Computing Services Annual Report, 1996-97

Michael R. Sherer, Director of Computing Services
July 29, 1997

The 1996-97 academic year was a time of significant change for the Computing Services Department. In addition to routine responsibilities such as system placements, faculty/staff support and student training, changes in facilities and staffing consumed a significant amount of energy over the year, while new initiatives approved in the spring promise to reshape the information technology environment at the college. While not always trouble-free, these changes add up to a significantly improved computing environment for students, faculty and staff alike.

During the summer of '96, Computing Services undertook two very significant projects. The first was moving Computing Services from its former location in High Park dorm to newly renovated quarters in the lower level of the College Union building. While time-consuming, the move brought Computing Services closer to the center of campus and provided improved facilities for student computer labs and classrooms, enlarged hardware repair space and additional office space. The second project involved modernization of the existing campus network. Funded by one-time, $100,000 budget allocation, the project consisted of upgrading the campus fiber optic backbone to 100 MB switched Ethernet, and adding six Cabletron SmartSwitches to the existing network infrastructure. While one step short of providing switched Ethernet to the desktop, the upgrade gives the college a state-of-the-art network design, significantly improved network performance and reliability, and laid an excellent foundation for future service growth and subsequent upgrades.

Starting in the fall, students were required to authenticate using name and password before using a lab PC. While that caused some initial confusion, long-term it has enabled two important new services: 1) personal file space on the ACS-1 file server, and 2) metered laser printing to lab printers. Personal file space was universally well received and reduced or eliminated the need for students to use floppy disks to store their work. Metered printing was less popular, but students are aware of the need to eliminate wasteful printing and have accepted the system. The allocation of free printing has been raised from 100 to 200 pages per semester starting fall 97 in response to student feedback and due to the elimination of free dot-matrix printing in the labs.

Also during the fall, the administration accepted John Glick's request that he be relieved of his director responsibilities effective January 1, 1997 so that he could focus full-time energy on administrative data systems. A search committee consisting of faculty and staff was formed to hire a new director and in February 1997 Michael Sherer, a 1982 GC grad, was hired. Kevin Gross assumed the role of acting director during January and February and two interns, Joel Ewy and Naela Saras, were hired to assist with day-to-day responsibilities during the transition. Ewy and Saras have since moved on to other assignments.

In March 1997, the ad hoc Technology Equipment Committee, chaired by Michael Sherer, submitted three "Urgent Priorities" to the administration. These priorities, which covered desktop computing, residential computing and classroom, were approved and funded by the Board of Overseers in April 1997. Furthermore, a plan was put in place to add maintenance for these areas into the Computing Services budget over the next five years.

The final four months of the academic year were marked by a significant amount of activity on multiple fronts. Key accomplishments through June 30 included:

• The dorm wiring project was approximately 50% complete, with a projected completion date of mid-August.

• Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPSs) were acquired for all active network components to improve network reliability during power fluctuations and brief outages.

• The Computing Services WWW page was put into production service.

• Using Lilly grant money, the Mac Graphics lab was upgraded by spring term and used by Marvin Bartel's Digital Photography class and Floyd Saner's introduction to Java class.

• The campus standard PC was upgraded to a 200 MHz Pentium multimedia system with 32 MB RAM. This is up from a P100 with 16 MB RAM. The campus standard Macintosh was upgraded to a 225 MHz PowerPC.

• Dubbed the "MSU" for Massive System Upgrade, the central upgrading of approximately 170 systems was well underway. The MSU is part of an overall strategy to centralize the planning, deployment and maintenance of desktop computing hardware and software on campus.

• A template for Windows 95-based desktop PC's was created and a streamlined process for building and deploying PC and Macs created.

• A software metering mechanism called KeyServer was implemented. KeyServer allowed Computing Services to deploy a wide range of application on the local hard drive of newly placed computers.

• A license for a variety of Adobe products was procured. Teamed with KeyServer, these products can now be deployed campus-wide on GC-owned Macs and PCs at a very low cost.

• The M: drive was introduced on newly placed PC's. The M: drive is a network drive that contains a user's Eudora folder and Documents folder. This architecture will make it easier to recover from hardware failures, simplify subsequent upgrades and means user files will be backed up nightly.

• Bill-backs to departments for routine computing services have been eliminated.

• The ad hoc Printing Committee submitted a series of recommendations aimed at eliminating waste and improving efficiency and service quality. Many of those recommendations have already been implemented by Computing Services, including the elimination of dot matrix printing in labs, increased free pages for laser printing for students, a de-emphasis on inkjet printers for personal printing in offices, increased numbers of workgroup laser printers, etc.

• Personal WWW publishing for students, faculty and staff entered a testing phase on w3.goshen.edu in the spring and is due to enter production phase in the fall.

• With the help of Physical Plant, brought back computing services under generator power during the major power outage in April.

• Research and development began on a LDAP directory server, USENET server, a new mail server, an email listserver, an internet audio server, a calendar server, and Linux-based file servers for Macs and PC's. These services will enter production as they approach production quality.

• A dual-processor Pentium Pro server was acquired to be the new www.goshen.edu

• The DCC (Departmental Computing Consultant) program was introduced to faculty and staff as a means of improving support to departments and offices.

• Using money from the Lilly grants, Gordon Bontrager was hired to do admissions-related database application development.

• Two new tools, Tango and Oracle Developer/2000 were acquired for three-tier and client/server database development. These new tools will increase productivity and turn-around time for new application development.

• Created a web page that queries registrar data and returns course-related information. This will allow students, faculty and prospective students to access current information on course offerings including enrollment and waiting list information.

• A DEC AlphaServer 3000 was acquired as a development machine for administrative applications. The new server will speed development and testing of changes and new development on administrative systems.

• A seven-digit ID proposal was submitted to President's Council and passed. The proposal is a key plank in making the GC administrative systems year 2000-compliant.

• The church offices and several other rooms in the College Church chapel were networked at the request of the provost.

• Added a www/java-based chat server and a Web Crossings server.

Entering the new academic year, Goshen College finds itself in a significantly stronger position than in previous years with respect to technology. An information technology infrastructure is now in place that can support the development of enterprise-wide services over the coming years. Briefly stated, that infrastructure includes the following components:

• A modern, high-speed network that reaches all primary buildings on campus.

• A user community equipped with GUI-based (Graphical User Interface) operating systems, web browsers and email clients.

• A user community where the minimum hardware platform is a 486 PC or a 60 MHz PowerMac.

• A support infrastructure that is localized and less dependent on Computing Services full-time staff.

• Production and development Oracle database environments for administrative systems and modernized development tools.

• Institutional file space and web publishing space.

Additionally, numerous areas of concern from last year's report have been resolved or are in the process of being addressed.

1) While there are still long-term concerns about staffing levels, creative use of student and short-term employees has improved our situation markedly.

2) Allocation of funds for desktop computing, classrooms and dorms is in large part solved for the foreseeable future. Funding for basic operations and administrative systems will be addressed in the next fiscal year.

3) Administrative development software has been upgraded and Computing Services staff are bringing themselves up to speed on it and planning strategy for its broader application.

4) Security mechanisms employing Oracle and internet technologies are in test mode.

5) Standard desktop computers are being equipped with multimedia development software, though training and support will be an issue. Computer integration with telecommunications technology remains weak. Computing Services has a test PPP line in place, though plans for implementation remain unclear.

6) Residence Halls are being networked for fall of 97, though access from faculty/staff residences and off-campus student housing requires use of a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP)

7) Key classrooms are being wired for computing and projection, and an educational technology internship position is being explored as a means of supporting and assisting professors using technology in these classrooms.

In the new academic year, we project that Computing Service staff time will be targeted in the following areas:

1) The ongoing transformation of Computing Service into a customer service operation.

2) Development and deployment of enterprise-wide services

3) Maintaining service quality while doubling the size of our network and customer base without significantly increasing FTE.

4) Information Technology Infrastructure development and modernization

5) Administrative Systems modernization

The challenges are not small, but the Computing Services staff is dedicated and talented, and has already accomplished much under the new Showalter administration. We anticipate the 1997-98 will be the year in which users begin to experience the positive impact of all the technological improvements we have been working toward.

Computing Services Annual Report, 1997-98

Michael R. Sherer, Director of Information Technology
October 12, 1998

The 1997-98 academic year will likely be remembered as the year GC's technology fortunes turned around from the student's perspective. While some faculty and staff had to deal with aging hardware, students encountered new computer hardware in all labs, dorms were wired for internet and cable tv, key classrooms were equipped with multimedia and computer projection capabilities, and key services were modernized. The advancements and momentum in the technology area were such that we were able to market technology to prospective students as an institutional strength and did a campaign for high school seniors called "Take the GC Technology Challenge" encouraging them to compare GC with any of their top college choices. We see indications this fall that this campaign was successful. The Business Information Systems program and the Computer Science program have both seen their number of majors double in the past year, an indication that many of those who were most interested in technology compared and came here.

I. Achievements

The computing services staff has accomplished a significant amount over the past year. These achievements included the following:

Networking

• ResNet Wiring Project was completed on time and within budget
• Nine classrooms were wired for computer projection and multimedia.

• The main campus network switch was upgrade to a Cabletron SmartSwitch 9000, capable of full-duplex 100 mbs speed. Ad building, Union and Newcomer also received network upgrades.
• Ad building was upgraded from Category 3 to Category 5 wiring
• KM Lab Upgraded from Category 3 to Category 5 wiring
• Completed networking of all primary campus classrooms
• Added East Hall to the campus network.

Services

• Deployed Netscape Directory Server 1.03
• Netscape Mail Server replaced the popmail server on the VAX, resulting in improved mail service and faster VAX performance for administrative purposes.
• Ran Netscape Calendar Server in test mode for much of the year, attempting to work towards production quality service.
• Migrated to Netware 4.11
• Upgraded our Netware server hardware to faster processors and RAID, fault-tolerant disk
• Introduced a listserv service to the campus, with lists like fsannounce.
• 56K Dial-up Internet Access was rolled out with installer CD's for Mac and Windows.
• Introduced CourseInfo to the campus, a web based service for publishing course content
• Brought email, the web server and news into the LDAP name space.
• Implemented Mac Backups.
• Shut down gopher.goshen.edu
• Introduced WebMail and WebCalendar to the campus in prototype form

Computer Upgrades

• Approximately 250 computer systems were upgraded in Summer of 97.
• The transition to Windows 95, Netware Client 32, and MacOS 8 was completed during summer of 98.
• Office 97 and Windows 95 became campus standards for PC users during Summer of 98.

