Strategy:  Provide the physical facilities, information resources and technology infrastructure necessary to achieve national and international distinction and leadership in learning, discovery, and engagement.

Point People:  Peter Yellowlees, Marilyn Sharrow, John Meyer, Stan Nosek

NOTE:  The second-year implementation report for this strategy is divided into four parts:  information and educational technology, library, campus operations, and capital projects.

INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Narrative Summary of Second Year Implementation Efforts:

In support of the UC Davis strategy to “provide the physical facilities, information resources and technology infrastructure necessary to achieve national and international distinction and leadership in learning, discovery, and engagement,” our campus pursued several initiatives and made a number of advances during the 2005-06 academic year.  The section below identifies the partnerships that have developed in support of this strategy, as well as the efforts IET and other campus units to facilitate the development and implementation of business applications, collaborative research programs, and flexible educational technology resources.

Advances and ongoing programs consistent with strategy in support of improving the campus IT infrastructure and enterprise delivery of IT solutions across the campus:

·        Campus Emergency Technology Infrastructure (IET/Emergency Management Group/UCDHS)

IET contributed expertise and resources in support of the campus emergency preparedness plan. Activities in this area include: developing IET business continuity plans as well as several technology-related planning guideline documents; coordinating with UC Davis Health System to ensure mutual support in an emergency; and investigating technology-based options for communication and notification support during an emergency.  

·        Campus Email Infrastructure

A multi-phase, multi-component plan is underway to improve campus email architecture and services.

o       Anti-spam, anti-virus measures.  With 60 million email messages being processed through the campus email servers each month and spam representing 75 percent of all email processed centrally, protecting the campus against spam and viruses was the focus of several measures this year.  Steps include a request for proposal (RFP) for a commercial email anti-spam/anti-virus and SMTP routing solution, and several technical enhancements to the campus spam filtering system. A proposal for further enhancements to the campus email architecture is under discussion with the campus community.

o       Email storage and access.  The next phase of the email upgrade plan is to evaluate options for mail storage, as well as Web-based email solutions.  For a description of these projects and updates, see http://email.ucdavis.edu.  

o       Email forwarding for life.  In fall 2005, a new Web-based application was rolled out that allows graduates, retirees, and others to have their email forwarded, upon leaving the university, to another address.

·        Centralized Infrastructure Services

o        Centralized Active Directory and Exchange Services (Office of Administration/IET). IET and Office of Administration collaborated to develop a centralized campus Exchange service as an augmentation to the existing campus Active Directory Service.  Approximately 1,400 Office of Administration staff members from eight departments are now using Exchange for their email, calendaring, and file sharing.  IET has started to convert 350+ users.  Other units using centralized Exchange services:  Office of Research, Office of Resource Management and Planning, and Student Affairs.  Several other departments are planning to join.

o        Identity management.  A workgroup was established to prepare an identity management architecture and migration strategy for UC Davis.  The resulting system will support user registration functions, account provisioning/deactivation, authentication, authorization by individual and groups, and campus needs for federated authentication.

·        Telecommunications & Networking Infrastructure

o        Telecommunications Master Plan.  This plan is being developed to provide the campus with a strategic document that outlines telecommunications investments necessary to meet evolving campus needs.

o        Firewall Services.  The agreement with Netscreen provides a range of firewall solutions to campus departments.  In addition, a Netscreen 5200 firewall has been installed between ResNet and the campus network.

o        Wireless Guest Access.  Introduced in January, this wireless network improvement allows staff and faculty to sponsor a visiting guest wireless access to the Internet for up to 30 days, renewable in 7-day increments.

o        Virtual Private Networks.  A workgroup was formed to review virtual private network (VPN) technology and suggest how this technology might be applied to serve UC Davis released its findings and recommendations.  In addition to providing recommendations, the group studied issues related to VPN technology and identified preliminary costs for adopting both a commercial and an open-source solution.

o        UC Davis White Pages <http://listings.ucdavis.edu/> (IET/University Communications/UCDHS).  Kicked off in early January 2006, this project will introduce a new Web-based mechanism for departments to review and edit employee listings, and for users to update their own online and print directory listings.  The application was made available to departments in early Fall 2006.  Roll-out to UCD staff, students, and faculty is expected in December.

·        UC Davis Policies

o        Web Policy (September 06).  This new policy defines requirements for a broad range of Web site content and practices, including: privacy; branding; timeliness and accuracy of content; availability of contact information; browser support and technology standards; and accessibility.

o        Electronic Communications Policy (May 2006).  The Electronic Communication Policy was revised to ensure consistency with the UC-wide Electronic Communication Policy, and to make the policy more clear and succinct for campus users.  The policy was split into two sections: acceptable use, and privacy and access.

