April 05, 2021 Meeting

Agenda

Information Technology Committee

Meeting Agenda

April 5, 2021, Monday, 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Zoom Meeting 

  1. Review Minutes from February 1, 2021 Meeting
  2. ITS / DE Technology Updates
  3. Information Security Discussion
    • Ransomware Hack
    • Security standards and practices discussion

Next Meeting: May 3, 2021

Minutes

Information Technology Committee Minutes

April 5, 2021

Zoom

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

The Information Technology Committee serves as the central focal point to examine technology planning and operations at Taft College. The Committee provides a forum for input from all campus constituents and acts as a resource with regard to technology planning and operational effectiveness. The Committee receives input, recommends areas of interest, analyzes technology effectiveness, and makes recommendations regarding technology-related matters including training needs. The Committee leads the development of the Technology Master Plan and provides annual updates to the plan.

Members Present:

Xiaohong Li, Marianne Castano Bishop, Amar Abbott, Rafael Andrade, Nikki Crane, John Dodson, Sharyn Eveland, Gus Gonzalez, Jessica Grimes, Dana Hicks, Leslie Minor, David Reynolds, Tiffany Rowden

Members Absent:   

Severo Balason, Mark Gibson, Abbas Jarrahian

Student Representative:

Zachary Carter – Absent 

Facilitator: 

Xiaohong Li

Recorder:

Dana Hicks

Meeting Called to Order:

The meeting was called to order at 4:05 p.m.

  1. Review Minutes from February 1, 2021
    • The committee approved the minutes from the February 1, 2021 meeting with no modifications. 
  1. ITS / DE Updates 
  • DE Updates: 
    • Canvas Updates
      • Bishop mentioned there are a couple of Canvas-related projects going on. The first project is the self-service portal which is in progress. The second project is the Canvas API through the CVC-OEI (CA Virtual Campus-Online Education Initiative) which will allow students from other community colleges to cross-enroll in our courses and vice-versa. 
    • Distance Education Staffing Updates
      • The full-time Integrated Technology Support Technician position has been filled. After a series of interviews with applicants (internal and external), Heather Cash was promoted to this position.
      • The full-time Distance Education Aide position is open and applications are being accepted. It is anticipated this position will start in June but hopefully sooner. When the full-time Aide is hired, there will be a total of three full-time DE staff members. DE will assess if a part-time DE Aide will be needed in the near future. 
    • Course Evaluations
      • Student course evaluations that were posted by DE staff in the Canvas shells of instructors scheduled to be evaluated this term end on April 23rd. There is a Survey Monkey link posted in Canvas for students to access the survey.
      • Bishop is drafting the DE Director course observation forms for the faculty scheduled to be evaluated this term. She emails her draft to each of these instructors which she and the instructor refer to when they meet in Zoom. She updates these forms based on the 1-to-1 meetings.  
  • Information Technology Updates 
    • Classroom AV Upgrade Project
      • According to Li, work on the “G” classrooms electrical began this week. She anticipates the AV upgrades in the “G” classrooms will be finished by end of April / early May. In addition, Li is hoping the entire project will be wrapped up by end of summer 2021. 
    • Data Center Project
      • The data center project, according to Li, will hopefully be completed by end of summer 2021. 
    • Student Email Project
      • This project was to start at the end of March, however, there was a delay due to the consultant’s heavier workload. New targeted start timeline is towards mid / end of April. 
  1. Information Security Discussion
  • Ransomware Hack
  • Security standards and practices discussion 
    • Li summarized a recent Ransomware event that occurred at Central Piedmont Community College. The college offices were shut down for almost two weeks, however, classes were not interrupted. The hackers tried to extort $40 million from the campus. Fortunately, the hired negotiator was able to reduce the ransom down to $500,000.
    • When Li was finished with summarizing Central Piedmont’s event, the committee discussed ways to tighten the campus’s information security. One resulting method after a lengthy discussion was for IT to implement a tiered system of administrative rights.
    • There was mention that a conversation occurred between Reynolds and Gibson about the tiered system. Li will speak with Gibson about the conversation outcome when he returns from medical leave.
    • Listing current administrative levels across campus, students using campus owned equipment are at the highest restrictive levels where they are unable to download and / or install any programs unless they contact Helpdesk for assistance. Classrooms also have their own privileges like students using campus-owned equipment. There have been isolated occasions where students have admin rights to download what they need. Abbott mentioned there are software programs on the market such as Deepfreeze that would help with locking computers down, rendering them completely unable to make modifications of any type.
    • The discussion moved to what security standards have been written and on file here at Taft College. Currently, there are no standards written and on file.  When standards are written, they will be tied along with the tiered system when developed. Li shared the policies implemented and displayed on Long Beach Community College District’s website. Eveland, after looking at the LBCCD’s policies, thought something similar can also be listed in Student and Faculty Handbooks and possibly escalated to the AP level. Minor suggested the policies should be part of IT’s Technology Master Plan rather than posting to Student / Faculty handbooks.
    • With regards to tiered levels, Eveland added that she thought the levels needed to go through testing before being implemented. She also thought the policies should be listed on IT’s website in the same manner as the Technology Purchasing Guidelines. 
  1. Future Topics to be Addressed
    • This topic was not on the agenda, but Amar raised a concern and a need for a technology budget to pay for professional development / training for IT staff. Their staff is small and there is a need for them to keep current on knowledge which will also benefit the entire campus.
    • The committee agreed with Amar and thought the VP of HR Heather del Rosario should be invited to a future meeting. 

The meeting concluded at 4:54 p.m.

Approved by the committee on 5/3/2021

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