Reporter Volume 25, No.12 November 18, 1993

By MARK WALLACE
Reporter Staff

Creating a vision for the development of the computing environment at
UB over the next five years, and a plan on how to achieve this vision,
will be the goal of the Academic Computing and Communications Advisory
Committee (ACCAC), Associate Provost Sean Sullivan told the FSEC last
week.
	UB is becoming a place where everyone has, or will have,
access to a variety of computer services, Sullivan said. In an
environment marked by complex and numerous types of computer services,
it is important to consider alternative ways of providing those
services, he said. "We have to clarify and change, so that we can
serve you better," Sullivan told the FSEC. He suggested that Computing
and Information Technology might coordinate local computing staffs,
rather than serving all needs directly. UB should consider "different
ways of conceiving support" that do not need a central organization
"to do it all," he said.
	According to Sullivan, ACCAC's vision statement should include
a comprehensive strategy for communications services, systems, and
infrastructure development, for building "distributed computing"
(computing done at the desktop of the local user) resources and
support services, and for distributing information resources and
specialized computing and multimedia technologies and products to meet
the diverse needs of the UB community.
	The vision statement should also describe a computing
development decision-making process that involves local and central
planners and decision makers, sets minimum standards to ensure
compatibility across UB as well as facilitating efficient use of
limited resources, coordinates effectively with UB's budget planning
and resource allocation process to influence allocation
decision-making, and identifies and determines strategies for pursuing
all sources of revenue and all forms of creative financing to meet the
goals and objectives of the vision statement, Sullivan reported.
	Sullivan's report said that the finalized vision statement
should be prepared by Feb. 1, 1994. It is crucial, he said, that the
statement take the costs of its vision into account. "We don't want to
develop a vision statement which can't be implemented because we can't
afford it," he said.
	According to Hinrich Martens, associate vice president for
Computing and Information Technology, the central administrative
committee for the handling of computer services at UB is PACCIT
(Priorities for Administrative Computing and Communication in
Information Technology), which oversees priorities and subcommittee
activities that govern computer services at UB. PACCIT oversees a
number of subcommittees that deal with particular parts of UB's
computing systems, including business systems, student systems,
general support systems, and future technologies, as well as
overseeing a number of committees concerned with issues of data
access, Martens said.
	Roger Burton of Psychology said that he didn't feel that
Computing and Information Technology "did it all," and asked "Why have
a wonderful computing system but no one who can tell us how it works?"
	Sullivan responded that while people need some place to go
when "stumped" on the local level, there is not enough of a central
organization to meet all such needs. He said also that a package about
data access to computing services at UB had been sent out to each
faculty and school.
	Sullivan said that the priorities of the computing services
system are, in order of importance, to get the information
infrastructure into place, to serve new faculty, to support
instructional programs and research, and to provide library access and
access to administrative systems.
	Dennis Malone of Electrical and Computer Engineering asked
what percentage of the total computing budget was spent on academic
and administrative computing. Martens responded that a survey had
shown that roughly 65-75 percent of the budget was spent on academic
computing.
	Richard Lesniak, director of academic services, said that his
charge is to organize centralized computing support, and that his
organization is currently "straddling" two models of such support, a
centralized model and a more local one. He is currently working on
instructional computing, information resource goals, and basic
computer services problems, he said.
	In terms of instructional computing, Lesniak said that he is
improving student access to microcomputing, updating the VAX cluster,
putting computer clusters in the dorms, developing classrooms that
have computer technology available as well as a program on how to
learn various technologies, and working with off-campus customers. In
terms of information resource goals, Lesniak said that he is trying to
put the information technology literacy agenda in the forefront, and
that he is encouraging partnerships and joint projects in this area.
He is also dealing with basic problems such as aging instructional
computers and access priority questions for academic systems, he said.
	Maureen Jameson of Modern Languages and Literatures noted that
there are many non-university users on UB's central system, and
wondered if that created "tension."
	Lesniak responded by saying that there is such tension, and
that UB is trying to figure out a model for what their support system
role is to the community.
	Wayne Bialas, chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on
Computer Services, said that "every time I discuss computer services
with the faculty, I hit a nerve right away." Bialas said that he
thought that the ACCAC should take a more strategic, global view of
computer issues, including issues of availability and access, and the
question of how much UB wants to be on the cutting edge of changing
computer technologies. He said that he also feels that library
computer information should be part of the academic rather than
administrative infrastructure.
	"What is the role of a centralized computer network in a
decentralized environment?" Bialas asked. He said that a key question
for the future would be how to extend computer services at UB to
students and the outside world. 
	"Computing technology is going to become pervasive, whether we
like or not, and whether we're ready for it, or not," Bialas said.