Meeting Minutes: October 7, 2009

Present: Joe Appelget; Gary Blievernicht; Stephen Blosser; Denise Forro; Virginia Martz; Graham Pierce; Jim Renuk;

  1. Blosser called the meeting to order at 3:15 p.m.

  2. Blosser advised Eulenberg may not be joining the meeting. Eulenberg Department Chair sends verbal support for continued involvement in the ATC CAFE, but may assign another representative from the department.

    Blosser requests more involvement from other departments on campus. Current representation on ATC CAFÉ includes: RCPD, IM Sports, MSU Libraries, undergraduate student rep., Broadcast services, and University Outreach and Engagement. A letter to Deans, Directors and Chairpersons to invite participation from their departments and learn about the resources and options on campus, could be sent from Dave Gift.

  3. ATC CAFÉ Membership: Blosser was nominated to continue as committee chair person, Blievernicht as vice-chairperson, and Martz as recording secretary. The motion to elect (Appelget; Forro) was accepted unanimously. Appelget advised a graduate student representative will be forthcoming from the Council of Graduate Students (COGS).
  4. Blosser reported working with several current students with disabilities with different challenges. Advised approximately 1000 students are registered with RCPD. Blosser is conducting more training, but faces challenges with different formats of academic materials and the structure of "online" course material. Blosser works with LON-CAPA, materials in PDF, etc. which can work well for screenreading technology and text reading technology. Blosser reported that new formats sometimes have security which "locks" the capabilities of screenreading/text reading technologies. CAFÉ members discussed a need to educate professors, publishers, and departments regarding formats or structures which can be used with screenreading/text reading technologies.
  5. Blosser requested information regarding Assistive Listening Device use on campus. Martz reported approximately 250 frequency modulated (FM) systems are available for use in MSU classrooms. The FM systems are being used to support remote realtime captioning services (a pilot project). Limitations include; frequency transmission (distance range from 20 ft - 100 ft) and lack of signage. Professors must use classroom microphone/amplification system for ALD to work. Audience questions need to be repeated by the professor/individual wearing the classroom microphone. 45 individual receivers are available for student and faculty use, with 15 of these units currently on loan to students.
  6. Blosser reported working with the micro lab. They are working towards creating virtual machines. The project was not ready for deployment and they are continuing to debug. The micro labs continue to use Rembo. The project was started because re-imaging the micro machine can take a half hour.
  7. Forro inquired regarding the timing of the APPR process. Blosser advised the APPR is due in December and advised committee members to bring proposals to the next ATC CAFÉ meeting on Wednesday, October 21, 2009.
  8. The meeting was adjourned (Appelget- moved, Renuk - second) at 4:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Virginia Martz, Recording Secretary