Campus Profile: Brigham Young University Copyright 1993 CAUSE From _CAUSE/EFFECT_ Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 1993. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear,and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission.For further information, contact CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301, 303-449-4430, e-mail info@CAUSE.colorado.edu Campus Computing Environment BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY ************************************************************************ This article is based on a visit to Brigham Young University by editor Julia Rudy. The Campus Computing Environment department of CAUSE/EFFECT regularly focuses on the computing and information technology environment of a CAUSE member institution, to promote a better understanding of how the information technologies are organized, managed, and used in colleges and universities of various sizes and types. ************************************************************************ In 1875, Brigham Young deeded land in Provo, Utah, to be used for the establishment of a school of higher education sponsored by the Mormon Church. Today, Brigham Young University has grown to become the nation's largest private university, serving over 27,000 students from all 50 states and more than 88 nations throughout the world. Its ten academic colleges and 1,260 full-time faculty offer instruction in more than 80 majors and 150 specialty areas. Planning and policy setting for computing Computer policies for Brigham Young University are set and approved by the Computer Policy and Planning Council (CPPC), chaired by the provost and made up of the four BYU vice presidents, Assistant Academic Vice President for Computing Douglas Chabries, and Executive Director of University Computing Services Kelly McDonald. Appointed by and reporting to the CPPC is an architecture committee, comprising Chabries, McDonald, and computer science professor Gordon Stokes, charged with developing and maintaining a system architecture plan to maximize the interoperability of BYU's distributed systems environment. In the fall of 1992, the CPPC circulated "Brigham Young University's Computing Master Plan" which outlines the University's vision for computing. Based on needs expressed by BYU faculty, students, and administrators over the past two years, the plan emphasizes four goals: (1) responsive and flexible computing support; (2) a pervasive and production-oriented computing network; (3) a comprehensive but flexible equipment acquisition and replacement program which relies on industry standards for software and hardware specifications that form an "open systems architecture" (called the Y/open architecture); and (4) distributed systems which allow and accommodate integrated relational databases. A companion to the master plan, "BYU's Y/Open Computing Guidelines" defines the Y/open architecture, based on the principle of open systems adopted by the CPPC. This document includes standards and guidelines for hardware, software guidelines for workstations and servers, guidelines for accessing computing services, and management and user support guidelines.[1] One of the procedures that helps ensure that colleges and departments throughout the University adhere to the Y/open standards is that all purchases of hardware and software have to be approved by McDonald and the actual transfer of funds to the academic department budget for such acquisitions must be approved by Chabries. BYU is moving as rapidly as possible to open systems "not to be on the leading edge, but of necessity--to better manage the University's information resources," says Chabries. Areas facing special challenges in moving to open systems--Financial Computer Support, Admissions and Records, and the Library--have submitted written plans for migrating their systems within the next three years. Computing Orgnization Driving the goals identified in the master plan is the nature of the computing environment at BYU--it is highly decentralized, for both academic and administrative computing. Most colleges and many academic departments have their own computing facilities, and administrative line officers have ultimate responsibility for the computing in their organizations. Two key central administrative units--Financial Services and Admissions and Records--have their own professional computing staffs who develop and maintain all of their information systems and applications, and are responsible for the databases on which those systems are based. In Financial Services this group is known as Financial Computer Support (FCS); in Admissions and Records, it is the University Student Information (USI) group. At the institutional level, University Computing Services (UCS) provides many central computing services. In the mid-80s, BYU had established an organization in which all information-technology-related activities were brought into a line organization reporting to a "chief information officer," including print and media services, computing, and telecommunications. When unhappiness with the support provided by this organization model reached crisis proportions, a team of consultants was brought in and a new direction and reorganization were recommended. The current organizational model for managing information technology at BYU is based on the concept of information resources management, but such management is through the CPPC and an executive-level position with responsibility for policy oversight, not through a single line organization. As Assistant Academic Vice President for Computing, Chabries has