UH-Victoria

Technology Services

2001-2005 UHV AGENCY I.T. STRATEGIC PLAN

 

Contact Person:     Joseph S. Ferguson
                             Information Technology Director
                             361-570-4391

I. Executive Summary


The University of Houston - Victoria 1999-2003 Information Resources Strategic Plan has been developed within the bounds of the university's mission and in conjunction with the on-going strategic planning process. Information resources and telecommunications will play a vital part to the success, growth, and development of the university during the next five years. The goal of this plan is to document the efforts we will take to improve the quality, timeliness, efficiency, and customer satisfaction of information resources and services.

 

The University of Houston - Victoria provides support for information resources throughout the campus through in-house services, out-sourcing, and inter-agency contracts, providing those resources in the most cost effective manner to meet the goals of the university, the UH System, and the State of Texas.


The university's overall IR strategy is two-fold:

  1. Provide efficient and effective information resources for our students, faculty, staff, and community partners,

  2. Use technology to improve or expand our ability to deliver educational resources to our customers.

II. Introduction/IR VIision


Current IR Status


The University of Houston - Victoria currently provides computer and telecommunication support for faculty, staff, students, and administrators primarily through the Information Technology Department. This department is responsible for providing those resources in the most cost effective manner to meet the goals of the institution, the UH System, and the State of Texas. Those responsibilities include: the operation and maintenance of academic and administrative server systems, microcomputers, campus network operations, telecommunications services (including the support and operation of the university's PBX switch), and interactive video operations; operation and supervision of six microlabs and two special projects rooms supporting academic computing; providing a variety of training courses for faculty and staff on software and technology topics; developing and maintaining application programs and data access applications in support of administrative functions; and assisting in the development and implementation of information resources strategic policies and procedures.


The primary challenge for this institution involving information resources centers around a geographically diverse student base, an active faculty, and evolving technologies. This challenge will involve the technological leap required to maintain and expand support of distance education in the transmission of instruction through Internet-accessible on-line courses and interactive video technology, and maintain those services in a reliable and effective manner. The University of Houston - Victoria is in the process, along with the other components of the University of Houston System, of implementing on-line courses for whole programs, along with interactive courses in support of specific geographical areas of our service region. The challenge here is to recognize opportunities and to act upon them to increase the availability of instruction to remote audiences. An additional challenge is to provide the staff support and technology resources needed to encourage innovative uses in support of instructional activities, research and development, and institutional information distribution.


A second challenge is the transition to an integrated administrative system to support financial, student, and human resources. The University of Houston - Victoria is in the process, along with the other components of the University of Houston System, of implementing PeopleSoft application for that purpose. The University of Houston System is spearheading this project, and UH-V is integrally involved in the planning and implementation of this system.


A third challenge is the extension of Library services to meet the needs and demands of the changing technology and changing geographical locations of our students. The Library is planning ongoing enhancements of the Library Automation System, which is shared with Victoria College and the Victoria Public Library; expanding access to Library resources for all students independent of their location; improving and expanding library resource sharing among the UH System components; and taking full advantage of all resources available through Tex-Share, the state library resource sharing program.


This strategic plan outlines our approach to each of these challenges.


Table 1: Goals, Objective, and Strategies

 

Item Description
Goal 1. Teaching and Learning UHV will provide high-quality instruction and learning support in selected degree programs, with emphasis upon outreach, collaboration, and responsiveness to the needs of place-bound students.

This goal addresses the State Strategic Plan under Goal 2: Texas state government will enhance the performance of its agencies' mandates, missions, and core competencies through application of information resources.
Objective 1 Continue to expand outreach delivery of academic programs.
Strategy 1 Expand online and online-supplemented offerings, committing the necessary resources for faculty training and technical support.
Objective 2 Continue to provide effective learning support and related services to students and faculty at off-campus locations, in quality commensurate with that afforded on-campus students and faculty.
Strategy 2 Maintain support of Internet and LAN servers to support access to online courses by students at any Internet-accessible location.
Objective 3 Continue to provide faculty and staff orientations and training opportunities, especially in the use of administrative and instructional technologies and systems.
Strategy 3 Maintain support of training sessions for faculty and staff in all general categories of technology applications.


