Cambridge University Reporter


Joint Report of the Council and the General Board on changes to the duties of the Information Technology Syndicate and the University Computing Service

The COUNCIL and the GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Council and the General Board propose an expansion of the duties of the Information Technology Syndicate to include Council as well as General Board institutions.

Background

2. The Information Technology Syndicate advise the General Board on matters relating to academic computing in the University. The Syndicate are the Management Committee of the University Computing Service, which is an institution under the supervision of the General Board. Other duties include supervising certain other computing services in institutions under the supervision of the General Board, deciding general principles for the allocation of resources and priorities in the use of facilities in those institutions, and making and publishing rules for the regulation and security of the University Computing Service and other institutions under its supervision. Council institutions are not currently under the supervision of the Information Technology Syndicate and the Syndicate do not report to the Council.

3. The Syndicate are also responsible for advising the Colleges, through the Senior Tutors' and Bursars' Committees or directly as appropriate, on developments in information technology and their implementation. Although the membership of the Syndicate includes College representatives both from the Senior Tutors' Committee and from the Bursars' Committee, the Syndicate formally report only to the General Board.

4. The most important service provided by the Computing Service is the University Data Network, and whereas development to date has proceeded solely according to the needs of teaching and research, the network is now of equal importance to the University and Colleges in supporting their management and administrative functions. This point has been underlined recently during discussions on the support for the new student information system (CamSIS), a project managed within the Unified Administrative Service (UAS), and the forthcoming major upgrade of the telephone system. Both these projects involve the University and the Colleges as a whole and both are likely to need the University Data Network to deliver services to their end users. However, the UAS is under the supervision of the Council while the Joint Telecommunications Management Committee (JTMC) is a joint committee of the Council and the Bursars' Committee.

5. The Council and the General Board accept that, although the Computing Service's original remit had been to develop facilities for use by the academic community within the University, much of the work of the Service is now concerned with the infrastructure for the University and Colleges as a whole, and affects both General Board and Council institutions alike. They note that there is a potential for conflict over priorities while the Syndicate are solely responsible to the General Board who may see academic needs for teaching and research as taking priority over the needs of management and administration. The Council and the General Board therefore propose that the Information Technology Syndicate be made jointly responsible to both the Council and the Board, and that the Council and institutions under the supervision of the Council should be appropriately represented on the Syndicate.

6. The Computing Service was closely linked to the Computer Laboratory until that Department's move to West Cambridge and the Head of the Laboratory was, ex officio, a member of the Syndicate. The Council and the General Board have agreed with the Syndicate that this is no longer necessary. They have also agreed proposals from the Syndicate to further revise the membership of the Syndicate as follows: that one person representing the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) should become a member; and that the number of members in statu pupillari should be increased to two to allow for both undergraduate and postgraduate representatives.

7. The Rules published by the Information Technology Syndicate will require amendment if the recommendations in this Report are approved. The amendments required are set out in the Appendix to the Report.

8. The Council and the General Board accordingly recommend:

I. That the regulations for the Information Technology Syndicate (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 604) be placed in Chapter I of the Ordinances and amended as set out in the Annex attached this Report.

II. That the regulations for the University Computing Service (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 604), be amended so as to read:

The University Computing Service shall be an institution independent of any Faculty or Department, but under the supervision of the General Board. The Service shall be under the general control of the Information Technology Syndicate.

20 June 2005
ALISON RICHARD, Vice-Chancellor MIKE CLARK JAMES MATHESON
  R. J. ANDERSON   GEMMA DONALDSON   MARTIN REES
  A. J. BADGER   BOB DOWLING   G. A. REID
  Z. BARANSKI   DAVID S. INGRAM   DAVID SIMON
  RICHARD BARNES   RUTH KEELING   WES STREETING
  NIGEL BROWN   D. LOWTHER   JOAN M. WHITEHEAD
  WILLIAM BROWN   D. W. B. MACDONALD   RICHARD WILSON
8 June 2005
  JOHN BELL   RICHARD FRIEND   MELVEENA MCKENDRICK
  TOM BLUNDELL   RICHARD HUNTER   ROGER PARKER
  WILLIAM BROWN   DREW LIVINGSTON   KEITH PETERS
  H. A. CHASE   D. W .B. MACDONALD   I. H. WHITE
  M. J. DAUNTON        

ANNEX

Amendments to the regulations for the Information Technology Syndicate

Regulations 1, 2, and 4.