responsibility for ensuring that information technologies are managed as an institution-wide resource and driven by academic concerns, but he does not direct the operations of UCS, telecommunications, or any of the other computing groups distributed throughout the University. What makes this organization work, says Chabries, is the willingness of the vice presidents to whom these various operations report to plan together, integrate, correlate, and take direction--all of which is accomplished through the CPPC--while still maintaining operational control of the resources they deem critical to the functioning of their respective areas. The underlying paradigm is one of "partnerships"--for example, the telecommunications division, which is not a part of University Computing Services, nonetheless works very closely with UCS's networking unit to jointly manage the network. University computing services Central computing services are delivered through UCS, which functions as an auxiliary services department that delivers contractual services on a chargeback basis. According to McDonald, UCS is 30 percent underwritten by University funds, so clients don't have to pay the full cost for the services they purchase. The department is structured to provide services on an "a la carte" basis, as some departments want only one or two services, while others want all of them. As an auxiliary service, UCS reports to the administrative vice president; however, when it comes to computing policy, standards, and strategies, McDonald takes direction from the Computer Policy and Planning Council. UCS's mission is "to enable appropriate use of computing technology and assist faculty, staff, and students to accomplish the University's mission," based on three underlying work principles: quality (excellence in service), innovation, and anticipation. Services are delivered through six divisions: Computing project services provides consultation and project analysis, and acts as a general contractor to get the project installed. When the project is completed, the department either takes responsibility for it or turns it over to computing support services to maintain. Computing support services provides support to colleges and departments, and to individual computer users through the Computer Support Representative (CSR) program. Every employee on campus is assigned a CSR who is hired or appointed by the department and is the first point of contact for all computing issues. For departments that do not want to hire their own CSRs, UCS provides a staff member to the department to serve this function.[2] Academic computing services meets specific instructional and research needs of academic departments, including training and electronic mail services for students; this unit is also in the process of developing a campus-wide information system (CWIS). University computing facilities provides mainframe services, network file services, and Unix services, and network security and administration provides network security and software management. Instructional application services, though an autonomous unit with its own budget, is considered part of UCS and provides curriculum support and a testing center. With the development of the campus-wide network, adoption of an open systems strategy, and migration from the central mainframe paradigm, UCS will increasingly be viewed as a provider of computing platforms. When the technology is mature, services will be provided on the network that are transparent to the user and accessible through a common interface. Administrative systems Under the direction of Richard Roskelly, Financial Computer Support (which reports through Financial Services to the administrative vice president) is responsible for all administrative financial and financial-related systems, including payroll, personnel, budgeting, financial reporting, accounts payable/receivable, purchasing/receiving, student billing, and scholarships. Most of these financial systems were built in-house, and over the past eight years they have been converted to CA/Datacom, a database product of Computer Associates. In looking toward migrating to the Unix platform, FCS is hopeful that CA's new Unix-based product, which BYU will begin beta testing this spring, will run all of their software from the mainframe to the Unixsystem by simply rehosting without any porting. Earlier this year, FCS completed a beta test of CA-Unicenter, a security management product that provides the functionality and security needed for financial systems to run on the Unix platform. According to Roskelly, FCS has developed an excellent partnership and working relationship with Computer Associates and the availability of their Unix-based products should facilitate FCS's compliance with the Y/open architecture. A hallmark of BYU is its strong student academic support system. Admissions and Records is a division of the academic vice president's office that integrates the offices and services of academic advisement, graduation evaluation, orientation, records, registration, and transfer evaluation. Each of these units has a computer-based system created by the computing professionals in the USI group mentioned above--a set of customized applications that cover all student-related functions, from admissions to graduation. Well known for being the first university in the U.S. to implement a touch-tone telephone registration system, that system today includes grade access, financial aid status, change of major, degree audit, and graduation applications as well as the registration function. New in the past year is the Academic Information