Over the past several months, Classroom Technology Services (CTS) has been installing assistive-listening systems and Closed-Captioning (CC) capabilities into the 115 general assignment classrooms in compliance with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). By the beginning of the 2003-2004 academic year, 39 classrooms should be outfitted with assistive-listening systems, and all 115 classrooms should have either built-in CC capabilities or devices on hand that can easily be installed upon demand for CC viewing. So far, 10 classrooms have been equipped with infrared (IR) assistive-listening emitter systems. Receivers are issued to individual students through the Student Disability Center and are adapted to fit each student's particular need. Additionally, CTS has installed DVD players capable of providing Closed-Captioning (CC) capability in 45 classrooms. The classroom-installed VCRs do not have CC decoder capability, but CTS has acquired devices that can be installed upon request to provide Closed-Captioning for videotape playback. These devices can be provided for a single class period and then removed after the class is completed or left installed for longer term requirements. Information regarding all general assignment classrooms, including those that are equipped to accommodate deaf and hearing-impaired students, is available at http://registrar.ucdavis.edu/schedule/html/sum_display.cfm.

The UC Davis Mondavi Center Distinguished Speakers Series featured former President Clinton on November 17. To accommodate crowd overflow, IET and a number of other campus units arranged for a free live video simulcast of the speech to a crowd of 650 people in Freeborn Hall. \tA Communications Resources (CR) team laid three fiber-optic feeds between the Mondavi Center, and used a video production truck and a news-satellite truck at Freeborn Hall, where a borrowed video system with specialized projectors beamed Clinton onto a 20-foot screen. Due to security regulations set by the President's Secret Service team, IET established multiple back-up sites for the production trucks and installed land phone lines at all production sites to accommodate Secret Service protective measures. \tIET Mediaworks provided the live two-camera videotaping of the event. From the control room of the Mondavi Center, Mediaworks also fed a separate video and audio signal through another switcher to a second dedicated fiber link to Freeborn Hall, in case power in the production truck was lost. \tThe video of the speech is archived online at http://www.uctv.tv/. It can be viewed using Real Player. See also the IT Times story at http://ittimes.ucdavis.edu/dec2002/clinton.html.

Updates to the local system that track PPS user codes now allow central offices to better monitor PPS Entry/Update access and retain access history. \tThe existing central office PPS user report was updated and new reports were added, including: ? A report allowing departments and divisions to audit PPS access within their areas. ? A decision support (DS) report giving the Payroll and Benefits offices access to the monthly payroll earnings previously available only in microfiche. ? A DS report assisting with the reconciliation of the payroll expenses in the ledger's ?no title? account across multiple years. ? Two reports summarizing payroll expenses in a much-requested year-to-date spreadsheet format. ? Additionally, several ad-hoc requests from central offices were completed and then turned into DS reports for on-going use.

IET assisted ASUCD with the Fall Quarter student election by converting some of the open access computer rooms into temporary polling stations. Easily identifiable and accessible links to voting were created on each computer, and elections officials were allowed to post ?Vote Today? signs. Although the rooms were not exclusively used for voting, the advertising and quick links promoted an easy way for students to vote. These computer facilities are typically high student traffic areas, which also promoted a wider turnout. ASUCD estimated that 33.2% of the student population voted this year as compared to only 10.8% last fall. IET intends to continue to assist the student government in their online election process. For more information on IET's computer rooms, see http://clm.ucdavis.edu/.

The Art & Photography Group in IET Mediaworks documented the grand opening of the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts as well as subsequent Mondavi events including President Bill Clinton, Ann Fadiman, and the Chancellor James Meyer Memorial service. Mondavi photographs shot by IET Mediaworks were published in The Sacramento Bee, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times newspapers.

IET continues to partner with the Office of Research to identify and implement a ?cradle-to-grave? transaction processing system that will create, track, and manage research proposals and grants for the campus. Currently, this is a very labor-intensive process for UC Davis with little automation. Several ERA products exist, but the project team is interested in a system that accommodates UC Davis? academic and administrative functional requirements, is cost effective, and can be easily integrated into the campus environment.

The Enterprise Directory Services project continues to prototype the conversion to the Banner system, focusing on changes that will allow Banner to write identity changes to the Registry, which will become the primary location for identity management. A key issue for the project is management of ambiguous identities (records that are not clearly a match) or new identity records. This fiscal year, the project team expects to architect a solution for the Banner conversion that will pilot future conversions. The project team has purchased and set up hardware for the development environment. They have created a Registry database and completed an initial load of Banner identities. The team is now converting the first set of Banner load programs ? batch and online ? that will provide templates for future programming changes. See the EDS implementation Web page for more information, including the project charge, at http://vpiet.ucdavis.edu/advancedprojects/projects.html#ediw.

The Birthing Center at the UC Davis Medical Center recently used new 180/360 degree digital panorama photography in a QuickTime technology VR format to highlight their new Sacramento facilities on their Web site. This UCDMC project combined the efforts of the Art & Photography Group and Video Group to incorporate multimedia technology for Web visitors. See the Birthing Center's Web site at http://ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/ucdhs/index_bs.html.