ResNet

• Installation Fairs got students on ResNet in short order. Approximately 30% of students in the dorms had computers on ResNet, with these computers often being used by two or more people.

• Training, Support and Staff Development

• Lilly grant money funded a second the on 'Teaching with Technology' seminar, which trained 12 faculty members on the use of web development technologies and the use of CourseInfo.
• Taught 30+ training classes for DCC's and other faculty/staff.
• ITS Staff have retrained and adapted to meet new support challenges posed by the rapid addition of new services and an increasingly sophisticated computing environment.

Labs

• KM Lab was renovated
• KM Lab staffing increased evenings and weekends
• Schertz Lab hours were extended to midnight, and weekend

• and holiday hours were expanded to accommodate DCP students

• The lab standard PC was upgraded to a 300 MHz Pentium II multimedia system with 64 MB RAM running Windows 95. This is up from a P200 with 32 MB RAM. The lab standard Macintosh was upgraded to a 266 MHz G3 PowerPC with 96 MB.

Administration

• Submitted a totally formulaic budget that will serve as a model for future years.
• IMC and Computing Services Merged to become Information Technology Services (ITS).
• Completed a strategic plan for technology that was submitted to the ITC and Strategic Planning Committee.
• Drafted the Career Path for Technical Staff document
• Along with Lyle Miller from PR, drafted the Web Governance Proposal for the provost
• Bought an AlphaSmart keyboard for more efficient note and minute-taking.

Web

• Computing Services web pages were redone.
• The look of the GC Web site was overhauled.
• Communicator began to be published daily on the on campus web page.

• Press-releases are published to the GC home page several times a week.

Data Systems

• Administrative Modernization Task Force met for several months and recommended going with internal modernization.
• Created DevCorps, a team of student programmers working on web-based administrative application development.
• Oracle 8 on NT was deployed in test mode.
• Admissions data systems were improved, including management reports, better contact-management and less printed output.
• Prototyped GC Online, a new suite of authenticated Administrative Services.
• Retired Birch VAX.
• Put student resumes and job postings on the web
• Made course information available via the web
• Delivered View Accounts, the first authenticated web application, for use by Department heads.

Public Relations

• Invited High school seniors to "Take the GC Technology Challenge."
• Made presentations at several Campus Open Houses
• Prototyped a Welcome Center Kiosk in Macromedia Director.

• Entering academic year 98-99, Goshen College is in an enviable position technology-wise, relative to most liberal arts colleges. Our basic Information Technology infrastructure is in place, along with mechanisms in place to maintain and upgrade it on an ongoing basis. This year, for the first time, we are having faculty comment about their experiences with technology at other schools and how appreciative they now are of what we have here. The primary concern from last year's report, dial-up access to the campus network, has been addressed.

II. Challenges

Despite this generally upbeat report, there are some areas of concern:

0. Doing Information Technology well at a small institution is a difficult task. We are exploring ways, such as mennonite.net, to do more IT at Goshen College so that we benefit from certain economies of scale.
1. Expectations are rising quickly. The rapid addition of services and software over the past year has meant that users are doing more with their computers and thus have increased need for training and support.
2. The user base is expanding rapidly. The addition of ResNet has increased the expectation among students for general computing support. The addition of dial-up network services has increased expectations among faculty/staff and retirees for support at home. The expanding enrollment in the Degree Completion Program and rising expectations for technology use in the curriculum is driving increased support demands among these students. The expansion of the installed base of computers also increases the support burden. To deal with this increased support demand, we are implementing a student-run help desk. While this may help offset the load, there are ongoing concerns about the quality of support we are giving and the cost is to the institution of using student labor for support.
3. 98-99 promises to be both an exciting and difficult year for administrative computing. On the plus side, we will be bringing on some very exciting applications through GC Online. On the down side, many of the people in the executive office who knew the old system well are gone, thus there are many places where modernization will be urgent throughout the year.
4. Staff changes and absences are a concern. John Glick is scheduled to take a sabbatical during the first half of 1999. Steve Birky returned to France at the end of summer 98. Bryan Falcon is due to leave at the end of the calendar year. Also, in the departments, Tony Yoder will be leaving College Relations and DeLane Graber will be on leave from Accounting. It will be important to provide adequate coverage in each of these areas.
5. The Computing Services/IMC merger will present some new challenges as we integrate the two organizations and contend with differing cultures and differing missions and responsibilities.
6. Security and ethics in a networked environment are consuming increased amounts of time. We are working towards being proactive, but are often put in the position of being reactive.
7. Relations with Microsoft are going to be complicated by Microsoft's new licensing program which eliminates concurrency, a licensing approach we use extensively here at GC. Costs will rise substantially, on the order of $20,000 per year, because of this. Some broader campus discussion about what our response should be will likely be necessary because of this change.
8. Space issues are approaching a critical point in ITS. As we do more and make greater use of student labor, we are quickly running out of space. Also, the addition of mennonite.net and the exploration of entrepreneurial IT models hold significant possibilities for expansion. Moving a lab out of Schertz Computing Center into the library would alleviate the space problem, but also create a
9. Adequate funding and staffing will continue to be an issue. IT demands are driven by the institution's departments and students. These demands must be moderated by the institution's overall strategic objectives in the face of finite resources. ITS must either find ways to secure those resources from alternate sources, find more efficient ways to deliver services, or find ways to reduce services in acceptable ways.

III. Goals for the Coming Year

ITS has identified numerous goals for the coming year. They are, by category:

Networking

0. Begin migration to switched ethernet
1. Make the campus "laptop-friendly"
2. Improved network management and monitoring using SNMP and other utilties.
3. Improve IP address management.

Services

0. Reduce printing in general in favor of on-line access to data. Replace central printing with local printing in or near each department.
1. Test and possibly deploy Netware 5
2. Provide dial-up access to the M: drive
3. Move toward a central printing budget
4. Add color laser printing to our suite of services
5. Single ID and password access to all services
6. Deploy production quality Calendar Scheduling services
7. Authenticated Online phone directory
8. Tighter integration between campus services and corporate data
9. Deploy GC image database
10. Deploy Web/Email Kiosks
11. Improve our client management capabilities using utilties like Novell ZenWorks.
12. Deploy Welcome Center Kiosk
13. Explore Winframe, X Windows thin client solutions
14. Explore Linux on the desktop and on the server

Labs

0. Expand software holdings and functionality in the labs

Administration

0. Continued refinement of the ITS formulaic budget
1. Explore entrepreneurial IT models as a means of improving and expanding IT at Goshen College.
2. Refinement of Technical Staff Career Path document.
3. Write and receive one or more grants
4. Revision of the Centralized Hardware model to include technical computing applications.

Training, Support and Staff Development

0. Continue to leverage the DCC program to train peer consultants
1. Deploy and develop a student run Help Desk.
2. Build a problem tracking database and knowledge database
3. Increase the quality and availability of Macintosh Support
4. Increase the quality and availability of Linux/Unix Support
5. Continue to evolve the training program.

Media

0. Refine ITS Media policies and rate structures with an eye to improving service quality and minimizing unnecessary late requests.
1. In cooperation with the Music Department, define recording methodologies and microphone placement standards for all performance spaces and all ensemble types.
2. Define A/V equipment standards and lifecycles for budgetary purposes and for creating a centralized A/V equipment management program comparable to the one in place for computing hardware and software.
3. Document current and propose new Multimedia classroom planning and equipment acquisition procedures.
4. Review technical problems with current campus cable television infrastructure and propose a plan for restructuring.
5. Develop a web-based workorder request and tracking system to provide customers with a better interface and ITS with a better way to assure requests are being processed.
6. Deploy a video server.

Data Systems

0. Deploy and expand GC Online
1. Continue progress on administrative modernization, particularly in areas with significant staff turnover.
2. Y2K compliance
3. Complete migration to Oracle 8 and Windows clients
4. Phase out Cedar VAX

Web

0. Create a useful, comprehensive, ITS web site.
1. Development of WebCorps and mennonite.net
2. Improve Admissions web applications form.
3. Develop and deploy www.mennonite.net

Public Relations

0. Leverage mennonite.net to strengthen college/church relations
1. Build on "Take the GC Technology Challenge" campaign from last year.
2. Highlight applied learning programs like WebCorps, DevCorps, TechCorps

ITS has done much to strengthen Goshen College over the past year. An infrastructure is now in place which fosters collaboration, communication and innovation. The college's strategic plan calls for ITS to apply technology in innovative and effective ways. To achieve this objective, we will continue to expand and improve the college's IT infrastructure over the coming year in new and exciting ways. Furthermore, we will work with members of the community to use that infrastructure in ways which further the academic and administrative goals of the college, build relationships, attract and retain students and differentiate the college from competing institutions.

Information Technology Services Annual Report, 1998-99

Michael R. Sherer, Director of Information Technology
August 4, 1999

The 1998-99 academic year marks the establishment of Goshen College as a technology leader in academia and the Mennonite Church. In August 1998, Goshen College and MMA formed Mennonite.net, a technology outreach which succeeded in putting the entire North American Mennonite Church on the web and is shaping up to be a major force in churchwide data and global technology services. In April 1999, Goshen College was named to the prestigious Yahoo "Most Wired Colleges List." While these two events were emblematic of the leadership role the college is assuming in the area of technology, there was plenty of other hard work going on behind the scenes that deserves recognition. These achievements included the following:

Administration

• Did significant work in the area of policy creation, particularly in ITS-Media.
• Wrote a $750,000 Lilly grant for Mennonite.net and submitted it.
• Wrote grant abstracts for classroom modernization and administrative modernization.

Classrooms

• Toured all classrooms on campus with the Academic Dean, the Registrar, the Business Manager, Bill Frisbie and myself. There were significant learnings, and a new-found appreciation for the need to renovate Ad building classrooms.
• ITS donated $500 toward classroom renovation.
• Classroom team formed, including Bryan Falcon, Patty Goodman, Pam Weishaupt, Bill Frisbie, Paul Housholder, and Michael Sherer, to address the specific issues involved in supporting teaching in our classrooms.
• Installed 5 new multimedia classrooms during fall of 98.
• Improved the interface on Crestron remote for the classrooms.