Management (AIM) program, which helps students answer many different kinds of questions about their academic progress by interacting dynamically with the student information systems via terminals located around campus. Plans include expanding access to the system to off-campus users via modem. Admissions and Records Dean Erlend Peterson says that contrary to what many think--that BYU was able to develop these strong computer-based systems because of an abundance of resources--it was actually limited resources that drove the systems development to provide a cost-effective means of managing student academic support. BYU is an active participant in the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and is currently using AACRAO's SPEEDE electronic data interchange standard for exchange of academic transcripts. According to Garth Rasband, assistant dean/USI, about six years ago BYU purchased a database management system from Applied Data Research and since then has reengineered every piece of their software, tremendously enhancing all of the systems, during the conversion to the Datacom DB product. Because all of their systems have been highly customized and are fully integrated production systems, migration of student systems to a Unix platform is viewed with apprehension. However, Admissions and Records is in philosophical agreement with the open systems strategy and is planning to begin the migration as soon as the technology is available that will enable the interoperability they need. Telecommunications and networking Voice and data communications services are provided through the University's Rolm 9751 CBX installed in 1988 under the direction of Ferrell Mallory in Telecommunications Services, a division of Campus Communications Services which reports to the administrative vice president. The system comprises nine independent switching systems with 12,000 lines of service, including modem pools, fax machines, telephone registration systems, campus housing, and faculty offices. Presently the data port phones in students' rooms are their primary means of connecting to the campus network. High-speed data communications are provided through the campus-wide fiber optic Ethernet network, called Y-Net. This network employs twisted-pair telephone-type wires, with three types of communication protocols in use: TCP/IP, IPX (Novell), and Ethertalk (Apple). Essentially this campus-wide network began with no funding, originally using BYU's cable TV network. But as it became clear that implementing a high-speed computing network capable of connecting to the Internet was a key strategy for the University, surplus money allocated for computing expansion was earmarked for network development, and BYU was able to install fiber optic cable campus-wide. UCS has underwritten 80 percent of the costs of installing the 4,000 Ethernet connections that provide Y-Net access to nearly all faculty and staff offices at BYU. While Mallory's organization is responsible for network conduit, UCS manages network software and is responsible for network security. Faculty and student computing For the most part, BYU colleges have their own computer facilities, including student labs and electronic classrooms, many of which are equipped to use multimedia. For those departments that do not have labs, UCS maintains a cluster of computer labs that are available for "lease." When these labs are not leased for instruction, they are open for student use. A BYU survey found that most students (87 percent) have access to a computer but not a printer, so the University has instituted a "no charge" policy for paper used to print student files. BYU's library has moved aggressively in recent years toward providing information electronically. One of the first universities to implement NOTIS after its development at Northwestern University, BYU is in the process of evaluating a new contract for library systems. According to Library Dean Sterling Albrecht, even though the library has its own automation staff, they work very closely with and use the services of UCS. Library systems are accessible through Y-Net and currently reside on a 3090 mainframe donated by IBM to the College of Engineering. When that machine is replaced this spring, the library systems will be moved to the new 3090, on which most administrative computing will be consolidated until the migration to Unix is complete. What is, perhaps, most notable about computing at Brigham Young University is that people there feel that they have a voice in computing, a critical step to creating a responsive computing paradigm that encourages appropriate use of computers to fulfill the University's mission. ************************************************************************ (PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE IN ASCII TEXT VERSION.) Photo caption: The College of Engineering has implemented a distributed computing environment modeled after Project Athena. Their strategy has been to implement clusters of workstations with massively parallel systems, rather than invest in a supercomputer. The College has a minisupercomputer and 500 workstations, most with 50 MIPS. ======================================================================== Footnotes: 1 Both the master plan (CSD-0680) and open systems guidelines document (CSD-0681) are available to CAUSE members from the Exchange Library (orders@CAUSE. colorado.edu). 2 See Kelly C. McDonald and Brad Stone, "Distributed Computing with Centralized Support Works at Brigham Young," CAUSE/EFFECT, Winter 1992, pp. 13-18. ========================================================================