·        New Software Agreements for Campus Use

o        Free Endnote Bibliographic Software.  Three-year agreement for UC Davis students, faculty, and staff.

o        Free Online Music Service (Student Housing/IET)  In October 2006, through a one-year agreement with the Cdigix online music service, UC Davis students were provided access to a few and legal music subscription service. (http://getlegal.ucdavis.edu)

o        Free Anti-virus Software.  A contract was awarded to Sophos to provide free anti-virus software for five years all campus departments, faculty, staff and students.  This contract will cover servers, stand-alone computers, hand-held devices, and home-use privileges.  Instructions for downloading and use of the Sophos anti-virus software are expected to be available before the end of November.  (http://security.ucdavis.edu)

o        Lower Mathematica Costs.  Mathematica software is in the third-year of a three-year licensing agreement.  The price has been lowered for this year.  A departmental site license is being provided this year.

o        Server Licenses for Statistical Software.  Server licenses will be available for Systat products; this will allow computer labs and departments to police the number of licenses used at once.

Advances and ongoing programs in support of strengthening campus information technology security:

·        UC Davis Cyber-safety Program

o        Reporting.  The first annual campus Cyber-Safety IT Security reports were submitted in October 2005. Overall, the reports demonstrated a satisfactory level of security across campus departments.  July-September 2006 was the timeframe for the next round of reports.  This year, almost 200 surveys were completed using a secure online reporting tool.

o        Policy Updates.  Revisions proposed by the campus workgroup tasked with reviewing the UC Davis Cyber-safety Program policy were adopted in July.  Changes to the policy included the addition of two new security standards, reprioritization of the list of standards and language clarification.

·        New Security Software Solutions

• Vulnerability Scanning.  Currently under evaluation, SecureConnect may be added to the suite of campus tools supporting the UC Davis Cyber-safety Program policy by helping the campus prevent vulnerable computer systems from accessing the campus network and introducing new threats.  The scanning system is being considered for campus residential and wireless networks.
• Searching for Personal Information.  In support of one of the highest cyber-safety priorities is protecting personal information, the campus will provide the Cornell University Spider search utility, an open-source software product, and PowerGREP, a commercial software solution, to search computers for data such as Social Security numbers.
• Encryption.  Two encryption products are now available under UC Office of the President system-wide contracts: Pointsec (whole disk encryption) and Credant (folder encryption).  IET will fund and implement a central Pointsec encryption service. Initial services are expected in October 2006.
• Auditing Tool.  The Web-based self-directed Nessus scan tool was made available to help technical staff assess the level of cyber-safety compliance in their VLANs.  Technical staff can scan their VLAN or specific systems on their VLAN with the full complement of Nessus “safe” plug-ins.
• Computer forensics.  UC Davis has entered into an agreement with Guidance Software concerning forensic and enterprise consulting services.  Through this contract, UC Davis may authorize Guidance Software to provide computer forensic investigation, electronic discovery, consulting and/or data recovery and retrieval services.

Advances and ongoing programs in support of enhancing the campus educational technology infrastructure and programs:

·        Sakai Learning Management and Collaboration System (IET/Veterinary Medicine/Medicine).

In partnership with the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, IET is preparing to implement Sakai , an open-source application that will power UC Davis’ new learning management and collaboration system by Fall 2007.  Early adopters include research units interested in using collaborative tools to manage their projects, graduate students wishing to organize their dissertations, and instructors constructing courses they plan to teach.  The School of Veterinary Medicine will be rolling out Sakai to all courses, faculty, and students this fall.

·        Faculty Merit and Promotion (Academic Personnel/IET). 

Modifications to the MyInfoVault application and the transition from the Health System to campus servers were completed in September 2005.  Following this transition, the extended pilot was launched.  In 2005-2006, the system was tested with pilot departments through at least one merit and promotion cycle.  Development and implementation of several architectural changes are underway.  By late April, 102 departments and 2,263 accounts were participating in the pilot.

·        New technologies in support of instruction

o        Digital Lecture Recording and Podcasting.  The digital recording and podcasting pilots conducted in Fall 2005, Winter 2006, and Spring 2006 proved extremely successful.  The demand for lecture recordings continues to grow.  The system has been featured in several publications.

o        iTunes U (IET/Office of the President/Apple).  This summer, the Office of the President and Apple reached a preliminary agreement to join iTunes U, a program that organizes a university’s audio, text, and multimedia files and makes them available to faculty and students at no charge.  A Service Level Agreement (SLA) for a general public iTunes U site is under review.

o        Online Collaboration/Communication Tools.  This spring, a pilot was conducted to evaluate Breeze Meeting as a communications and collaboration tool for instruction, research, and business meetings.  A second pilot with a competitive product, Elluminate, will be conducted this fall.  A decision on which application UC Davis will support is expected by December.

o        Personal Response System.  A group of UC Davis instructors and staffers selected InterWrite’s Personal Response System this summer.  Having a single Personal Response System will benefit students by allowing one clicker to work in all UC Davis classes.