Community Relations

• Goshen College was the network service provider at St. Louis 99 and provided 25 computers and a wireless network for St. Louis 99.
• Mennonite.net is shaping up to be a big PR boon for the college. Many in the church are appreciative of this valuable service the college is providing.
• Making the Yahoo "Most Wired Colleges List" a big PR win for the college. We need to make the most of it.
• Worked with Mennonite Archives on electronic archiving options for the Mennonite church.
• Worked with Mennonite Publishing House to improve the way they gather data for the Mennonite Directory. In turn, got access to this key database for use by Mennonite.net.
• Peter Hartman and Jay Christner started GLUG, the Goshen-area Linux User Group and provided significant leadership over the course of the year. The group met in UN-004
• Hosted several training sessions for INCOLSA and the Goshen Public Library in UN 004
• Assisted Indiana-Michigan conference in wiring their offices.
• Provided media support for the Violence Prevention Conference.
• Michael gave Y2K presentations at Clinton Brick Mennonite Church and Nappanee Public Library. The Clinton Brick presentation resulted in a front page article in the Goshen News. Michael also gave two seminars on technology issues and Mennonite.net at St. Louis 99.
• Hosted the Junior High Computer Camp in UN-004, summer 99.
• Working with Mennonite World Conference on global congregational data gathering and web-site hosting.
• Did support and planning for Ethnic Fair, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Alumni weekend and numerous other high profile public events.
• Peter, Jay and Michael gave a presentation to MMA IT personnel on our web development efforts.

Computer Upgrades

• Virtually every computer system on campus was upgraded during Summer of 98.
• The transition to Windows 95, Netware Client 32, and MacOS 8 was completed during summer of 98.
• Office 97 and Windows 95 became campus standards for PC users during Summer of 98.
• Began moving to a 17" monitor standard. Purchasing ArtMedia trinitron monitors with 5 year warranties will allow us to lower unit cost on desktops.
• Significantly increased access to regional laser printers across campus. Added two in Newcomer, one in library basement, one in the Art building, 3 in Science, one in ITS Media, one in the Executive Offices.
• Began trial uses of Linux workstations on the desks of some Science faculty.

Data Systems

• Began migration of Oracle off the DEC VAX.
• Deployed Oracle databases on NT in production mode. Front ends and applications continued to run on the VAX.
• John Glick was on sabbatical during the first half of 1999. Gordon Bontrager, and Peter Hartman, with the help of Helena Mirtova and a host of students helped keep Administrative users working during his absence.
• Migrated from Allaire Cold Fusion to PHP for web application development.
• During Summer of 99 Migracorps undertook the massive project of porting every com file, screen and report off the VAX.
• Worked Y2K compliance issues on administrative systems.
• Ongoing discussions with key administrative stake holders regarding administrative modernization options.
• JAD session with Peter Messervy began the process of documenting our administrative processes.
• Out-sourced some Admissions-related work to Jon Werbianski, a local Oracle programmer.
• Wrote a white paper/grant abstract for TOSCA, The Open Source Collegiate Administration project. GC Online technologies would form the foundation of a freely distributed administrative package. We are still evaluating whether to develop this into a full-blown grant proposal.
• Wrote a PHP-based query-builder application, currently in use in Admissions that could have broader application on campus.
• Wrote a web front-end to the Admissions database that allows faculty to view prospective student data and add contacts. This eliminates the need for departmental recruiting databases.

Educational Technology

• Introduced CourseInfo to the campus, a web based service for publishing course content. Rolled out two upgrades to the product during the year that significantly enhanced its capabilities.
• Working towards automatically creating online courses and class lists for each course offered, using registrar data.
• Helped the library select and implement a high speed scanner for scanner reserve materials.
• Hired Tim Boshart to replace Bryan Falcon in December.
• Hired Mike McHugh. Mike and Paul Housholder will take over Bill Frisbie's responsibilities.

Labs

• KM Lab became a 7 X 24-hour-day lab
• Schertz Lab hours is now open 24 hours/day on weekdays, and holiday hours were expanded to accommodate DCP students
• The lab standard PC was upgraded to a 300 MHz Pentium II multimedia system with 64 MB RAM running Windows 95. This is up from a P200 with 32 MB RAM. The lab standard Macintosh was upgraded to a 266 MHz G3 PowerPC with 96 MB.
• Added a color laser printer and an 11 X 17 laser printer to Schertz lab
• Upgraded to PC-RDist 2.0, which provides us with new flexibility in our PC template
• Added CD-R, higher resolution flatbed scanners and Slide scanners to the Mac lab.
• Added MacAdministrator to the Mac lab, which forces authentication to Netware before users can access a lab Mac.
• Added a handicapped station in Schertz lab for students using wheel chairs.
• Upgraded our Digital Cameras to Kodak DC260's
• Added a Sony Digital 8 video camera for checkout.

Media

• Worked with Architects and GC staff on audio/video issues for the new Music Building.
• Defined A/V equipment standards and lifecycles for budgetary purposes and for creating a centralized A/V equipment management program to complement to the one in place for computing hardware and software.
• Acquired a Audio CD Recorder to improve the quality of music department recordings.
• Reviewed Micing placements for performance spaces.
• Developed training materials for audio engineering aesthetics.

Networking and Infrastructure

• The main campus network switch was upgraded to a Cabletron SmartSwitch 9000, capable of full-duplex 100 mbs speed. Ad building, Union and Newcomer also received network upgrades.
• Ad building was upgraded from Category 3 to Category 5 wiring
• Completed networking of all primary campus classrooms
• Added East Hall to the campus network.
• Successful wireless networking trials led to the deployment of a wireless network at St. Louis 99 and plans for use of wireless networking technology on campus for fall of 99, providing better connectivity for off-campus housing.
• Summer 99 switched to 100 Mbps switched ethernet in all labs.
• Began migration to switched ethernet in offices and classrooms.
• Began Server Room "Rackification" project, which will ease maintenance and space constraints in the server room.
• Networked the Merry Lea campus
• Implemented wireless remote control for WGCS transmitter.
• Began planning for gigabit ethernet backbone upgrade
• Began exploring possibilities of upgrading GC's internet connection from T1 to 45 MBit ATM.
• Made improvements to network monitoring and management systems to allow for automatic paging of support staff in the event a service outage.

Organizational

• After months of discussion, Computing Services and the Instructional Materials Center merged and became Information Technology Services
• The former IMC moved into newly renovated quarters in the south end of the Union Building.

ResNet

• Installation Fairs got students on ResNet in short order. Approximately 45% of students in the dorms had computers on ResNet, with these computers often being used by two or more people.

Services

• Rolled out GC Online, a framework for delivering secure web applications, to the campus in fall of 98. Students are now able to check grade history, fill out their time cards, check account balances, apply for graduation, check personal information and other administrative tasks from a web browser.
• Online Budget application allowed administrators to view their budgets online. A second revision allowed proxies in their department to view portions of the departmental budget.
• Added Certificate security to GC Online and calendar.goshen.edu allowing for secure transmission of data across the internet.
• Online registration, drop-add, grade change, hour change services are ready to enter production mode.
• Upgraded to Netscape Directory Server 3. Experimenting with OpenLDAP, a free Linux-based Directory.
• Deployed CS&T CorporateTime, the campus-wide calendar-scheduling program.
• Migrated to Netware 4.11
• Upgraded our Netware server hardware to faster processors and RAID, fault-tolerant disk arrays.
• Moved listserv services to Majordomo running on Linux, added an easy-to-use GC Online front-end to ease subscribing and unsubscribing
• Productionized calendar.goshen.edu's web client.
• Switched webmail.goshen.edu to IMP and continued testing.
• DNS and DHCP services moved to Linux

• Testing Netware 5, ZenWorks and latest versions of NDS.
• Experimented with Roaming Access for Netscape Communicator.
• Experimenting with QuickTime 4 streaming media server.
• ITS now provides FTP access to the M: Drive from home.

Training, Support and Staff Development

• Taught 30+ training classes for DCC's and other faculty/staff.
• Moved to a student student run help desk
• Began implementing a PHP-based Problem-tracking system.

Web

• Hired Pete Oakley, who took on the task of creating the new ITS website--a model for how other departmental websites should be structured.
• Communicator is now delivered via GC Online so that GC users coming in from non-GC ISP's are able to read it by authenticating to GC Online.
• Worked with Lyle Miller to create a Web Governance Document that is now guiding our web development.
• Formed GC-Web group, a cross-divisional group overseeing web development at GC.
• Paul Meyer Reimer led WebCorps, a team of student web programmers and found it to be a very successful model for departmental web development.
• Mennonite.net provided web sites for every Mennonite church, organization and area conference in North America.
• Registered domains for all anabaptist denominations served by MMA.
• Began initial explorations into the use of XML and related technologies.

Academic year 99-2000 is an unusual year for technology, in that Y2K hangs over all IT operations like specter. Assuming we are able to meet our obligations and complete our Y2K objectives, the second half of the year should be very successful, as our refined development methodologies and increasingly mature GC Online environment allows us to tackle problems that departments have been eager to have addressed. The removal of the Y2K burden will also allow more energy to be redirected toward maximizing our use of GC's state-of-the-art technology environment for the furtherance of our institutional objectives.

Challenges

Goshen College, despite enjoying a considerable amount of success in the are of technology, faces several short term and long-term challeges:

0. Y2K. More than most institutions, the college has maintained its technology infrastructure and should weather Y2K with relatively little disruption. The one are of exception is administrative systems, where a decade of neglect has left ITS scrambling to get prepared for the new millenium. Currently, ITS is on target to complete most departmental Y2K compliance issues by the end Q3 1999, with the remaining departments to be completed by November, when we are scheduled to complete the VAX migration.
1. Funding. The college current has a sustainable funding model for computing, however, there is continual pressure to cut the budget. Furthermore, there is ongoing pressure to expand services and to improve service quality. Solutions under discussion include Technology endowment, grants, designated giving in the area of technology, and using Mennonite.net to subsidize R&D. The alternative is to find acceptable ways to reduce services or pass along costs to departments.
2. Staff turnover. While ITS has had relatively little staff turnover compared to most IT operations, we did have three staff members leave employment at GC for various reasons and several staff outside ITS with significant computer knowledge either quit or took different jobs within GC. This puts considerable additional pressure on already overburdened IT personnel. We need to continue to find creative ways to make it attractive to make an IT career at Goshen College. We also need to provide simplified systems, good documentation and adequate training for administrative staff so that they can work independently.
3. Expectations are rising quickly. The rapid addition of services and software over the past year has meant that users are doing more with their computers and thus have increased need for training and support.
4. The user base is expanding rapidly. The addition of ResNet has increased the expectation among students for general computing support. The addition of dial-up network services has increased expectations among faculty/staff and retirees for support at home. The expanding enrollment in the Degree Completion Program and rising expectations for technology use in the curriculum is driving increased support demands among these students. The expansion of the installed base of computers also increases the support burden. We are adding an online problem tracking system to improve the efficiency and quality of support delivered through our help desk.
5. Human Resource issues. ITS staff has grown to the point that supervision, evaluations, reclassifications and hiring processes now consume a significant amount of administrative time.
6. Security and ethics in a networked environment are consuming increased amounts of time. We are working towards being proactive, but are often put in the position of being reactive.
7. Space issues are approaching a critical point in ITS. As we do more and make greater use of student labor, we are quickly running out of space. Also, the addition of mennonite.net and the exploration of entrepreneurial IT models hold significant possibilities for expansion. Moving a lab out of Schertz Computing Center into the library would alleviate the space problem, but also create a more distributed, and more expensive support model.

