Information Services Planning and Policy Development

  Life is exciting in Macalester College's Information Services departments. Our fields are undergoing rapid expansion, with new technologies and techniques developing constantly. We sometimes find ourselves facing thorny questions regarding our services, especially where the questions seem to have little or no precedent upon which to base reasonable answers.

  As we work toward defining what constitutes "reasonable" approaches to meeting new challenges, we believe it is critical for the members of the Macalester community to understand the issues we're grappling with, and for them to help us debate, discuss and choose the best ways to deliver service that is both excellent and manageable. On this page we post white papers and essays to help everyone understand what the issues and concerns are. We also post drafts of policy statements, guidelines and other documents for your consideration. Our goals are linked: as you come to better understand the challenges Information Services faces, we will benefit from your thoughtful feedback. Comment and discussion are not only encouraged: that's the purpose of this page.

  The links below lead to various postings which are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recently-posted document at the top. Each posting offers multiple methods for you to share your thoughts and comments with the author(s) and with the College committees, task forces or discussion groups (if any) currently grappling with that issue.

Current Postings

12/14/2004     E-Mail Situation Report
Poor e-mail performance continues to frustrate everyone. What is the nature of the problem? What is being done about it? How does the problem relate to current discussions concerning our planned e-mail migration? For answers to these and other questions about e-mail, please read our situation report.
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09/30/2004     CIT Summer Project List: Final Update
You may recall a list of summer projects and goals CIT published on July 6. That list was updated on August 18 to reflect then-current progress toward our goals (see below); a second and final update is now available. If you wonder what we did over the summer and how it might affect you, please take a look.
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09/22/2004     Open-Source Software In The News
Readers of the Chronicle of Higher Education may have noticed several articles in the past two weeks about open-source software. These articles describe how open-source tools can be deployed to fight spam, handle institutional finances and support teaching and learning, as well as other tasks. Many other colleges and universities have high hopes for open source. But is open source the panacea it might seem at first glance? What is CIT doing with/about open-source software? Please see Joel Clemmer's essay on the subject.
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09/08/2004     The Web Filenaming Issue
A recent server upgrade had unanticipated consequences for Web access to files in individuals' personal directories. Why? What can be done?
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08/18/2004     CIT Summer Projects: Status Report
Summer is a very busy time in CIT. Why? What are we doing, and how will our work affect you? Check out a comprehensive list of CIT summer projects. (Originally published July 6; most recent update August 18.)
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Archived postings