March 2025 Agenda

Meeting Date: March 20, 2025

Time: 1:30 pm

Location: Frey 206/207; Teams

Present: Jacqueline Bach, Sean Courtney, Wen-Chieh Fan, Calvin Feldt, Lori Martin, Param Singh, Craig Woolley

Remote Attendance: Angie Mann, Chris Barrett, Emmett Brown, Kilbert Spland, Loree Ramezan, Mo Carney, Stephanie Rhodes

Absent: Tommy Smith, Brian Davis, Michele Montero

Presenters: Katie Bouey

Others: Stephen Heyward, Sumit Jain, Ric Simmons, Susan Crochet, Robin Ethridge

 

Opening 

1. Administrative Announcements    

2. Executive ITGC Updates [Craig Woolley]

 
Action 

3. Approval of the Minutes from the meeting held on December 6, 2024 

4. Vote on Software Standardization 
Resolution: The IT Governance Council acknowledges the need to provide campus stakeholders with a software standardization process that considers Governance by-laws, is easily accessible, and is easily repeatable. The IT Governance Council will be considered the final approval step for creating software standards related to proposed endorsed products. Additionally, any other piece of software in the same category will require further approvals before being considered, ensuring alignment with established standards. 

5. Photoshelter Discussion/Vote [Todd Woodward] 

• Supplemental Documents 

6. Vote on LSU A&M IT Security Policies 
Resolution: The IT Governance Council acknowledges the need to update policies for IT and Information Security to ensure that requirements of PM-36 and security best practices are codified in LSUAM University policies. Any changes to baseline or any proposed baseline should be reviewed by the Departmental IT Subcommittee, the Research Technology Subcommittee, and the Faculty Senate IT Committee.  The IT Governance Council approves the draft changes to policies and standards presented to the Council by LSU ITS. The Council shall provide this recommendation to the LSU Office of Academic Affairs for the updated policies to enter the university's overall review and approval process. 

 
Information/Discussion 

7. ITS Annual Report [Craig Wooley]    

8. IAM Update [Sumit Jain] 

9. Updated Federal and State ADA Regulations [Buddy Ethridge] 

10. Results of Project Management Software Tool Survey/Software Standardization [Katie Bouey] 

11. ITS ITGC Project List [Katie Bouey] 

 
Updates: Sub-Committees & Working Groups 

12. LMS Update [Param Singh/Wen-Chieh Fan] 

13. Data Governance Update [Anna Bartel] 

• Data Governance Website
• Data Domain Inventory
   

Wrap-Up 

14. Information sharing/Announcements [All] 

15. Suggested agenda items for future meetings, including ITS topics of interest [All] 

16. Next steps/Follow-up items [Chair] 

 

March 2025 Minutes

1. Administrative Announcements

Craig Woolley introduced new member and Vice Chair Sean Courtney to the Council. Craig informed the Council that Sean would also serve as Chair of the Research Technology Subcommittee once it is reconstituted. Council members, guests, and speakers introduced themselves to Sean. 
 

3. Meeting Minutes Approval 

December meeting minutes were approved with no revisions. Motion to approve by Lori Martin; seconded by Chris Barrett. 

 

4. Vote on Software Standardization 

Craig reminded the Council of the need for an official process at LSU to have different constituents propose the creation of standards for different types of software. He added that Todd Woodward, LSU Marketing and Communication, would present his proposal for Photoshelter, after which the Council would vote. Craig stated that the Council would be the body that would vote on and approve for software to become the standard at LSU. He added that stakeholders that wish to acquire software other than the standard would be able to request exceptions to the standard. There was extensive discussion concerning the wording of the voting resolution for the software standardization process. Mo Carney suggested a change to the wording of the resolution. There was also a brief discussion over who would be eligible to suggest a standard. Craig stated the language of the resolution would be refined and the Council would vote on it at the next meeting. 

 
5. Photoshelter Discussion/Vote 

Todd Woodward, Communications and University Relations, presented Photoshelter as a standard for digital asset management. He stated that we are living in a world of owned content and digital communications. He communicated the need to identify and target audiences to deliver to them the content they want in the way they want it. Todd also stated that digital communication is now much more visual. He stressed the need to utilize digital asset management to communicate with audiences, while also stating that the current approach is very antiquated. Todd recommended using Photoshelter with unlimited users able to access digital content via Single Sign On (SSO), contribute to it and borrow from it to create content at the master brand level. He added that the cost for Photoshelter could be shared by departments who wish to use it. Buddy Ethridge, LSU, stated that the software would need to be reviewed for accessibility if it has a public-facing portal with more than 10 users accessing the software. Craig stated that the Council will vote on Photoshelter as a standard at the next meeting if the software standardization resolution is voted on and approved.