UC Davis has been closely monitoring the changes in federal law regarding the tracking of international student, scholar, and exchange visitor populations. To comply with these legal requirements, a Students and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) Workgroup was formed in July, 2002 to review international student and employment business practices. This review also involved a thorough understanding of the data that is currently collected, what is required under the new federal rules, and which campus systems (e.g., the Banner Student Information System) have some of the information needed for reporting to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The workgroup is comprised of representatives from Services for International Students and Scholars (SISS), IET, Undergraduate Admissions, the Registrar's Office, Graduate Studies, University Extension, and the Professional Schools. The group was charged with completing the review and recommending changes to campus processes, policies, and systems.The group's recommendation to select a product called fsaAtlas from NewFront Software was accepted by the SEVIS Oversight Committee and subsequently acquired and installed in the Campus Data Center. This system provided the support needed for managing all of the visa-holding populations on campus, as well as special processes to support the tracking and reporting of SEVIS-reportable events to the INS. The fsaAtlas System also offers SISS staff an internal buffer to review the SEVIS-reportable events before they are sent to the INS? SEVIS application. The project is on track for its January 2003 roll-out for new student, scholar, and exchange visitors. Data regarding all existing student, scholar, and exchange visitors will be converted over to this new application by late March, 2003.

The Document Management Project hurdled a large milestone with the completion of on-site evaluations. In keeping with the RFP process, the Document Management team brought 3 vendors to campus to evaluate their products in the campus environment. The final scoring of this performance is forthcoming during Winter Quarter 2003. Implementation of the selected product will follow and is expected to include 4-6 months of on-site participation from Student Affairs, IET, and the selected vendor.

Simulations in Teaching. Mediaworks produced and distributed a two-way video and audio interactive lecture from UCDMC to Tupper Hall on campus for the UC Davis Health System, School of Medicine, and Department of Anesthesiology. This project used a Human Patient Simulator to teach medical students about pharmacology using a case study. Mediaworks worked with networking services at both the hospital and campus to deliver the video and audio signal using MPEG video over IP (see the IT Times story at http://ittimes.ucdavis.edu/dec2002/stan.html). \tDemonstrating Progress. The newly-created Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology worked with IET Mediaworks to prepare animations and video footage of a few current examples of the center's work, including a portable pathogen detector that will be used to quickly identify potentially deadly viruses and other biological agents. This center will facilitate collaboration across disciplines and provide equipment and lab space for scientists as they develop new biophotonics applications and techniques (see the IT Times story at \thttp://ittimes.ucdavis.edu/dec2002/biophotonics.html).

The development of the IT Strategic Plan for UC Davis was initiated in September. Since then, John Bruno, Vice Provost for Information and Educational Technology, and John Meyer, Vice Chancellor for Resource and Management Planning, have circulated a first draft and engaged various critical campus groups, including the Academic and Administrative Computing Coordinating Councils, the Technology Infrastructure Forum, and the New Business Architecture teams. Responsibilities for components of the plan have been distributed to subsets of these advisory groups. When completed, the plan will provide a frame of reference to guide campus decisions regarding information technology policy, planning, prioritization, development, deployment, and funding. A Web site has been developed to provide the campus community with quick access to the latest drafts, news and announcements, committee memberships, and other information related to the development of this plan (see http://itstrategicplan.ucdavis.edu/).

IET continues its ongoing effort to focus campus attention towards controlling email spam, or unsolicited commercial email. A group of campus technical specialists recently met with IET staff to identify guidelines and suggestions for controlling spam received on campus. IET will be exploring the implementation issues of these guidelines and suggestions during Winter Quarter 2003. For updates on this investigation, check the Security Web site at http://security.ucdavis.edu/ and browse the tips for dealing with spam at http://ittimes.ucdavis.edu/dec2002/spamtips.html.

IET won four awards at SIGUCCS in addition to the award for the UC Davis Internet Toolkit (see ?UC Davis Internet Toolkit Receives Award,? page 9). As with almost every IET communication effort, these award winners were the result of extensive collaboration, among IET units as well as between IET and various campus departments. An example of this collaboration is the Special Edition of the IT Times (http://ittimes.ucdavis.edu/winter2002/), which focused on the New Business Architecture initiative and won ?best of category? in the Printed and Electronic Computing Newsletter category. Groups from all over campus played instrumental parts in the creation of this special edition. In addition to the many IET staff members involved, individuals from the Office of Administration, the Shields Library Reserves, and the Academic Computing Coordinating Council (AC4), along with several instructors, provided key contributions. Another example is the IT Times Web site, which also received the best of category award. \tIET also took third place and honorable mention in the Electronic How-to Guides (see the Student Computing Guide at http://scg.ucdavis.edu/ and the Faculty Technology Guide at http://ftg.ucdavis.edu/). For a complete list of winners, go to http://www.acm.org/siguccs/competitions/comp2002.htm.

The High-Speed Networking Committee held its first meeting on November 1. The meeting provided committee members with an overview of campus, metropolitan, state, and national perspectives on high-speed networking. Tom West, President of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives (CENIC), and Douglas Van Houwelling, President and CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), gave presentations outlining the status, scope, and possible applications of statewide and national high-speed networking. A project team comprised of members from Communications Resources, UC Davis Health Systems and CENIC is also looking at the feasibility of connecting existing UC Davis telemedicine sites through the CENIC network to reduce costs and improve network performance. The project team has compiled a project plan and will analyze implementation strategies over the next few months. The High-Speed Networking Committee is part of a multi-disciplinary public health initiative launched this Fall by Provost Hinshaw. The small group, comprised of faculty and campus administrators, is charged with advising the provost on the development, integration and use of high-speed networking as it relates to the creation of multi-disciplinary research and educational initiatives. Vice Provost Bruno and Tom Nesbitt, Assistant Dean, UCD Medical Center, co-chair the committee. A Web site is being developed.