Unfinished Business —

Andi Back opened the meeting by asking committee members to briefly introduce themselves. Andi then invited Mary Walsh and John Rinnert for KU IT updates.

Rinnert provided the following announcements:

• This semester (Fall 2022) is the last semester that Blackboard will be in use at the KU Campus. Beginning January 2023, all courses will employ Canvas for course management. After a two-year transition, approximately 91% of the KU campus is using Canvas. Functionality in Canvas has been a bit of a hurdle (exp. grade book and assessments), but the benefits of providing Cloud support is a major benefit. Additional benefits of the full switch include the need for students to only access/manage one course management tool and KU IT having the opportunity to focus their efforts on Canvas, making integration easier in the long-term.
• Due to funding through KU Facilities Planning physical updates to approximately 12 rooms on campus are undergoing renovations. Once the physical updates to these rooms have been completed KU IT will have the opportunity to update technology in these rooms. At the moment there are supply chain issues, but orders have been placed. Rinnert also mentioned that with Kansas Government’s budget funding, 14-18 rooms will receive updates in FY 23. The KU Campus Master Plan has been helpful in informing future technology needs, for example the need for active learning spaces. The KU School of Business through their own funds will also be updating classrooms with advanced technology. This will improve the ability for KU to provide support and monitor building technology/data.

The ACEC committee moved to a discussion of Senate Charges (Standing and Specific) for FY 23.

FY 2023 Standing Charge #1

Mary Walsh suggesting tabling the discussion of this specific charge until the search for the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is finalized by the end of 2022. Other committee members agreed and the CISO will be invited to the next ACEC committee meeting.

FY 2023 Specific Charge #1

Tom Roderick began the discussion with referring to the presentation he gave for the ACEC committee in FY 22, which included IT Governance models from other large academic universities. In reviewing the FY 22 final report, Roderick stated many of the actions were in the works and the structure would evolve over the next year. Due to the ongoing work surrounding a new foundation for KU IT Governance, the ACEC committee agreed to invite Roderick to future meetings to receive updates and provide feedback. In the future committee members should consider the following points raised during the discussion. Walsh asked about how the ACEC committee would fit into the larger KU IT Governance structure if included, especially when considering the ACEC committee is focused more on campus experience versus applications. Rinnert suggested that the ACEC committee could perhaps fit into the scope of security. Szarka also raised concerns regarding the past outsourcing of KU IT Governance and the vulnerability of faculty/staff/student data. Roderick responded that there is complexity in who owns the data, who’s data it is, who is using the data, etc. Szarka followed by giving an example of Google Analytics, employed by Canvas. Google collects data via cookies, which is active unless turned off in this instance. It was noted that faculty is not able to access the data collected via Google Analytics about their students. A discussion ensued highlighting the complexity of making campus faculty/staff/students aware of data collection and transparency.

FY 2023 Specific Charge #2

Regarding employee confidential documents, Walsh reminded the ACEC committee that a conversation with HR was proposed FY 22. Andi will reach out to HR regarding this charge. Regarding student confidentiality, Zsolt Talata referred to a conversation in FY 22 regarding student email correspondence and encryption. Szarka began a discussion about the complexity of encryption (both in sending and receiving email). Discussion ensued about the complexities of encryption, that KU applications (Canvas) do not allow the use of a non-KU email, and that faculty/staff cannot control what applications students are using. Rinnert highlighted that specific charge #2 and #3 are related to KU being more transparent to how faculty/staff/student data is used.

FY 2023 Specific Charge #3

Talata highlighted that the KU Intellectual Property Policy was created over 15 years ago and needs to be reviewed/possibly updated to include more specifics regarding course materials/intellectual resources. The ACEC committee agreed to review the policy before the next meeting, at which time a discussion and possible recommendations could be made.

Regarding scheduling of future meetings, it was agreed to meet monthly, even if not for the whole hour, ensuring the work will remain a high priority for ACEC members.