1. Student Tech Fee Fee Hearing February 2018
Hello, I’m Mark Fitzgerald, Director of Customer Care for the Office of Information Technology and I have been asked by Max Davis Johnson, our CIO to represent OIT here today.  I am thankful to have a few minutes to talk to you about what we are currently doing with the Student Technology Fee and what we would like to do moving forward.

2. Technology Fee Funded Services
Support
Computers
Blackboard
Classroom tools
WiFi
Applications
Customer support and services are in four locations across campus.  The Zone can be found in the ILC, SUB, MBEB 1st floor.  This year we also introduced a faculty centric zone on the MBEB 3rd floor;
We maintain many approximately 700 public use computers around campus.  This ranges from computer labs, kiosks, printers, classrooms and computerized classroom, for general and individual college use.  
Support and management of the Blackboard Learning Management System, used by nearly all students and faculty for online and web-enhanced courses;
Many Classrooms Learning Tools such as Classroom capture and clickers;
Wireless administration and maintenance;
Development and maintenance of student-focused applications such as Major Finder, Student Success Dashboards, myBoiseState, and myBoiseState Mobile.

3. CLICK To 3rd Slide - 1st animation First is our existing WiFi infrastructure.  
It was designed and built 7 years ago when students had a single wireless device.  
Fast forward to 2018 nearly all are carrying on average over 3 devices
Use of these mobile devices is an integrated part to many curriculums.
The network requires reconfiguration and initial APs transmit at slower speeds.
Second is Blackboard.  CLICK To 3rd Slide - 2nd animation
We use on premise version.  The development, support, and research of Blackboard are focused on their Software as a Service (SaaS) product.
Early in the fall we experienced periodic outages with the on-premise service.  
Most institutions have moved to a software as a service (SaaS) based learning management  As a result, the periodic feature releases for self-hosted Blackboard customers are dwindling, and the level and response from the company for critical issues have declined for our environment.  
We are facing risks associated with this self-hosted model will progressively increase each year, and it is now time for Boise State to make the move to a more reliable and feature-rich version of Blackboard.  The Blackboard SaaS environment will also allow us to address the university’s web accessibility policy (8140) with a SaaS-only accessibility auditing feature.
Third are our classrooms.CLICK To 3rd Slide - 3rd animation
OIT has been a pioneer in providing a consistent, high-quality classroom technology, and our desire is to have every general purpose classroom equipped for modern collaborative instruction. We have standardized our classroom technology package at the lowest cost when compared to our peer institutions.  
Although OIT has reduced costs as much as possible, we have not impaired the user experience.  Instead, where we have implemented our standard suite of technology, we are able to demonstrate metric-based success on student satisfaction ratings, reduced component failure rates, sub-one hour issue resolution (time to resolve), and flexible and reliable classroom capture.  
We would like to bring in seven additional classrooms to this standardized model in addition to the general purpose classrooms are due for upgrades.
Finally, there  is Maintenance of Current Operations (MCO)
Like most institutions and businesses, some costs increase each year that no amount of budget maximizing skill is able to overcome.  
These  are annually increases for software contract license subscription renewals,
And the Idaho Division of Human Resources is requesting a 3% salary increase.

4. Estimated Expenses Description Cost
Maintenance of Current Operation (MCO) expenses for software contract license subscription renewals
$15,000
Maintenance of Current Operation (MCO) expenses for 3% salary increase
$55,000
Maintenance of Current Operation (MCO) expenses for replacing WiFi infrastructure in classroom and student areas
$25,000
Improve WiFi signal and coverage in classroom and student common areas
Implement Blackboard Software as a Service (SaaS)*
$105,000
Implement Blackboard accessibility auditing tool (Ally)*
$20,000
Improve technology in seven general purpose classrooms
$94,000
Total
$339,000
*50% commitment from Technology Fee, 50% commitment from online students (proposed)
In the new academic year, OIT requests a 9.9% increase to the Student Technology Fee to fund
The maintenance of current operations - of both contracts and salaries
To start the replacements and redesign of wireless in classrooms and student commons
To implement Blackboard, including the Blackboard accessibility auditing tool (Ally)
To upgrade classroom technology in seven classrooms.  

5. Deliverables and Milestones
Projected Milestone
Improve WiFi signal and coverage in the Science building
8/31/2018
Improve WiFi signal and coverage in the Mathematics building
11/30/2018
Improve WiFi signal and coverage in the Micron Business and Economics building
2/28/2019
Improve WiFi signal and coverage in the Recreation Center
4/30/2019
Implement Blackboard Software as a Service (SaaS)*
5/30/2019
Implement Blackboard accessibility auditing tool (Ally)*
Improve technology in four general purpose classrooms
7/31/2019
Improve technology in three general purpose classrooms
12/31/2018
*50% commitment from Technology Fee, 50% commitment from online students (proposed)
Pending approval, OIT will commit to the deliverables and projected milestone in the presentation.

6. Student Technology Fee
FY 2017
FY 2018
FY 2019
Full Time
$115.30
$127.52
Part Time
$9.61
$10.72
Summer
Estimated Revenue from Fee change
+1.7% 0%
+9.99%
Though proposed Technology Fee increase of $339,000 is a 9.9% increase over academic year 2018 there are a few factors provide perspective.  CLICK To 6th Slide
First, academic year saw no increase to the Technology Fee while maintenance of current operation costs increased at the historic annual rate.  
Also, investment in technology infrastructure stalled.  When these investments stop, technology infrastructures and systems become less resilient and reliable, and issues escalate as obsolete and unsupported technologies begin to fail with greater frequency.   
Additionally, the University recognizes that while student headcount continues to increase, the number of students pursuing online only degrees do not pay a technology fee.  During the current budget planning process, OIT will recommend half of the proposed Blackboard SaaS implementation and licensing costs come from students who consume technology systems and services but are not currently providing financial support.

7. Questions?
As one student recently told us “WiFi is like oxygen”.  We understand how important it is to extract every ounce of value from our technology investments.  We want to ensuring access for all learners regardless of accomodation (move to Blackboard SaaS), and our ongoing operational mission to invest in enterprise class products for a consistent and reliable user experience (classroom technology) have informed our fiscal priorities for academic year  We look forward to continuing to serve the students of Boise State.