By amending these regulations so as to read:

1. The Information Technology Syndicate shall consist of:

(a) the Vice-Chancellor (or a duly appointed deputy) as Chairman;
(b)   the Registrary (or a deputy appointed by the Registrary);
(c)   the Director of the University Computing Service;
(d)   the University Librarian (or a deputy appointed by the Librarian);
(e)   one person appointed by the Council;
(f)   one person appointed by the General Board;
(g)   one person appointed by each of the following bodies: the Council of the School of Arts and Humanities, the Council of the School of the Biological Sciences, the Council of the School of Clinical Medicine, the Council of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Council of the School of the Physical Sciences, the Council of the School of Technology;
(h)   one person appointed by the Committee of Management of the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies;
(i)   one person appointed by the Joint Telecommunications Management Committee;
(j)   two persons appointed by the Senior Tutors' Committee;
(k)   one person appointed by the Bursars' Committee;
(l)   two persons elected from among their own number by the University officers in the University Computing Service;
(m)   two members of the University in statu pupillari, co-opted by the Syndicate;
(n)   not more than two persons co-opted by the Syndicate, provided that it shall not be obligatory for the Syndicate to co-opt any person or persons.

2. The appointment of members in classes (e)-(k) shall be made in the Michaelmas Term for periods of four years from the following 1 January.

An election of members in class (l) shall be held in the Michaelmas Term of every year of which the number is even; the procedure for such an election shall be that prescribed in the Single Transferable Vote Regulations, except that the returning officer shall be the Chairman of the Syndicate or a deputy appointed by the Chairman subject to the approval of the General Board. Members in class (l) shall serve for two years from 1 January following their election.

Co-opted members in classes (m) and (n) shall serve until 31 December of the year following that in which they are co-opted, provided that if a member in class (m) ceases to be in statu pupillari he or she shall thereupon cease to be a member in that class.

4. It shall be the duty of the Syndicate:

(a) to establish and keep under review, subject to the approval of the Council and the General Board and in consultation with the Senior Tutors' Committee and the Bursars' Committee where appropriate, a policy for the development and application of information technology in support of the activities of the University and the Colleges;
(b)   to consider the needs of Faculties and Departments and other institutions in the University for information technology facilities and services, and to advise the Council and the General Board on matters relating to the provision of such facilities and services;
(c)   to consult the Colleges and to advise them, through the Senior Tutors' and Bursars' Committees and directly as appropriate, on developments in information technology and their implementation;
(d)   to oversee the management of the University Computing Service, and, as the competent authority may from time to time determine, other computing services in institutions under the supervision of that authority that are available to more than one institution in the University;
(e)   to decide, subject to the general direction of the competent authority, general principles for the allocation of resources and priorities in the use of facilities supervised under section (d) above;
(f)   to make, or amend, and publish rules, subject to approval by the competent authority, for the regulation and security of the use of information technology facilities within the University, and of such computing facilities in College institutions as may be designated for this purpose from time to time by the appropriate College authorities concerned, and to impose on a person infringing one or more of those rules either or both of the following penalties:
(i) the suspension of authorization to use computing resources for such a period as the Information Technology Syndicate shall determine;
(ii) a fine not exceeding £175;
(g)   to make an annual report to the Council and the General Board and to the Senior Tutors' and Bursars' Committees.

APPENDIX

Rules made by the Information Technology Syndicate

Subject to the approval of the recommendations in this Report, the Information Technology Syndicate give notice of the following amendments to their Rules (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 605).

Lines 1-4.

By replacing the second sentence by the words:

The term IT facilities shall mean the facilities of the University Computing Service, and all other information technology facilities provided by the University, and any in College institutions designated by the appropriate College authority concerned as facilities to which these rules shall apply.

Rule 3.

By inserting after the words 'unlawful act' the words 'or omission'.