 
6. Vote on LSU A&M IT Security Policies 

Craig reminded the Council that they voted on a resolution establishing the review process for approving edits to IT Security Polices, with reviews conducted by the Department IT Subcommittee and the Faculty Senate IT Committee. There was a brief discussion on whether the Research Technology Subcommittee, once reconstituted, should review the policies as well. Craig stated that the Research Technology Subcommittee has not met in over a year and to include that group would delay the approval process. He added that the Research Technology Subcommittee could review any future edits to baseline IT security policies. Param Singh wished to reflect in the minutes that Policy Statement (PS) 128 has not been discussed and any updates will be discussed in a future meeting. Craig thanked the subcommittees that worked on the modifications to the IT Security Polices. 

 

 

IAM Update 

8. Sumit Jain, ITS, shared that LSU will go live with Okta as the new Identity Access Management (IAM) tool on Monday March 31st. He added that legacy data from the mainframe as well as Workday data would be loaded into Okta over the weekend. All new accounts and personal identity creation will occur beginning March 31st. He shared that GROK articles are being created to help users navigate the new process. He also shared that all users would undergo at least one password reset cycle in Okta for their primary accounts and that password will never expire. Sumit also stated that LSU will no longer offer two options for passwords and all passwords must be at least 15 characters in length. He added that users will be able to choose a vanity email address or alias in the format FirstName.LastName@lsu.edu. 

 
9. Updated Federal and State ADA Regulations 
Buddy Ethridge, Office of Civil Rights & Title IX, presented updates to Federal and State ADA regulations. He shared the Federal Government added a final rule to the Americans with Disabilities Act to codify guidelines for web presence. He stated that any digital content or web mobile applications would fall under the web content accessibility guidelines 2.1 level AA (WCAG 2.1 AA). He added that the University’s deadline to be compliant with the guidelines is April 24, 2026. Buddy shared that the final rule offers well-defined categorical exceptions and outlines determining factors for undue burden (measured against the institutional budget) and fundamental alteration (to program or service being offered). Buddy also shared that the State of Louisiana put out PPM 74, which increased the requirement to WCAG 2.2 AA, adding nine new areas of requirement that are currently being evaluated and may result in a new permanent memorandum (PM) for the LSU System as well as updated policy statements for the University. He shared next steps and a timeline, including the assignment of a Web Accessibility Coordinator, conducting an inventory of major web properties, and developing an action plan before submitting a Web Accessibility Policy. 

 
12. LMS Update 

Param Singh gave an update on the current status of Moodle. He reminded the Council of the results from a Faculty Senate survey that was sent to faculty and staff in Spring 2024, as well as feedback from focus groups that met the following summer. Feedback included Moodle’s lack of AI integration as well as a significant cost to switch to a new system. Param shared that he attended MoodleMoot and received feedback from the event. He stated that LSU currently uses Moodle 4.1 which is costly to maintain and experiences visual experience limitations with the “Snap” theme. He added that LSU’s courses are never deleted while best practices are to delete every 3-4 years. He stated that the Moodle team provided a gap analysis which showed that the current version of Moodle (4.5) is more intuitive and accessible, provides improvements in bulk action capabilities, and has integration capabilities with AI.  

Wen-Chieh Fan, LSU Online, shared with the Council Moodle’s life cycle indicating when it was first adopted by the University, all upgrades to date, and the upgrade to Moodle 4.5 in the summer. He also discussed Moodle layers, which include the core and database, LSU customization, third party tools, and connectors to LSU systems. Wen discussed the Moodle upgrade process which will include the upgrade scope, testing plan, and communication plan in Fall 2025, followed by internal testing and communication in Spring 2026 and a pilot program in the summer. He shared Next steps including the theme change, faculty focus groups, LSU focus groups, and external campus focus groups that include the other LSU institutions. He briefly discussed the Moodle mobile app. 

 
13. Data Governance Update

Anna Bartel, Office of Data and Strategic Analytics, gave an update on Data Governance at LSU. She shared the structure which includes the Executive Steering Committee, Data Governance Committee, Data Management & Integrity Working Group, Data Security & Privacy Working Group, and Data Domain Teams. Anna shared with the Council the Data Governance Charter, as well as the Data Governance Timeline. She stated their group uses TeamDynamix for data requests. She also shared the plan for 2025 which includes trainings/webinars, PII agreement and process, master access plan questionnaire, and data steward meetings. She demonstrated the Data Governance website which contains links to relevant IT policy statements and the charter under SSO. Anna presented the Data Domain/Subdomain Inventory, which identifies who manages different types of data across campus and shows what data is captured in each domain. She stated there are 13 functional domains that are business oriented as well as five functional domains. Anna demonstrated the LSU Data Cookbook Portal and shared a visualization of enrollment at-a-glance. She shared that a live webinar will be held and recorded for every data steward and data custodian on campus, with the Council invited to attend as well.