May 2025 Agenda

Meeting Date: May 15, 2025

Time: 2:00 pm

Present: Craig Woolley, Param Singh, Wen-Chieh Fan, Tommy Smith, Sean Courtney, Calvin Feldt

Remote Attendance: Michele Montero, Lori Martin, Loree Ramezan, Angie Mann, Jacqueline Bach, Mo Carney, Chris Barrett, Kilbert Spland 

Absent: Emmett Brown, Brian Davis, Stephanie Rhodes 

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

 

Opening 

1. Administrative Announcements  

2. Executive ITGC Updates [Craig Woolley]

 

Action 

3. Approval of the Minutes from the meeting held on March 20, 2025 

4. Product Standardization Discussion [Craig Woolley/Katie Bouey] 

5. 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 step for approving proposed software to become an endorsed standard. Additionally, any other piece of commercial software in the same category will require further approvals before being considered, ensuring alignment with established standards. 

6. Vote on Photoshelter
Resolution: The IT Governance Council acknowledges the need to provide campus stakeholders with an endorsed product for digital asset management and content distribution. The endorsed product will be Photoshelter. Any business case where Photoshelter does not meet necessary departmental functionality will need to be routed through the Software Acquisition process (IT100) to be considered for a possible exception. 

 

Information/Discussion 

7. IT Centralization Project [Craig Woolley]

8. ITS Annual Report [Craig Woolley]

9. LSU Online Update [Wen-Chieh Fan] 

• Moodle 4.5 Upgrade
• Honorlock  

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

11. ITS ITGC Project List [Katie Bouey]

 

Wrap-Up 

12. Information sharing/Announcements [All] 

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

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

 

May 2025 Minutes

1. Administrative Announcements 

The Chair announced that several Council Members have membership that expires in October. He stated that he will reach out to those members to extend or update the membership. 

 
3. Meeting Minutes Approval 

March meeting minutes were approved with no revisions. Motion to approve by Param Singh; seconded by Sean Courtney.

 
4. Product Standardization Discussion

Craig stated that the President’s Office sent out emails that will establish policies guiding enterprise solutions, enhancing cost savings and operational efficiency university wide. He discussed potential benefits of an endorsed software standard from the perspectives of support, cost savings, time savings, and regulatory compliance. Craig discussed the need for oversight and an approval process before determining a software standard and suggested the Council give final approval for that process. Craig stated that any potential endorsed product should meet at least one of the following criteria: enterprise solution, cost savings, and operational efficiency. He then discussed the endorsed product workflow approval process, stating that software must be reviewed for accessibility and must be verified with Procurement that it does not exceed a purchasing threshold. The software can then be presented to the Council to determine if it will become an endorsed standard. If approved as a standard, the software becomes endorsed and is supported going forward. Anyone submitting a software acquisition request for software other than the endorsed standard could still state their business case for use. There was a brief discussion concerning feedback on suggested standards as well as a discussion about revisiting standards in the future. 

 

5. Vote on Software Standardization

 

 

6. Vote on Photoshelter as an Endorsed Software Standard

 

 

7. IT Centralization Project

Craig discussed the IT Centralization Project. He shared that a directive came from the President’s Office to centralize IT services to ensure quality control, information security, and consistency of service. He stated that the goals and objectives of the effort is to improve efficiency and service quality, enhance cybersecurity posture and compliance, standardize processes and tools, and optimize IT spending and resource allocation. Craig added that after the process is complete, services to customers should be better than what they had before. He stressed that centralization needs to happen with as little disruption as possible and that care will be taken to consider the professional aspirations of employees that are under the scope of the process when possible. He discussed Phase 1, consisting of assessment and initial communications and engagement with stakeholders. Craig stated that personnel would have to be strategically distributed across campus. There was a brief discussion on how centralization would affect specialized labs and grant-supported personnel. There was also a brief discussion concerning support for Linux users. There was a brief discussion concerning how faculty and staff would engage with ITS once there are no longer departmental TSPs. Craig stated that several times per year he plans to meet with Deans, Directors, Chairs and faculty to get feedback and concerns. There was a brief discussion concerning the future of the Department IT Subcommittee. Craig stated that ITS has begun collecting information from the colleges on their IT staff with respect to their duties and time spent.  

 
8. ITS Annual Report 

Craig shared with the Council the results of the ITS Annual Report for fiscal year 2024, available on the ITS website. He stated that overall customer satisfaction dropped by 1%, likely due to the revised IT security policies and how they would be enforced. Craig also briefly discussed the ITS budget. 

 
9. LSU Online Update

Wen Fan, LSU Online and Continuing Education, discussed the Moodle 2025 upgrade to version 4.5. He discussed the upgrade timeline, including integration with Workday Student as well as preparation for the 2026 UI upgrade. He also discussed new features of Moodle 4.5, including the core upgrade, enhanced gradebook, upgraded text editor tools, and a side menu and course editing tools. 

Wen also discussed Honorlock Remote Proctoring, which provides AI proctoring with live pop-in monitoring when needed. One of the benefits discussed was no scheduling requirement as long as the exam window is open. He also stated that the cost for Honorlock is lower than the previous software solution, reducing the financial burden for students. Wen shared that on-campus users have expressed a desire to use Honorlock, but additional funding would have to be obtained. 

 
10. Results of Project Management Software Tool Survey 

Katie Bouey shared the results of the survey proposing a standard endorsed product for project management (PM). She briefly discussed key features of PM tools and stated that ITS currently uses TeamDynamix for project management. She shared what other departments are using for project management as well as how much money is being spent on those different PM tools. She discussed the benefits of having TeamDynamix as well as one additional endorsed PM tool, including ITS support, time savings, and cost savings. Katie discussed paths forward, consisting of two options. The first option would require stakeholders to use either TeamDynamix or a second endorsed PM tool; any requests for non-endorsed PM tools would be redirected to the endorsed tools. The second option would enable stakeholders to continue purchasing any PM tool suitable for their needs, but ITS would only provide support for TeamDynamix and one other endorsed PM tool. There was a brief discussion concerning providing the total dollar amount of cost savings to the university.  

 
11. ITS ITGC Project List 

Katie shared the IAM project went live and that the Mainframe Decommissioning Project is now included as a part of the Workday Student Project which is now live. She added that Cohort 2 (LSU Shreveport and LSU Alexandria) is working on Workset D.  

Craig added that a survey was sent to 800 students, with approximately 90 responding that Workday Student has been good or superb, with students providing additional positive feedback. 

Katie gave a brief update on the Tiger Card Mobile Credential/Physical Access Control Systems Project.  

 
Information Sharing/Announcements 

Wen shared that the Moodle CEO and other high-ranking members came to LSU and met with members of LSU Leadership and faculty on how to improve Moodle.