APPROVED

IHETS Board of Directors
October 18, 2005 – 10:00
IHETS Boardroom

Board Participants:
Patrick Alles, Independent Colleges of Indiana
Lloyd Benjamin, Indiana State University (Chair)
Martin Jischke, Purdue University
William Kramer, Ivy Tech Community College
Gerald Lamkin, Ivy Tech Community College
Michael McRobbie, Indiana University
Mark Rozewski, University of Southern Indiana
Phyllis Usher, Department of Education

Guests:
David Hensel, Sommer and Barnard
Ron Lentz, Katz Sapper and Miller

IHETS Staff:  Tim Fisher, Dave King, Susan Scott, Kevin Siminski, Tim Ping, Ed Stockey, Rauf Khalid, Julie Wheeler

Chairman Benjamin called the meeting to order at 10:05 and introductions were made.  Benjamin reported that the notes from the June 21, 2005 are available on the web.  He asked the Board to review the notes contact staff with any changes or corrections within one week.  The group agreed to consider the minutes approved if there are no corrections.

Chair’s Report:  Kramer, the Internal Review Team chair, reported that the Team met first on Aug 31st and has met several times since.  They created two subcommittees: one to look at technical and e-learning services and is chaired by Ed Kinley (ISU).  The second subcommittee is looking at governance structure and accountability and is chaired by Vic Lechtenberg (Purdue).  IHETS staff have completed a comprehensive self-study and it is available on the IHETS web site.  In addition, a survey of the user community, including all internal stakeholders to IHETS, and some external contacts, was also conducted. About 1700 surveys were sent out and we received approximately 400 responses.  Those results have been analyzed.  Kramer added that the Committee of the whole developed questions and issues for the subcommittees to consider as they conduct their work. 

The External reviewers will be here beginning Oct 25 for the 3-day review.  They have a full scheduled and will meet with internal stakeholder groups and many of the key external policy-level people.  Beginning in Nov. the Internal Review Team will be meeting weekly and hope to finalize a recommendation to the Board by the end of the year in preparation for a meeting in late January.   In preparation for their review we developed a number of questions for the external reviewers including mission, planning/budget processes, governance and management structure and organization and service effectiveness. 

Response to IOT:  Kramer reported that the Management Committee.met on September 20th and the staff had brought forward a proposed model for circuit prices for T1 and DS3 circuits.  The Committee discussed the model in detail and made a number of suggestions to staff to modify the original proposal. 

One suggestion was to have more equity in T1 and DS3 pricing and a reserve and rebates for users.  Model need to depend on a fiber optic backbone and that should this network also include all of state government as it currently does, the governance of it might involve a separate entity (such as 501c3) and asked staff to incorporate that back into the model. 

In a letter to Hensel, IOT requested a meeting with several members of the Management Committee, with no IHETS staff present.  At that meeting, IOT indicated that IHETS operating the state network was not a condition of getting the funding for I-Light2 fiber released. 

Following that meeting the group returned to IHETS and asked staff to develop numbers that would reflect a higher education-only network.  Although the assumption was that at some point that network could also accommodate K12.  This would also be consistent with the Board’s action in April, that IHETS should operate an education and research network (rather than the state network).    

Staff developed a pricing model to reflect the higher education network for review by the Management Committee.  The Committee approved the model and is recommending that the Board adopt pricing Model #3 and include with it pricing for T1 and DS3s, should IHETS continue to manage the state network. 

King reviewed the pricing models, and following a thorough review of all the issues, the Board recommended that IHETS remain consistent with the long-standing policy of pursuing the goals of education and research.  The Board determined that IHETS should focus its attention on a higher-education only network.  This network would be made up of higher-education institutions only and would seek to light and use the existing I-Light 2 fibers as the backbone. 

In response to the request from IOT, the Board moved that IHETS should respond with the pricing for the higher education network as outlined in pricing model #3 which reflects the projected costs (in terms of monthly fees for T1 and DS3 connections) and critical operational assumptions for a circuit-based, higher education only network.

In addition, the Board recommended that it be noted that we realize that this information is not exactly what IOT requested; that is, we are not submitting cost estimates related to IHETS continued role as the ITN operator.  However, the Board wishes to emphasize its desire for IHETS to concentrate on education and research.    

The group adjourned to Executive Session to hear a briefing from legal counsel and an update on the auditing process.

With no additional items to discuss, the meeting adjourned at 11:15am.