with controlled, incremental costs, and 3) to provide high-capacity infrastructure for differentiated services. Byers explained that one of the projects next steps would be to provide for high capacity beyond the core network. Currently a majority of current connectivity costs are in tail circuits. In the future increased capacity circuits will result in increased connectivity costs. Byers reported that the current growth rate for FY08 is 41 percent while the growth rate during FY07 was at 34 percent. Byers explained that another future goal of the project would be to investigate new models such as local aggregation, member builds to MOREnet aggregation points, and high speed wireless options.

Rural High-Speed Internet Task Force – Bill Mitchell, Executive Director, MOREnet

Mitchell reported to the attendees that in October Governor Blunt signed an executive order creating a Rural High-Speed Internet Task Force. The task force will be charged with identifying opportunities to increase access to technology within the state of Missouri. This includes assessing the current level of availability of high-speed Internet access in the state. Mitchell has been asked to serve on the task force, which will be chaired by the Lieutenant Governor. The task force has been asked to prepare a report by February 2008 and the report will be issued through the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

MOREnet Services Update – Natasha Angell, Director of Member Services, MOREnet

Angell reported that the new Knowledgebase rollout that occurred in March is accessible to all MOREnet members at no extra cost. Access is IP filtered and the application does include MOREnet specific content. Angell also informed the attendees of new additions to the online resources service provided through MOREnet membership. In September the Gale Discovering Collection was made available to members. In addition the new Learning Express Library was made available in October, which is free to all MOREnet members and was funded by REAL program reserves. Angell went on to report that a recent enhancement to the E-mail Virus and Spam Filtering service has increased blockage of spam from 83 percent before the enhancement to 93 percent after the enhancement. Angell also informed the group that December 18-19, 2007 MOREnet will host the SANS 519 Web Application Security Workshop. The workshop will be taught from Purdue University and delivered via interactive video to MOREnet. Registration for the workshop is available through the SANS portal. The discounted price available to MOREnet members is $500. Angell went on to report that the University of Missouri had recently awarded a contract to 3n to provide emergency notification services. MOREnet members can contract directly with 3n based on UM contract terms.

HELIX Conference 2008 Update – Nancy Piringer, Higher Education Program Manager

Piringer reminded the attendees that the 2008 HELIX Conference is scheduled to be held April 2-4, at Tan-Tar-A Resort at the Lake of the Ozarks. The theme for the conference will be “Information Age to the Interaction Age”. The call for presentations is still open and one presenter from each session will receive free registration for the conference. Registration for the conference will open January 15th, 2008. Piringer reminded everyone that the MERC Board has once again voted to provide one free registration per institution, and she encouraged the attendees to take advantage of that offer. Piringer informed the group that the keynote presenter would be Dr. Mark Milliron from the University of Texas – Austin.

Randy Raw added that the 2007 Advanced Technical Security Symposium will be held November 27-28 in Columbia at the Stoney Creek Inn. The keynote presenter will be Lawrence Baldwin from MyNetwatchman.

Piringer also mentioned that during the July 10th MERC Board of Directors meeting a discussion occurred about the impact that bandwidth intensive applications are having on institutional bandwidth profiles. It was agreed that a survey be conducted with the MERC IR’s to gain a better understanding of where the pain points are. Missouri Western State University volunteered to host the survey. The data collected from the survey will be a useful for capacity planning and will also provide quantifiable data that will be useful in the upcoming legislative session.

MERC Governance Procedures Amendment Voting

LaReau informed the group that at the spring 2007 IR meeting there was some discussion regarding the possibility of amending the MERC Governance Procedures in order to address the lack of continuity of MERC representation on the MOREnet Council. The current and proposed amendments were shared with the group:

Current: The Board of Directors will include four Ex-officio members representing the Missouri Department of Education, MOBIUS, MOREnet, and the Um System Vice President for Information of Technology.

Proposed: The Board of Directors will include six non-voting Ex-officio members; one representing the Missouri Department of Education, one representing MOBIUS, one representing MOREnet, one representing the UM System Vice President for Information of Technology, and two representing the MOREnet Council who are currently serving as the external higher education representatives to the Council.

A motion to carry the proposed amendment was made by Linsey Williams, and the motion was seconded by Chad Shepherd. All were in favor, none were opposed and the motion was carried unanimously.

Missouri Campus Security Task Force Report – Jeremy Kintzel, Research Associate, Missouri Department of Higher Education

Kintzel reported to the attendees that the report issued by Governor Blunt’s Campus Security Task Force is complete. Governor Blunt created the task force in May of 2007 with the goal in mind of improving security on Missouri campuses. The task force included officials from the higher education community, law enforcement, homeland security, and health officials. Five open meetings were held in different areas of the state between May and June. The report is now available to the public at the Missouri Department of Public Safety website.

Keynote Presentation – Torri Spiegelhalter, ATT Director of Homeland Security

Torri Spiegelhalter, AT&T’s Government, Education and Medical Director of Homeland Security for the Southwest Region, spoke to the attendees about the technologies available to higher education institutions for use in disaster preparedness. Spiegelhalter reviewed several federal initiatives that can influence institutional disaster planning including the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the Warning, Alert and Response Network Act (WARN), and the Government Emergency Telephone Service (GETS) , and the Wireless Priority Service (WPS). Spiegelhalter stressed several times throughout the presentation that while different technologies can provide important tools in a disaster situation, they will not solve every problem. Spiegelhalter stressed the importance of a comprehensive disaster reaction plan, but added that without practicing the plan often it will not work when it needs to.

Roundtable Discussion

The meeting was opened to a discussion time for the attendees.

• Jon Rickman of Northwestern Missouri State University spoke to the group about disaster preparedness planning on his campus. Rickman indicated that they have made use of a three pronged system: 1) victim communication (i.e. victim call to emergency personnel), 2) safety team communication (intercommunication among responders), and 3) safety personnel communication to victim/victims (i.e. mass communication). Rickman added that his campus had recently conducted a poll of students living on the NWMSU campus and shared some of the results.
• 85% have a phone plugged in to a land line in their rooms
• 83% reported that they would be uncomfortable without access to traditional 911 services in dorms via a landline
• 87% reported that they felt their parents would be uncomfortable without access to

Traditional 911 services in dorms via a landline

• 96% of those surveyed reported having a cell phone
• 90% of those surveyed had cell phones when they enrolled as students at NWMSU
• Mike Dame, Director of Web Communications at Virginia Tech joined the group via phone and spoke about some of the new measures put in place on the VT campus. He mentioned that VT has recently moved toward the 3n Emergency Notification System. VT is offering an opt-in service for students, faculty and staff that would notify those signed up by e-mail, phone (office/home), and text message in case of an emergency. Currently about 19,000 of the 32,000 people eligible have signed up. Recently in October VT tested the new system. Overall the test was successful, however about 3% of the audience did not receive any communication during the test. Dame stressed the importance of testing not only the technologies that would be used during a disaster, but the importance of practicing any planning as well.
• Attendees also discussed Enhanced 911 (or E911). E911 service automatically associates a physical address with the calling party’s telephone number. In the case of a college campus if a campus resident would place a call for emergency services the phone number they call from can be associated to the building they are in or even the room within the building. LaReau indicated that on the Ozarks Technical Community College the phone number is identified to the building level, whereas Rickman indicated that on the NWMSU campus the phone number is associated to a room within the building.
• Bob Paulson of State Fair Community College indicated that his campus had recently implemented Net Presenter, which is a pop-up notification system.