·        Classroom Technology Infrastructure

This year, several computer room upgrades and renovations as well as a wide range of general assignment classroom enhancements (digital recorders in lecture halls, data projectors in 86 classrooms, additional media cabinets, new audio speakers, etc.) took place.  In addition, IET lent expertise and support for two major campus collaborative initiatives:

o        UC Davis Health System Center for Education.  This facility will provide space for expanded library and teaching facilities including classrooms, lecture halls, clinical skills training and assessment facilities, computer labs, and multipurpose conference/teaching rooms.  Classes should begin in January 2007.

o        Bioinformatics Lab.  The College of Biological Sciences has transferred management of the Bioinformatics Lab to IET.  The lab, which has 36 workstations, will be used primarily as an open-access computer lab but will hold occasional classes.

Advances and ongoing programs in support of enhancing the campus research infrastructure:

·        High-Performance Computing Support (IET/CCSE/ORMP).

In Fall 2005, a faculty survey indicated a growing demand for high-performance computing resources, a demand that is outgrowing the existing Data Center and other associated space.  Resource Management and Planning, IET, and Architects and Engineers have agreed to develop a feasibility study to investigate alternatives for augmenting the Data Center machine room and to design a new facility.  In the meantime, in August, a new transformer was installed to allow for additional cooling systems and servers (including high-performance servers that support research efforts).

·        Electronic Research Administration System (Office of Research/IET).

eRA will enable system-to-system submissions of federal grants.  The campus Contracts and Grants database was replaced during the first phase of the project.  The second phase—Proposal Development—will begin in November.

Short Statement of Plans for 2006-07:

In 2006-07, one of the top priorities will be to engage the campus community in the planning, development and implementation of key technology initiatives, including in the following areas:

·        Strategic information technology planning for UC Davis;

·        Campus IT infrastructure planning and enterprise delivery of IT solutions across the campus;

·        Planning and delivery of campus educational technology infrastructure and services;

·        Infrastructure and resources in support of campus research programs; and

·        Cyber-safety awareness campaign and verifiable compliance of standards.

·        For updates on campus information technology planning activities, see http://vpiet.ucdavis.edu.

Sample Metrics for 2005-06

  LIBRARY

Narrative Summary of Second Year Implementation Efforts:

The General Library continued to employ strategies targeted at sustaining the strength of library collections and the provision of the latest technological tools and instructional programs that facilitate efficient access to them.  The Library made a concerted effort in 2004-05 to provide welcoming library facilities that continue to draw hundreds of thousands of patrons annually.  

The library also continued to meet and succeed in confronting the challenges of the budget, with a particular focus on the provision of the research materials needed by faculty, patient care professionals, academic staff and students.  Challenges related to the acquisition and provision of research materials include the continuing trend to report out information in a broadening array of formats (i.e., 50% of new research information is now acquired electronically) while sustaining cost increases for their acquisition.

The library made a conscious effort in 2004-05 to proceed with the hiring of subject specialist librarians and support staff to fill in behind multiple retirements that had occurred over the past two academic years as well as to meet patron assistance to access research information increasingly provided through online vendor gateways.

The library made a concerted effort in 2004-05 to maximize the skills and proficiencies of librarians and support staff through professional development and training.  In particular, additional systems support staff were hired with skills that have boosted the effectiveness and reliability of library automation products and security of library records. 

Advances and Ongoing Programs Consistent with the Strategy

Academic and support staff enhancement

Academic and support staff retirements and the increasingly sophisticated skill sets required to assist patrons access newly acquired research points out the essential need to maintain a strong and well trained cadre of library employees.  As a result, librarians in the humanities and social sciences, the physical and health sciences, instruction, and technical services were recruited and appointed after national searches were conducted.  A review and assessment of librarian subject knowledge was completed in order that professional skills were closely matched to the most appropriate area of campus research or curricular endeavor (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/ul/about/subspec/).  In 2004-05, four new academic hires illustrate this advancement in library professional support, with an additional four recruitments in progress continuing into 2005-06.  If current recruitments are successfully completed, the General Library’s cohort of academic librarians will number 51, which will still be 11 FTE lower than it was in the early 1990s.

Recruitments completed in 2004-05

1.0 FTE Humanities/Social Sciences Librarian
2.0 FTE Instruction Librarians
1.0 FTE Health Sciences Reference, Instruction, and Outreach Librarian

Recruitments continuing into 2005-06

1.0 FTE Department Head, Biological/Agricultural Sciences
1.0 FTE Physical Sciences & Engineering Librarian
1.0 FTE Humanities/Social Sciences Librarian
1.0 FTE Biological/Agricultural Sciences Librarian

In addition, 15 FTE support staff have been hired including 2.0 FTE in support of the General Library Systems Department and a 1.0 FTE Library Development Officer to ensure that the library contributes to and benefits from the UC Davis Capital Campaign.