Goals for the Coming Year

ITS has identified numerous goals for the coming year. They are, by category:

Administration

0. Finish placing ITS policies on the ITS web site.
1. Continued refinement of the ITS formulaic budget.
2. Continue refining the entrepreneurial IT model as a means of improving and expanding IT at Goshen College.
3. Refinement of Technical Staff Career Path document.
4. Write and receive one or more grants
5. Get team infrastructure in place
6. Create service level agreements for ITS services

Community Relations

0. Promote Mennonite.net
1. Implement Alumni Technology Advisory Board

Data Systems

0. Continue to expand GC Online
1. Continue progress on administrative modernization.
2. Y2K compliance
3. Complete migration to Oracle 8 and Windows clients
4. Phase out Cedar VAX

Labs

• Add more PC scanners.
• Provide more disk space for students.

Media

0. Continue refining ITS Media policies.
1. In cooperation with the Music Department, define recording methodologies and microphone placement standards for all performance spaces and all ensemble types.
2. Document current and propose new Multimedia classroom planning and equipment acquisition procedures.
3. Upgrade cable television infrastructure.
4. Develop a web-based workorder request and tracking system to provide customers with a better interface and ITS with a better way to assure requests are being processed.
5. Capitalize on new developments in streaming media technology.

Networking

0. Continue migration to switched ethernet
1. Make the campus "laptop-friendly"
2. Improve IP address management.
3. Implement wireless LAN technology

Public Relations

0. Leverage mennonite.net to strengthen college/church relations
1. Capitalize on Making the Yahoo "Most Wired Colleges" list.
2. Highlight applied learning programs like WebCorps, DevCorps, TechCorps

Services

0. Reduce printing in general in favor of on-line access to data. Replace central printing with local printing in or near each department.
1. Test and possibly deploy Netware 5.
2. Provide dial-up access to the M: drive
3. Move toward a central printing budget
4. Single ID and password access to all services
5. Authenticated Online phone directory
6. Tighter integration between campus services and corporate data
7. Deploy GC image database
8. Deploy Web/Email Kiosks
9. Improve our client management capabilities using utilties like Novell ZenWorks.
10. Deploy Welcome Center Kiosk
11. Explore Winframe, X Windows thin client solutions
12. Continue exploration of Linux on the desktop

Training, Support and Staff Development

0. Continue to leverage the DCC program to train peer consultants
1. Continue developing the student-run Help Desk.
2. Implement the problem tracking database and knowledge database
3. Increase the quality and availability of Macintosh Support
4. Increase the quality and availability of Linux/Unix Support
5. Look for outsourcing opportunities in the training area. Train where we add value.

Web

0. Continue to improve and expand the ITS web site.
1. Add GC Online services for alumni and prospective students.

ITS has done much to strengthen Goshen College over the past year. An infrastructure is now in place which fosters collaboration, communication and innovation. The college's strategic plan calls for ITS to apply technology in innovative and effective ways. To achieve this objective, we will continue to improve the college's IT infrastructure over the coming year in new and exciting ways. Furthermore, we will work with members of the community to use that infrastructure in ways which further the academic and administrative goals of the college, build relationships, attract and retain students and differentiate the college from competing institutions.

Information Technology Services Annual Report, 1999-2000

Michael R. Sherer. Director of Information Technology
August 19, 2000

Executive Summary

Goshen College continues to solidify its reputation as the technology leader among the Mennonite institutions of higher education. We began the year by providing a state-of-the-art wireless network St. Louis 99. And for the second year in a row, Yahoo! Internet Life honored Goshen College as one of the nation's "Most Wired" colleges, a list teeming with high-dollar, prestigious liberal arts colleges. The first half of the year was overshadowed by Y2K preparations, which through significant effort on the part of ITS staff resulted in an uneventful January 1 for GC.

In March, an Administrative Modernization Task Force unanimously selected CMDS Teams Elite administrative software to speed the modernization of GC business processes and decision support capabilities. The implementation project will take approximately 13 months to complete and will require an investment of $800,000 over a seven-year period. Also in March, ITS deployed an 11 MB wireless network connecting all college-owned off-campus housing to the internet. Finally, during the Summer of 2000, ITS staff will complete its fourth consecutive year of lab upgrades. The 2000-2001 lab standard is a 600 Mhz Pentium III or 400 Mhz G4 PowerMac with 17" monitor.

Though it was a financially difficult year for Mennonite.net, the site experienced over 1000% growth in traffic and made tremendous technical strides, laying a foundation for greater success in the coming year.

When CMDS Teams Elite goes live in May of 2001, the college will be free of its most significant legacy burden and can reasonably claim that its IT environment is among the best in the country. ITS will be working hard to keep it that way.

KPI's:

• 1998-1999 - 5.16%
• 1999-2000 - 5.55% (includes Y2K remediation)
• 2000-2001 - 5.24% (including CMDS purchase, 5.7%)

• 1998-1999 - 12.3
• 1999-2000 - 13.9
• 2000-2001 - 15.9

• 1998-1999 - 9.2
• 1999-2000 - 8.65
• 2000-2001 - 5.66

ITS began tracking an extensive list of performance metrics to better chronicle the progress of technology at GC and to better understand and manage technology growth.

Significant progress during the past year occurred in the following areas:

Administration

• Acceptable Use Policy updated to better address increasing commercial use of GC computing resources and changing realities on the internet.
• A new Human Resources salary tool provides more accurate rating for tech workers. All ITS professional staff have been reclassified.
• Explored outsourcing options for dial-up and ResNet Install Fairs with Mapletronics. Elected not to at this time due to expense.
• Downsized our photocopier to reflect reduced usage.
• Designed and implemented two new office spaces in poorly utilized space within ITS.

Classrooms

• Transitioned to a CorporateTime-based room scheduling system.
• Designed and began implementation of Ad 21 computerized classroom.
• Reprogrammed Crestron controls to simplify use of Multimedia classrooms.

Community Relations

• Goshen College was the network service provider at St. Louis 99 and provided 25 computers and a wireless network for St. Louis 99.
• Mennonite.net created default websites for 1400 Mennonite congregations and 800 organizations. The service is based on the authoritative Mennonite Directory database.
• Mennonite.net received favorable coverage in the Builder, The Mennonite, Mennonite Weekly Review, and several agency and conference newsletters.
• Making the Yahoo "Most Wired Colleges List" a big PR win for the college. We need to make the most of it.
• Worked with Mennonite Archives on electronic archiving options for the Mennonite church. An initial version of this churchwide electronic archive was deployed with the template church website.
• Mennonite.net deployed email service, a new template church website, and other services based on the new churchwide data infrastructure.
• Mennonite.net output the 2000 Mennonite Directory for MPH.
• Negotiated a collaborative relationship with American Bible Society's forministry.com where Mennonite.net supplies authoritative Mennonite church congregational data to forministry to create basic websites there.
• Michael Sherer presented a talk entitled "The Internet, the Church and You" at Waterford Mennonite Church
• Michael Sherer presented a session on Mennonite.net's collaboration with Historical entities at the Gathering 2000 Conference.
• Michael Sherer and Tim Boshart presented on GC's CourseInfo implementation at the Blackboard Days Conference at University of Indianapolis.
• Mennonite.net designed and now hosts the Mennonite Church USA website.
• Michael Sherer presented on "Y2K - Why I'm Less Pessimistic Than the Doomsayers" at Milford Church of the Brethren

Computer Upgrades

• WSBT did a nice 2 minute spot on the 10 o'clock news covering GC's inclusion in the Yahoo Most Wired College's list.

Data Systems

• Migrated Oracle databases and forms off the DEC VAX in December 1999.
• Developed GC Online 2 in preparation for Y2K. Migration to GC Online was delayed by the purchase of CMDS Teams Elite and is scheduled for deployment in late summer 2000.
• GC purchased and began the implementation of CMDS Teams Elite administrative software. ITS played a significant role in the decision-making process and is assisting with the implementation.
• John Glick successfully negotiated an unlimited license for Oracle Enterprise server and Developer tools.
• Began experiments with the CorporateTime API to determine the feasibility of calendar-enabled applications.
• The VAX Line Printer was relocated to the Ad Building basement and is being run by Melba Nunemaker.

Educational Technology

• In Fall 99 Goshen College became the first college in the world to have a CourseInfo web course for every course in the catalog with automated maintenance of class lists and ID/passwords synchronized with LDAP.
• GC added two digital video workstations running Final Cut Pro in January to accommodate Mark Kelley's video production classes and GC Journal. A Canon GL-1 digital video camera was also purchased, giving GC a credible digital video creation/editing capability.
• Early experiments with iMovie as a low-end video production tool were well-received. Mark Kelley will make use of iMovie and the Mac Lab for GC Journal and video production classes in the fall of 2000.

Labs

• Upgraded labs in summer 99 to 433 Mhz Celeron PC's and upgraded all lab Macs to at least 224 MB RAM.
• Acquired Altiris Lab Expert, software which dramatically improves our ability to manage PC labs.
• Began gathering high quality usage stats for the labs.
• Implemented "Big Brother" software which improves our diagnostic abilities and downtime notification.
• Specifications set for the Summer 2000 upgrade call for 600 Mhz Pentium III PC's and 400 Mhz G4 PowerMacs.

Media

• Worked with Architects and GC staff on audio/video issues for the new Music Building.
• Acquired a CD Duplicator that allows us to mass produce CD's at a low cost.
• Acquired a Digital8 video camera that is available for check-out.
• Began experimenting with QuickTime and RealVideo streaming servers. Did live video streaming of the Gathering 2000 Conference in June.