Table 2: Information Resources Policies and Practices

 

IR Priorities During the institution's formal process of strategic planning, planning for IR is included. The Director of Information Technology sits on the President's Cabinet and makes recommendations to that body based on information and requests from all areas of the university's organization. Our Information Resources and Technology Committee solicits input from all areas of the university and prioritizes those items received. Recommendations from these two entities are submitted in priority order for review by the President's Cabinet, and are then submitted, with changes recommended by the Cabinet to the Budget Committee for funding approval. The Budget Committee is made up of the President, the Vice-President for Academic Affairs/ Provost, and the Vice-President of Administration and Finance.
IR Planning Methodology The Director of Information Technology makes recommendations to that body based on information and requests from all areas of the university's organization. Our Information Resources and Technology Committee solicits input from all areas of the university and prioritizes those items received. Recommendations from these two entities are submitted in priority order for review by the President's Cabinet, and are then submitted, with changes recommended by the Cabinet to the Budget Committee for funding approval.
Operating System The institution currently supports the following operating systems: Alpha OpenVMS,

Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT

Mac OS 8, 2000

Linux

Development Methodology All major administrative applications have been outsourced to the University of Houston, so no formal software development methodology is in place at this institution. No case tools are in use at the institution.
Software Audit and Management All campus-wide software purchases are centralized in the Information Technology Department. An annual inventory of installed software is made to insure compliance with software licensing.
Quality-Assurance Practices Risk management policies and procedures have been developed and approved as part of the university's Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual and our Risk Management Manual.
E-Government All major administrative applications have been outsourced to the University of Houston, so all plans and activities involving receiving forms and accepting payments through the Internet are handled by that agency.
Security Security policies have been developed and approved as part of the university's Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual and our Risk Management Manual. An Information Security Risk Analysis has been completed and documented.
Geographic Information Systems There are no GIS systems located at this institution, and no plans to implement any during the course of this plan's life.
Disaster Recovery/ Business Continuity Planning The university has developed and approved a Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan and our agency's Risk Management Manual. Our plan includes the interagency agreement we have with the University of Houston for off-site processing and support of disaster/ recovery operations.
Resource Use Policies have been developed and approved as part of the university's Administrative Policies and Procedures Manual and are published in the Student Handbook to identify the proper usage of our information resources. Operational policies and procedures have also been developed for interactive video operations and usage, including use of these resources by other state agencies.
Information Sharing Data is shared with other agencies and other external entities when a formal request is made to the department/school that is responsible for that data. When approved, Information Technology personnel assist with the data transfer in the requested or approved format.
Training and Continuing Education Individual departments and divisions set priorities for and plan for training needs within the unit, including Information Technology for information resources positions. Training information on all employees are documented on an annual personnel evaluation and maintained in each employee's personnel folder.
Data Center Operations With all major administrative applications having been outsourced to the University of Houston, there is no necessity for this service for this institution.

 

Table 3: Agency Platforms, Systems, and Telecommunications

 

Category Type Operating System Database Management System Capacity/ Size/ Count Comments/ Descriptive Information
Mainframe N/A        
Minicomputer DEC Open VMS N/A 2  
Network         Current topology: 10/100 switched Ethernet
LAN Servers (central) PC NT N/A 9  
LAN Servers (remote) N/A        
LAN Client/ Workstations (central) PC

Mac		 Win 98

Mac OS 8		 N/A

N/A		 250

8		  
LAN Client/ Workstations (remote) N/A        
WAN Servers Mail

Web, DNS

 Open VMS

NT

 N/A 2

2

  
Stand alone Workstations None        
Internet Service Provider VIRO via UH       University of Houston
Shared Network



 Owned: UH-V       University related network supported by interconnecting data lines via GSC's
TEX-AN lines.

 

Table 4: Agency Databases

 

Database Name Financial Aid DB
Database Description Database to store and retrieve financial aid data on students at UHV. Primary users are Financial Aid Office personnel.
Database System PowerFAIDS on Sybase
Estimated Physical Storage Requirements Now: 150 MB.

Two to five years: 500MB to 1.0 GB
GIS Data Classification N/A
Sharing Data is shared with other UHV major applications which reside at UH. Data sharing is primarily through regular data transfers.
Future As the PeopleSoft implementation occurs, we will determine if that application will support our needs for financial aid, and if so, we could convert to that application. A timeframe for that is unknown, but probably not within the scope of this plan.

No plan for GIS functionality is anticipated.

 

Table 5: Agency Applications

 

Application Name Name and acronym of the application
Application Type N/A

 

Table 6: Interagency Data Needs

 

List None known.

 

 

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