• Instruction Program

 In support of the General Library’s priority to support access to collections and research materials in 2004-05, the instruction program was elevated to Department status, a department head appointed and two additional academic FTE assigned to support user education (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/instruc/).

Approximately 10,000 patrons attended instructional sessions sponsored by the Instruction Department in 2004-05.

• Budget Challenges

The Library has successfully met the challenges of providing information resources to scholars while living within confines of budget appropriations by:

• wise use of salary savings
• collection assessments to be sure materials acquired met research and curricular priorities of the campus
• working with faculty and the Academic Senate Committee on Library to minimize the number of duplicate format journal titles and to reduce print journal titles of lesser need. The General Library’s support of scholarship remains strong and vital (http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/ul/about/colltran/). 

In 2003-04 and 2004-05, General Library collection expenditures approximated $7 million.

• Technology Enhancements

Effective use of an extensive array of information and research tools is dependent on state-of-the-art technology and software.  The library continues to make significant advancements in this regard in support of scholars.

• The Ex Libris software supporting the Harvest Catalog (harvest.lib.ucdavis.edu)) has been upgraded twice since January 1, 2004.  Software upgrades provide greater efficiencies in access to scholarly information held in General Library collections and reduce drastic learning curves when new software enhancements are implemented as soon as they are in production (i.e., the transition from the current version 16 to version 17 scheduled for September, 2005 will be less dramatic for the patron than jumping from version 15 to version 17).
• The General Library website continues to evolve to provide an effective roadmap to library and university services. 
• The General Library has more than 221 public service workstations.  The technology at these workstations is upgraded on a three-year replacement cycle.  As a result, by the end of academic year 2004-05 all monitors at public service workstations were equipped with 17” flat panel displays and all PCs have 2.8 GHz processors.  
  

• Facilities Improvements

More than one million patrons entered General Library facilities in 2004-05.  In order to meet their expectations for a welcoming environment and ease of efficiency of collection use, the following advancements were made:

• Worn out library furniture and carpeting have been replaced, jointly accomplished with funds from the General Library and the campus Facilities Services Division
• Electrical service capacity has been increased providing more places for patrons to plug in laptops and associated devices
• Additional wireless access points have been installed

2005-06 Planning Statement

Efforts to support and advance the campus Strategic Plan will continue to focus on methods the General Library can employ to meet the expectations articulated in its 2005-06 Mission Statement and Unit Priorities.  Many of these efforts will carry the same emphasis as the advancements made in 2004-05: 

• Continue to hone reference service, collection development practices and instructional services
• Continue to explore, develop and implement new technologies that promote effective use of collections acquired for campus scholars (i.e., the implementation of voice over internet protocol capability at library reference desks)
• Continue to make effective use of the library’s budget in such a way that campus programs of excellence and emerging distinction are sustained
• Continue to grow the skills of librarians and staff in support of campus scholars needing assistance accessing and applying library collections
• Continue to recruit and hire the best and the brightest librarians and support staff as current staff retire or relocate
• Continue to provide library facilities that are welcoming and responsive to scholars’ needs

CAMPUS OPERATIONS

Narrative Summary of Second Year Implementation Efforts:

Excellent physical facilities are essential for learning, discovery, and engagement, as reflected in the standards of university accrediting agencies.  Over the last year, the Office of Administration worked in partnership with academic units to help prepare for three accreditation reviews.

·        The campus attained full AAALAC accreditation following a comprehensive renovation of the campus’s animal care program, including extensive policy and procedure development, faculty and staff training, establishment of a new employee health program, and inspection and evaluation of every animal facility and lab housing area.

·        A cooperative effort between Office of Administration and the School of Veterinary Medicine to refurbish existing facilities enabled the School to expand their teaching, research, and public service activities and earn full accreditation from AAVMC.

·        The School of Law and Office of Administration collaborated to improve King Hall in preparation for the school’s successful accreditation review by the American Bar Association.

To accommodate enrollment growth and new research opportunities, we are in an unprecedented period of construction and renovation activity.  Even as the buildings go up and existing space is remodeled, Office of Administration is working to improve major and minor capital processes:

·        Representatives from Architects and Engineers, Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities: Operations and Maintenance, Fire Department, and Resource Management and Planning established a planning work group to coordinate building projects more efficiently.

·        We employed innovative construction delivery methods to shorten construction timelines and shift responsibility for quality, cost and schedule adherence to project contractors.  Several projects using this approach are currently in design or construction.

·        We initiated a structured process improvement program in a variety of areas associated with building construction and renovation, including contracts, agreements, funding requests, and quality control of contract documents.