Networking and Infrastructure

• Connected all college-owned, off-campus student housing to the campus network via an 11 MB wireless network.
• Created a web-based DHCP administration tool that makes it simple for authorized ITS personnel to update the DHCP database.
• Added network ports in the library to facilitate the use of portables there.
• For the first time, all buildings and most departments now have their own regional laser printers.
• Completed planning and budgeting for a gigabit backbone and wireless infrastructure upgrade during Summer 2000.

ResNet

• Installation Fairs got students on ResNet in short order. Approximately 45% of students in the dorms had computers on ResNet, with these computers often being used by two or more people.
• ITS blocked Napster MP3 traffic, but indicators are that we will lose the battle as bandwidth hungry applications proliferate.

• Dial-up service reached capacity, new analog lines have been added to eliminate busy signals.
• Upgraded Netware servers to Dual Xeon Servers running Netware 5.
• Started a ChemAlert listserv to provide better notification of chemical use on campus.
• Upgraded to CorporateTime

Staffing

• Cathy Kinney was hired half-time to staff the help desk in January 2000, but was hired back by her former employer in May.
• David Hodges was hired in March to provide coverage for Kevin Gross's sabbatical. David is a highly talented hardware technician with broad range of skills. He will replace Gene Crusie in 2001.
• Karen Renkiowicz was hired to staff the Help Desk and train and supervise student workers. Her consistency and professionalism has brought renewed respect to the Help Desk.
• Peter Hartman left to pursue Art studies in Scotland. His responsibilities were filled by Tim Boshart.
• Carl Meyer left Mennonite.net in May. His responsibilities have been covered by a team of student employees.
• Prof. David Hostetter and Jason Sykes have been hired to cover Tim Boshart's Ed Tech responsibilities.

Training, Support and Staff Development

• We moved to a professionally-run Help Desk to improve service quality during 8-5. It was necessary to cut back evening Help Desk hours were cut back to pay for the move.
• Deployed MapleTrack, an internally developed problem tracking system, to improve follow-through and service quality from the Help Desk.
• Began Technology For Service Quarterly, an ITS web-zine devoted to informing the campus about developments within ITS.
• Michael Sherer attended the annual ACM SIGGUCS Management Conference in St. Louis.
• Tim Boshart attended Blackboard Summit (CourseInfo) Conference in Washington DC.
• Paul Housholder and Mike McHugh attended the annual InfoCom tradeshow. Mike also attended a Crestron technical conference.
• Numerous ITS members attended Chicago Comdex.
• Jay Christner attended the annual ResNet Conference

Web

• Gwen Miller and Paul Meyer Reimer with input from the GC Web team rolled out a Website redesign for www.goshen.edu
• Web Server becomes LDAP-aware, allowing ITS to provide password-protected areas that require email ID and password to access.
• A new Web Event Calendar is scheduled for rollout in late summer 2000 and promises to improve the event planning process.
• WGCS is now on the web in RealAudio format at http://media.goshen.edu/wgcsfm.ram
• Equipped all SST units with a digital camera to facilitate posting of content.
• In cooperation with Public Relations, began work on a Strategic Plan for the Web at GC.

Goals and Projections

• An upgraded mail server with improved performance, improved web client and IMAP support.
• The completion of the CMDS Teams Elite administrative software

• implementation project on May 31, 2001. Completion of this project will yield significant improvements in business processes, reporting and analysis of data.

• A gigabit backbone upgrade for the campus network
• A second T1 to accommodate increasing needs for internet bandwidth
• On-campus wireless network access in key buildings
• Single userID and password access to all services
• Web kiosks in the Leaf Raker and Game Room.
• A new "smart" campus ID card with mag stripe and barcode
• A Technology Advisory Committee made up of alumni and friends

• providing assistance in strategic technology planning for the college.

• An increasingly prominent role for Mennonite.net in churchwide data issues.
• Increased use of CourseInfo in the curriculum.
• Minimum PC is a Pentium II 300, Minimum Mac is a PowerMac G3/266.

Other goals:

• Establish portal services for key constituents
• Eliminate Category 3 wiring on campus
• Test and deploy thin client computing solutions where appropriate.
• Strengthen collaboration between ITS and the library, ITS and the Dean.
• Write and receive at least one grant.

Challenges

Goshen College, despite enjoying a considerable amount of success in the area of technology, faces several short term and long-term challenges:

0. Staff turnover. In the past 9 months, ITS has had seven hiring processes, and there will likely be more in the coming year. This puts considerable additional pressure on already overburdened IT personnel and administration. While GC continues to be an energizing, fulfilling place to work, salaries for our best technical people are not competitive. We need to continue to work at the salary issue and find creative ways to make it attractive to make an IT career at Goshen College.
1. Funding. The college current has in place an equipment maintenance, upgrade and replacement model for computing, however, there is continual pressure to cut the budget. Furthermore, there is ongoing pressure to expand services and to improve service quality. This year we chose to amortize a major network upgrade and projector upgrade to achieve our goals. Solutions to the funding issue include Technology endowment, grants, designated giving in the area of technology, and using Mennonite.net to subsidize R&D. The alternative is to find acceptable ways to reduce services or pass along costs to departments.
2. Human Resource issues. ITS staff has grown to the point that supervision, evaluations, reclassifications and hiring processes now consume a significant amount of administrative time.
3. Expectations are rising quickly. The rapid addition of services and software over the past years has meant that users are doing more with their computers and thus have increased need for training and support, and for technology-rich classrooms to teach in.
4. The user base is expanding rapidly. The addition of ResNet has increased the expectation among students for general computing support. The addition of dial-up network services has increased expectations among faculty/staff and retirees for support at home. The expanding enrollment in the Degree Completion Program and rising expectations for technology use in the curriculum is driving increased support demands among these students. The expansion of the installed base of computers also increases the support burden. We are adding an online problem tracking system to improve the efficiency and quality of support delivered through our help desk.
5. Security and ethics in a networked environment are consuming increased amounts of time. Rapidly changing internet landscape presents ethical and administrative challenges as students find new money-making schemes, bandwidth hogging services, copyright infringing activities, etc. Our planned network upgrade includes quality of service technology to increase our control over our existing bandwidth, but we know this will be an area of ongoing challenge.
6. Space issues are approaching a critical point in ITS. As we do more and make greater use of student labor, we are quickly running out of space. Also, the addition of mennonite.net and the exploration of entrepreneurial IT models hold significant possibilities for expansion. Moving Mennonite.net out of Schertz would help, but would also negate some of the economies of scale we receive from Moving a lab out of Schertz Computing Center into the library would alleviate the space problem, but also create a more distributed, and more expensive support model.

Challenges aside, it is an exciting time to be in IT and at Goshen College. Technology continues to be a barometer for measuring the quality of an institution, and indeed the technology ITS provides is making GC a stronger, more attractive institution to study and work in.

Information Technology Services Annual Report, 2000-2001

Michael Sherer, Director of Information Technology

Executive Summary

During academic year 2000-2001 ITS moved the college closer to a mature information technology environment--one that is functional, modern, full-featured, efficient, reliable, and secure. A revised strategic technology plan (completed in March 2001) identifies remaining gaps and lays a framework for addressing them over the coming three years. Success in achieving identified goals will be dependent on availability of staffing, resources and increased efficiencies over that time period.

While maintenance and support of this sophisticated infrastructure will continue to be a challenging task, ITS recognizes that more attention must be given to the strategic use of technology. Increasingly, ITS must partner with departments to identify uses of technology that increase efficiency, improve service, build relationships, advance teaching, learning and research, and otherwise further the mission of the college. It is not enough to be a national leader in technology infrastructure; we must become a national leader in the strategic use of technology.

Increased emphasis on undergraduate research and publishing, mobile and ubiquitous computing trends, increasing importance of the web for academic, marketing and administrative uses, an increasing gap between high-performance and commodity computingÑthese are forces that will shape our strategy over the coming years. Affording an optimal level of funding and support will continue to be a challenge, but one that is increasingly strategic to the mission and operation of the college.

Significant Accomplishments Over the Past Year

1) Assisted with the CMDS/Jenzabar Teams Elite implementation. The new administrative system successfully went live on June 11. While it was clearly a team effort, special recognition are due to team leaders, Tim Yoder and Scott Barge, and to ITS Staff members Gordon Bontrager, Helena Mirtova, Ezra Nugroho, John Glick and DevCorps, whose countless hours played and continue to play a critical role in the success of the project. This system will play a key role in supporting good decision-making, quality service and efficient operation of the college for years to come.

2) Gigabit Network Backbone upgrade. A gigabit fiber network backbone was installed in September and now interconnects all major campus buildings. Also, 700 ports were upgraded to10/100 switched Ethernet.

3) Wireless infrastructure upgrade. Wireless network access is now available in most major academic buildings and in much of the green space on campus. This opens up many new opportunities for employee and student uses.

4) ITS instituted an on-call rotation system to give a semblance of 7 x 24 service with minimum burden on technical staff. The system is made possible by a sophisticated monitoring system that pages the on-call technician when a system or service fails. In many cases, the technicians are able to restart the service remotely. This marks a significant advance in service quality for the campus. The system has also served as a catalyst for documentation and cross-training of staff to a level few IT staffs have achieved.

5) Doubled Internet Bandwidth by adding a second T1 line. The increased bandwidth and the addition of Akamai caching servers allowed GC to largely escape the bandwidth problems that plagued many colleges and universities this past year.

6) Upgraded most technology classrooms on campus to 1700 lumen Sony LCD Projectors. The new projectors are bright enough to provide readable projection in normal room lighting conditions.

7) A new Online Course Evaluation System was used during Spring semester and May Term. The new system significantly lowers cost and speeds turnaround of results compared to the previous paper-based system.

8) 280 Office and lab computer systems will be upgraded during Summer 2001.

9) Upgraded Strategic Plan. During Spring 2001, IT Director Michael Sherer worked with the Information Technology Committee (ITC) to create an updated strategic plan for information technology at GC.

10) Umble Center Systems Upgrade. ITS staff helped design and implement significant AV system upgrades to the Umble Center.

11) Digital PhotoID Card system. GC replaced its old Polaroid-based ID card system with a new digital ID Card system. The new system ties in with administrative data and is significantly more cost-efficient to operate.

12) ITS helped the college move aggressively into digital video. GCÕs Mac lab now hosts 15 firewire-equipped video-editing workstations.

13) Equipped all IT staff with Palm Pilots to prepare for increasing demand for mobile computing support.

Technology Use At GC

Not all progress can be summarized in accomplishments and performance metrics. Stories and anecdotes can often best illuminate the substantial changes technology is bringing to the GC campus. Among them:

• GC Journal students put out a weekly half-hour video broadcast throughout this past year using digital video technology. The show aired after Friday chapel and was rebroadcast over the campus cable system and streamed over the Internet.
• WGCS developed a loyal following of Internet listeners.
• Professor emeritus Atlee BeachyÕs funeral was webcast. Hundreds of people who were unable to attend the service were able to experience this moving event.
• A wireless webcam is chronicling the construction of the new Music Building.
• Pete Oakley of ITS became the first employee to use the new wireless network infrastructure exclusively as he moved between offices in ITS and Student Development.
• Glen Gilbert of the Physical Plant can now control the HVAC system from all over campus using a wireless handheld computer.
• A team of students, faculty and staff trained in the use of digital video equipment provided a daily news broadcast for the Nashville 2001 biennial conference.
• Employees from administrative departments and ITS spent thousands of hours cleaning up data, examining processes, learning new software and demonstrating mastery of the administrative software before going live on June 11.
• Seniors Ezra Nugroho and Reuben Budiardja stepped forward and took responsibility for the operation, maintenance and ongoing development of GC Online after Sr. Database Administrator John Glick left GC in September. Ezra has since joined the ITS staff.
• The Help Desk logged 2,238 support calls this year.
• In April, EMU and Goshen IT staff held a groundbreaking 90-minute teleconference discussing technology infrastructure issues.
• Email kiosks were added to the Leaf Raker and gameroom during the fall and saw active use throughout the year.
• A fourth computerized classroom (one computer/student) was designed and renovated to meet the training needs of the Administrative Modernization project. That classroom, Ad 21, will go into full-time classroom use during Fall semester 2001.
• For the first time, the PC system cost has dropped below $1,000.

Key Performance Indicators

The current administration places an emphasis on being able to measure and benchmark performance. To this end, ITS is longitudinally tracking a wide range of information about the IT environment at GC. Going back to 1997-98, ITS tracks numbers of institutionally-owned computers, student computers, processor speed, disk size, RAM, monitor standards, number of live network ports, network bandwidth, internet bandwidth, along with information about the range of services offered. During that time, staffing moved from 11 FTE in 1997 to 15.2 FTE in 2001. Also during that time the network has grown 400%, there are 100 additional institutional computers and 200 more student -owned computers, a wireless network, dial-up Internet access and a wide range of new services and software to support.

In addition to monitoring the institutional growth of technology, ITS this year participated in the COSTS Project, a nationwide effort to understand the relative cost of technology across higher education. There are now over 100 schools participating in this project and it has provided data for comparing GC with other schools of varying size and stature. We intend to participate in the HEITS salary survey next year, and in collaboration with EMU have created a web-based service matrix for comparing technology choices and relative satisfaction with those choices. While this tool was created for the benefit of the Mennonite colleges, we believe this tool is valuable enough that we may choose to offer it nationwide.

Challenges and Opportunities

1. Assisting the campus in its first year in production usage of CMDS Teams Elite administrative software. Projects will include report writing, productionizing CMDS Web, porting key web applications to the new system, identifying gaps and prioritizing related projects.
2. Shifting to a centralized event planning structure. ITS welcomes this shift as an opportunity to increase efficiency and improve service. However, the final form of the form of the change is still being determined at this date.
3. Staffing transitions in the technical area. John Glick, Jay Christner and Gene Crusie left Goshen College in 2000-2001. David Hodges, Ezra Nugroho and Charles Sosbe have been hired and responsibilities shifted accordingly.
4. A transition from Novell Netware file and print services to Linux/SAMBA file and print services. This will require some significant staff retraining, but should be largely transparent to users.
5. Supporting the program and agenda of a new Academic Dean and VP of Marketing.
6. Preparing the campus for major operating system transitions on both PC's and Macs. ITS has begun work on transitioning to Mac OS X and Windows 2000/XP during Summer 2002.
7. Network bandwidth management. The emergence of peer-to-peer file sharing technologies has created new challenges in managing a scarce resource.
8. Financial pressures are impacting the entire college and ITS is no exception. The budget is lean and this means there is little margin of error. Fortunately, there is better administrative system support for financial management in the new academic year.

Strategic Goals/Priorities for 2001-02

Certainly a significant objective for the coming academic year will be to provide uninterrupted, high-quality service during a time of significant staffing transition. Completion of projects and other IT priorities will be dependent on available budget and staffing. Those projects and priorities fall into the following categories:

1. Deferred Maintenance.

Category 3 wiring. Most academic building still have a significant amount of Category 3 wiring from the early 1990's, which is only capable of speeds of 10 Mbits/second. This wiring needs to be replaced with Category 5 wiring capable of handling the gigabit over copper. Significant progress on this goal has already been made this summer.

Classrooms. While not exclusively technology, GC has several classrooms in desperate need of a facelift. These and other classrooms should be brought up to a level 1 multimedia classroom level, with fixed computing and fixed projection.

Cable TV system. The CATV system at GC is due for an overhaul. This goes beyond in-house expertise and much of it will need to be outsourced. Satellite system. Our current satellites are aging and beginning to fail. Their location also makes it impossible to receive certain broadcasts, which are blocked by the library and trees. This also will need to be outsourced.

2. Routine Maintenance.

Servers. ITS will be making a concerted effort to reduce the number of supported server operating systems hosting our services. This means the elimination of VMS and MacOS (KeyServer, RevRDist, Retrospect) as server operating systems, and ongoing exploration of the viability of moving from Netware to Linux for file and print services. Expanding storage capacity is a high priority. The shortage of space is already serious at mid-year. Next year we will do a major storage expansion and will need to rethink our backup and disaster recovery procedures to accommodate hundreds of megabytes of data. Computers. During summer 2001, ITS will finish the migration to a 17" monitor standard. Lab computers will receive memory upgrades and a possible OS upgrade, but stay at current hardware levels. Office systems will be upgraded to Windows 98 or 2000.

Network. Residence Hall network electronics are due to be upgraded to 10/100 switched Ethernet. We need to switch the network architecture from a supernetted structure to a subnetted structure to improve robustness.

3. Gaps

Web Portals. GC has several possibilities for moving forward with web portal services-GC Online our internally developed platform for delivering secure web services, Jenzabar a hosted portal and course management system from our administrative systems vendor, and Blackboard 5, our current course management system.

Security. ITS will implement a firewall

Mobile Computing Strategy. While we have the basic infrastructure in place for mobile computing, this needs to be better integrated into the overall academic and administrative vision for the college.

Disaster Recovery. Up to this point, disaster recovery has meant tape backup of servers. With our ever-increasing dependence on technology for administrative and academic functions, it is clear that we need to go beyond tape backup to implement strategies that minimize downtime in the event of fire, flood, or other catastrophic damage to the server room or network infrastructure.

4. Services

Migration to IMAP email from POP3. This will improve mobility and reduce the burden on our file servers, though it may be more difficult for some users to understand.

Migrate from Netware to Linux/SAMBA for file and print services

Prepare for migration to MacOS X and Windows 2000

Implement a campus firewall (Summer 2001)

Complete implementation of a campuswide virus protection strategy (Fall 2001)

Move to a single userID and password.

Move to a unique userID

Server platform consolidation.

5. Support

Improve ResNet support for incoming freshman

Wireless computing support. For faculty, staff and students to make effective use of the wireless infrastructure, its use will need to be properly documented and promoted.

Distributed learning and web-enhanced learning. Much of the infrastructure for doing DL and web-enhanced learning is already in place. Floyd Saner will be doing some work in this area next academic year.

Help Departments have a successful first year on CMDS Teams Elite.

6. Management

Work needs to be done with Human Resources to ensure that we are able to retain our most highly-skilled employees.

We would like to create an external technology advisory board made up of alumni and friends.

Organizational and budgetary issues will continue to need monitoring.

Finish re-organization of ITS

Successfully transition to a centralized event-planning structure.

Five-Year Vision

When thinking five years out, certain trends in computing can be roughly extrapolated. For example, if current trends continue as they did in the previous five years, our environment will be made up of:

1. PC's running at 8-10 gigahertz with a 1-2 gigabytes of RAM, and 400 gigabyte hard drives at a cost of $500 each
2. A 10 gigabit network backbone with 100/1000 Mbps ethernet-capable clients
3. A wireless infrastructure that covers all points on-campus and supports a proliferation of mobile computing devices.
4. 2-3 Terabytes of network storage.
5. 6-10 Mbps of internet bandwidth

This scenario would occur assuming we continue on a 3-year hardware maintenance cycle for PCÕs and a 5-year cycle for networking equipment. However, we anticipate that there will be opportunities to shift to lower cost computing models than Windows running on PCÕs. Such a shift would be more difficult politically than technically, given end-user investment in the current paradigm.

Other projections:

1. Mobile computing will boost employee productivity, but will drive support and equipment costs higher.
2. The advent of low-cost Linux clustering solutions will allow GC to provide high-availability services that for cost reasons used to be only available to large organizations.
3. Increased power and operating system stability will allow ITS to consolidate services on fewer servers and provide redundant servers for disaster recovery.
4. Most students will carry mobile phones that function as PDA's, pagers, MP3 players, personal stereos, two-way radio, web-browsers and email clients. There is a good chance that these phones be fully voice-activated and will dock so that students can use a full-size monitor and keyboard when at home or in the lab or classroom.
5. Digitizing strategic content and creation of video and multimedia content for distribution on the web will increase in importance and will become the focus of more grants.
6. To remain competitive, we will need to extend a suite of technology-based services to alumni and become more sophisticated about using technology to reach prospective students.
7. Much emphasis will need to be focused on using technology to improve service quality, efficiency, and communicate the Goshen College story.

Summary

Technology continues to be a competitive advantage for GC versus the other Mennonite schools and area liberal arts colleges and universities. This advantage is marketable and becomes moreso as we demonstrate that we provide consistently high quality services year after year. ITS is working with the administration to ensure that technology is in alignment with the institutional mission, that technology objectives are balanced against other institutional priorities, and that services are delivered with maximum efficiency.

Information Technology Services Annual Report, 2001-2002

Information Technology Services Annual Report, 2002-03

Information Technology Services Annual Report, 2003-04

The ITS Agenda for 2003-04 was heavily influenced by projects and needs in other areas of the institution--the renovation of Wyse Hall, the building of the KMY connector, the Plowshares grant, the AdmitGold project, the Career Mentor project, LGI and the Plato project, Online Giving, the Church Chapel renovation, leadership transition at WGCS, the creation of the Office of Conferences and Events and institution of a strategic calendar management team all consumed large amounts of staff time beyond normal maintenance and operations.

This academic year was also significant for the increased level of virus, worm and other security-related issues across the internet. While we survived the year with only minor service outages, it was not without some heroics on the part of ITS technical and support staff. ITS has adjusted to reduced staffing levels and reduced budgets while continuing to add services and improve service levels.  This combined with rising security and service demands is a major concern--that we will not be able to increase efficiencies rapidly enough to offset the rising demand for services and support. Already, we are experiencing some overload in the technical area.

Other significant improvements to the campus included the addition of IP video-conferencing capabilities in Wyse Hall, increased internet bandwidth from 2 to 5 T1's and the beginnings of a transition to 64 bit computing on servers and desktops. In spite of the financial and staffing challenges, ITS continues to set a high standard for quality, efficiency, innovation and service, delivering world-class infrastructure and services that support the academic and administrative mission of the college.

Information Technology Services Annual Report 2005-06

Information Technology Services Annual Report 2006-07

Michael Sherer, Director ITS

Executive Summary
If I had to choose a theme for the year it would be "Leveraging the Present, Envisioning the Future."  Over the past decade we have moved Goshen College technology forward  dramatically.  These improvements have created opportunities that we are now taking advantage of--new web-based alumni services, document tracking for incoming freshmen, online event sign-ups for Alumni weekend, conferences, and alumni trips, etc.  These are advances that save money, improve service, and help us build and strengthen relationships.  At the same time, we are looking to the future, working to consolidate gains, improve management, efficiency, security and capacity, spot new trends--all in an effort to lay a solid foundation for the future.  To move forward you must often question even basic assumptions so the past year was a time for rethinking many foundational computing paradigms and services as industry trends like mobile computing, open source software, Web 2.0 services, virtualization, multi-core processors, storage networking, and HD video create new opportunities.  Increasing demand from departments for strategic IT services is also fueling the need for increased manageability, recoverability and uptime.  Changes we make in the coming 1-3 years, including the recently approved 21st century network upgrade,  will lay the foundation for the next decade of computing at Goshen College.

Introduction
2007 marked the tenth year of IT Director Michael Sherer's tenure at Goshen College. It's been a decade marked by rapid growth, staff stability, increasing IT maturity, continuous improvement,  flat budgets and incremental change that has cumulatively become radical change.  From our vantage point in 2007, it's easy to forget that in July 1997:
    o  there was no residential network
    o  there was no wireless network
    o  GC had no web applications
    o  GC had no centralized authentication
    o  there was no instant messaging
    o  college students didn't have cell phones
    o  college students didn't have laptops
    o  Blackboard was writing surface not a web service
    o  There was no M: drive
    o  GC PC's were running Windows 3.1
    o  LCD's were watch displays
    o  there were no iPods
    o  there was no Google
    o  there was no Wikipedia
    o  there was no Facebook or MySpace
    o  there was no spam
    o  there were no email viruses
    o  there was no spyware
    o  hard drive sizes were measured in Megabytes not Gigabytes
    o  GC owned one digital camera--an Apple QuickTake that took pictures at a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels
    o  Video cameras recorded to VHS tapes
    o  PC's cost $2,000
    o  We still had a card catalog in the library
The technological change visited on Goshen College in the last decade has transformed the way we run GC, the way teach our classes, the way we access and manage information, the way we think about research and publishing, the way we communicate and collaborate with one another, the way we work, the way we shop, the way we entertain ourselves, the way we provide and consume services--it has touched almost every area of our lives. Now as we look to the next decade, we know that the pace of change is accelerating.  Thus, we can only assume that the technological change we have already witnessed is just a prelude for what is to come.   In the short term, we see the key technology drivers being
    Virtualization
    Storage Management
    High Definition Video
    Mobile Computing
    Wireless Networking
    High Speed Wired Networks/Optical Networks
    Security-related technologies
    Web Services

Paradoxically, 2006-07 was somewhat of a letup--like the eye of a hurricane.  Windows Vista  and Mac OS X Leopard were both delayed and won't be widely deployed across higher ed until at least Summer 2008.  Our desktop PC's are almost all Athlon 64's and are in good shape for the moment.  And so, we have been working to define the future computing environment at Goshen College--one that consolidates gains, leverages the improvements and new capabilities we have already put in place, and lays a solid foundation for adopting new, transformational technologies in the years to come. 

ITS Accomplishments for Academic Year 2006-07

Academics
o  The classroom masterplan was approved by the Academic Dean. 
o  A Khmer language class was successfully taught in Wyse 3rd using plowshares video conferencing equipment.  The teacher was from Northwestern.
o  Did broader testing of Moodle with GC faculty during Spring 2007.  Faculty are generally pleased, but don't like the gradebook.
o  AD 35 and CC 112 are getting multimedia upgrades during Summer 2007
o  CC 110 is getting an updated podium and lighting improvements during Summer 2007

Admission
o   Reworked the Early Registration Process around 20 new Dell Inspiron 1501 laptops.
o   Rolled out a document tracking system for student life/admissions that took most routine paperwork online for incoming students.  Mandy Yoder estimates that it saved $1,000-$1,500 in postage.

Labs
o  PC's were upgraded to Athlon 64-based PC's with 1 GB RAM and 20" LCD monitors during Summer 2006
o  Vista was evaluated for use in the labs and like most schools in the country we are holding off until at least Summer 2008 while Microsoft addresses new release glitches and third part software vendors update their software.
o  Mac OS X Leopard was delayed until October 2007, so a transition to the latest Mac OS will also likely wait until Summer 2008.
o  Carpeting is being installed in Library Lab Summer 2007.  This should quiet the room and make it easier to maintain.

Offices
o  Placed 30 Mac Minis in offices to replace aging PowerMac G4's.

Mobile Computing
o  Dealt with issues related to transition to daylight saving time in 2006 and the federally mandated move to earlier DST in 2007.
o  Equipped Jim Brenneman and Will Jones with Palm Treo 750P's.  Ryan Rittenhouse has been equipped with one as well to assist in providing better support to Will and Jim.  SyncML support has been added to Oracle Calendar to facilitate synchronization of appointments.
o  The laptop upgrade team recommended the purchase of 30 Lenovo Z61 laptops for campus PC laptop users.  This large purchase will reduce model diversity and lower maintenance and support costs.  The new models also have several security enhancements. These units are being placed during Summer 2007.

Printing
o  Placed several HP 2015DN printers, replacing aging HP LaserJet IV's.
o  Added a duplexers to Schertz and Library lab printers at the request of the EcoPax club in an effort to save paper.

ResNet
o  Upgraded to the latest version of CAT (Client Assessment Tool) to help ensure that student computers connecting to our network met minimum security requirements.
o   Introduced significantly improved documentation for ResNet users and RA's/RD's to help them get students connected to ResNet.
o   Re-architected the CableTV system to move from 3 systems down to 1.  Implementation for this is underway in Summer 2007.

Data Systems
o   Did some R&D work on an institutional reporting infrastructure using Jasper Reports and Pentaho.  Galen Graber's departure (Institutional Research) put that project on hold.
o   Renewed our Jenzabar support contract, eliminating several unnecessary modules.

ITS Media
o  Provided a high level of support (106 hrs) for the Brenneman Inauguration Weekend including PowerPoint and multi-mic setup + live video at the Friday Convo, portable sound and live video at the dunking, audio for Associates Breakfast (anything else?), 4 big screen TV's with custom DVD production, AV support and rehearsal for 5+ acts at the Brenneman bash + live sound.  Live sound for multiple musical events and live video and a feed to Greencroft at the Sunday inaugural.
o   Purchased a 42" Plasma display which has been heavily used for events and was sent to San Jose for the GC booth.
o   Funded a RedPost digital sign for community arts events outside the Welcome Center
o   Renovated Wyse 318 to rake seating and better facilitate Videoconferencing.
o   Partnered with SST office to purchase Filemaker Server Advanced, now hosting SST databases on ITSMedia Filemaker server
o   Upgraded EZ News (Television journalism software) server from Win XP on a PC 2002 to new hardware running Microsoft Server 2003
o   Responded to FAA and FCC allegations that WGCS was source of Air Traffic Control interference by providing proof of performance data
o   Audited WGCS compliance with FCC rules and created Chief Operating Officer (Dan Stutzman) role as mandated by FCC
o   implemented web based alarm and monitoring system to meet FCC requirements for Tower lights and transmitter power management
o   Completed installation and configuration of hardware and software related to new NPR content delivery system at WGCS
o   Researched, recommended and purchased equipment for new laptop deployment
o   Developed internal department Wiki for staff use
o   Supported (consulted, trained personnel, and prepared equipment) Peace and Justice Journalism trip led by Beth Martin Birky to Costa Rica
o   Developed concepts for San Jose booth, including utilization of the Wii video game console and Apple TV video playback device
o   Took over equipment management for the Record's Digital still cameras and consulted with Duane Stoltzfus on additional purchases
o   Upgraded fleet of digital still cameras
o   researched use of Boot camp and Parralells as tools for running Windows on Mac hardware
o   Supported field gear deployments for students creating award winning documentary Fuerza
o   Began conversations with College Mennonite Church to define AV support environment and to define contracts with outside vendors for support of college mennonite systems (rephrase)
o   Designed and installed new PA and music playback system for the Softball field
o   Added HDTV reception for Connector 3rd Projection television
o   Built fiber video link between Sauder and Greencroft
o   Rewired all existing Senior Apartments installing Cable drops in each bedroom (48 rooms)

Network Services
o   Dropped traffic shaping from our DS3 with no ill-effects.  We continue to wait for an acceptable plan for connecting to iLight.  Last mile connections have been funded by the state, so we anticipate this will happen in the next 12-24 months.
o   Oracle Calendar was upgraded to the latest version in August 2006.  It was a difficult upgrade and necessitated some manual data entry.  ITS provided student labor for the data entry to those who requested assistance.
o   Rolled out a bulk mailing solution for Admission and College Relations written by Ryan Rittenhouse.
o   Reworked the formatting of the Campus Communicator email so that it was easier to read
o   Upgraded dns.goshen.edu to current software and security standards.
o  Rolled out RoundCube webmail and retired Horde webmail.
o   Considered and rejected online ticketing with input from College Relations.  Alumni Services' priority is currently providing a high-level of service that would need to be compromised in some ways to go online.
o   We eliminated one T1 for our dial-up server and are in the process of phasing out dial-up service for students based on declining usage.  This saves the institution approximately $5,000 per year.
o  We have been upgrading our fiber optic backbone for improved Cable TV services and a 10 Gb ethernet backbone upgrade.  That project is scheduled to be complete Summer 2007.
o  We have done significant planning for our next generation network upgrade.   Initial funding for the project has been approved and a reasonable plan is taking shape for implementation during 2007-08.

Web
o   Implemented FlashChat for Admission to do scheduled online chats in Fall 2006.  The software worked well, but the chats were not well attended.
o   Online event sign-up for Alumni Homecoming Weekend debuted in Fall 2006.  The service was highly successful, enabling the alumni office to provide better information about attendance to class coordinators and saving around 40 hours in data entry and reporting labor.  The form for Fall 2007 has been updated and is ready for testing.
o   Updated www.goshen.edu to new hardware that is 2-4 times faster.
o   Rolled out alumni web services Fall 2006, including an online alumni directory, editable user profiles, messaging, newsnotes and information update.
o   Ported the campus Materials Safety Data Sheet database to the web, thereby making it accessible to the entire campus.
o   Rolled out FACTS e-cashier (online tuitions payments) for the Accounting office, Fall 2006
o   Added multi-lingual capabilities to Caravel to service the CITL website needs.
o  Created a simple  workflow application for Caravel that facilitates creating simple workflow applications.  A first instance for vacation/sick leave hours is currently in testing.
o   Set up BookNow for Follet's to streamline textbook ordering for students.
o   Set up initial CITL website.

Video
o  ITS Media assisted and supported Ron Johnson in doing a multi-camera webcast of men's and women's basketball
o  Provided systems, technical and logistical support for the second telecast of Festival of Carols which appeared on WNIT-TV
o  A comprehensive plan for video has been greenlighted with probable implementation for Fall 2007.

Security
o   A www security event caused us to rebuild www from scratch.  The root cause of the breach was a retired faculty member whose password was the same as his username. No serious damage was done, but it caused us a lot of work.
o   Our secure password policy became mandatory as a result of the www incident
o   Upgraded the campus to Sophos v6 which gave improved anti-spyware protection.
o   A security breech in May may have exposed sensitive personal data and triggered Indiana's new law requiring notification of such events.  There have been no known identity theft incidents resulting from the breech, but it has been a catalyst for examining data security practices at all levels of the institution.
o   Deployed a SonicWall VPN appliance to provide secure remote access to mobile PC users.

Planning/Administration
o  Revised the IT Advisory infrastructure.  The Admin Computing Committee has adopted the new model.  The Academic Computing Committee is still to be implemented.
o  Reconstituted the GC Web Team and updated strategic web planning documents, bringing new staff and leadership on board.
o  Established initial technology spending priorities for CITL

Personnel
o  Hired Kim Snyder as a half-time office supervisor for ITS Media
o  Sarah Mlotshwa (ITS Media) took a one month trip to Zimbabwe in September/October.  Dan Stutzman filled in during that time.
o  Todd Hershberger (ITS Media) resigned in Fall 2006.  He has replaced by Dan Stutzman.
o  Michael Sherer applied for and received approval for a sabbatical during the first half of 2008.
o  Paul Ortman took a one month leave from April to May.
o  Pete Oakley, Mac consultant, resigned effective July 29, 2007, after 9 years of service.  We are currently arranging coverage.

Conferences and Training
o  Jenzabar Admissions module training, attended by Paul Ortman
o  Educause 2006, Dallas, TX, attended by Michael Sherer
o  ICI Tech Summit, Terre Haute, IN, attended by Michael Sherer
o  EduTech, Dallas, TX, attended by Michael Sherer
o  Jam 2007, Orlando, FL, attended by Gordon Bontrager, Theo Budiardja and Michael Sherer
o  Labman 2007, Cincinatti, OH, attended by Kevin Gross and Pam Osborne

Key Performance Indicators
Staffing:  1997-1998  11 FTE   2007-2008  15.4 FTE
Computers:  1997-1998  300 Institutionally owned computers   2007-2008  851 Institutionally owned computers
Network:  1997-1998  950 live network ports   2007-2008  3500 live network ports
Supported Events:     1998-1999 = 180      2006-2007 = 670
Multimedia Classrooms:  1997-1998 = 8     2007-2008 = 32
Financial:  1997-1998 IT $/Student FTE = $665    2007-2008  IT $/Student FTE =  $1029 Est.   10 year average =  $982
Financial:  1997-1998 IT as a percent of total institutional budget - FA = 2.82%    2007-2008  IT as a percent of total institutional budget - FA = 3.91% Est.   10 year average = 4.44%
Tuition: 1997-1998  $11,450     2007-2008  $20,300

KPI Goals for 2007-08
ITS KPI Goals for 2007-08 are focused on expanding beyond quantitative data to qualitative data.  This will include service uptime and a simple customer satisfaction benchmark survey.

Review Goals for 2006-07
We made significant progress on last year's goals:
o  Understand and help achieve the goals and priorities of the new Brenneman administration.   We redid the ITS Strategic Plan to mirror the structure of the Campus Strategic Plan for 2005-2010.
o  Begin working with Departments on their Technology Plans, as called for in the 2005-2010 Strategic Plan.  This process was begun through the Administrative Computing Committee.
o  Successfully implement the new IT Planning/Advisory Infrastructure.  Administrative Computing is functioning and Academic Computing will start up this fall.
o  Continue to advance the Classroom Masterplan agenda.  The Master Plan was approved by the Dean in Fall 2006.  President's Council approved $40,000 in classroom upgrades for Summer 2007 based on the priorities growing out of the Classroom Master Plan document.
o  Promote and leverage Caravel's application development, content management and community building capabilities.  There have been many new departmental sites created using Caravel and many useful applications built using the form builder and e-commerce/event-signup tools.
o  Begin preparation for Vista and Mac OS X Leopard upgrades.  This is underway.
o  Evaluate and potentially implement Jasper Reports/iReport for enterprise-level reporting.  This project has been on hold since Galen Graber left.
o  Continue nurturing strategic relationships with key departments.  This is ongoing.
o  Sort out remaining issues with CALEA, iLight2, PCI compliance, other legislative mandates.  We have declared ourselves exempt from CALEA, iLight2 is still up in the air, PCI Compliance may become a hotter issue if Visa starts charging different rates for those places that are certified PCI compliant.
o  Continue to raise the profile of security and privacy issues both within ITS and in the user community.
o  Continue to demonstrate that external collaboration and entrepreneurial IT can generate value and revenue to help us achieve our IT goals. 

Challenges and Opportunities
As we look ahead to 2007-08 the challenges fall into 3 basic categories:
1)  Financial.  It's clear that we are going to upgrade our network backbone and building networks, but it's not clear that we can afford the network we'd like to have (HP, fully-managed, enterprise-grade equipment).  Dollars are tight across the institution and we need to be good stewards of the institution's resources, even as we work to make strategic investments that move the college forward towards the goals outlined in the campus master plan. 
2)  Technological.  The IT industry is in transition.  Virtualization is changing the way we think about servers, storage and desktop clients.  Microsoft's seemingly unstoppable grip on computing has been loosened by web technologies, Google, Apple, Linux, and a relatively tepid reception to Windows Vista.  There is talk of transitioning away from Windows in some quarters of academia, but at this point, no groundswell.  We can and will stay put for awhile, but will eventually need to make a decision here.  We have defined the future desktop computing model as a large LCD, keyboard and mouse attached to an indeterminate computing device.  Figuring out what that computing device or devices will be is one of the key challenges of the next 1-3 years.  These are questions without clear right or wrong answers.  Some directions could lead to lower cost computing models, others to greater flexibility and choice. 
3)  Human. Technology allows us each to raise our own game. Stepping up and doing it, and doing it as rapidly as our competitors is one of the key challenges going forward.  Embracing the best ideas and moving them forward rapidly and successfully is what we ALL need to be about. 
   
The opportunities are all about using technology to improve the way we teach, learn, administer and serve the campus computing.  Our efforts to strengthen the video infrastructure will have a dramatic impact on the Communications program, Public Relations and ASL, our investments in web services will continue to improve the way we provide services to our constituencies. 

2007-08 Goals and Strategies
We have identified the following goals for 2007-08
o  Complete an IT Infrastructure Plan that focuses the work of ITS Tech
o  Refocus the work of ITS Support around promoting strategic use of technology
o  Assist Communications and Public Relations in transitioning to HD video
o  Create a foundation for virtualized servers
o  Complete CableTV consolidation project
o  Complete our 21st Century Network upgrade
o  Transition from PowerPC to Intel hardware for Mac users
o  Continue working with Departments on their Technology Plans, as called for in the 2005-2010 Strategic Plan.
o  Launch the Academic Technology Committee
o  Continue to work at defining our preferred future desktop computing paradigms.
o  Continue to advance the Classroom Masterplan agenda
o  Continue to raise the profile of security and privacy issues both within ITS and in the user community.

Five Years Out
The ITS Strategic Plan sets forth a vision of a new "Age of Empowerment" where the convergences of unlimited processing power, storage, network and Internet bandwidth, ubiquitous digital media and Internet, low-cost/no-cost professional tools, open standards and Internet services combine to create a fundamentally new reality.  We expect that the infrastructure that drives that new reality to be significantly in place within five years.  The network upgrade is planned, the first phase of the storage infrastructure is in testing, processing power is already ahead of user demand in most cases.  Our hope is that through alignment and dialog with departmental and executive leadership we can help the college move institutional business processes, curriculum and pedagogy forward in ways that leverage these new opportunities to advance GC's strategic objectives and keep the college competitive with or ahead of our peer institutions.  This will take a sustained commitment across the institution to good planning and management and the larger college goals over the coming years if we are to realize our full potential.

Conclusion
ITS begins 2007-08 with renewed focus on the institution's top priorities, and a watchful eye on technologies that are emerging or in transition.  We believe the institution is making the necessary investments to help move the college forward and stay competitive with other schools, even in the context of tight budgets.  The new year will be one where we see significant updates to key technology infrastructure components--the network backbone, the storage infrastructure, the building networks, the CableTV system, the wireless network.  Our technology infrastructure defines the possible.  It is a launch pad for new, creative, innovative ideas, programs and activities for everyone on campus.  With a renewed emphasis on planning and prioritization, together we can advance departmental and institutional strategic objectives, and have fun doing it.