University College London
Computer Science Department
Natalie May/Graham Knight
Apologies were received from P Kirstein, C Clack, S Field, B Kusdemir and P Rounce
The minutes were approved.
The TC should be asked to issue guidelines to demonstrators. GJK to ask them to do so. ACTION GJK
It was noted that the exam timetable should be easier to cope with due to revision week in third term
There was general agreement amongst representatives that a common room was needed urgently. Most agreed that some sort of facilities for making coffee/tea was essential.
SRW suggested that what could be provided would be more presentable but probably no bigger. The possible use of other rooms would be investigated. ACTION PB.
SRW requested that Student Reps be asked to provide guidelines on what is needed with respect to division of requirements between social and study. This will enable SRW to make a case for the provision of more space by College for Departmental use. ACTION Student Reps
JW suggested timetabling of lecture rooms when unoccupied to provide quiet space for study. This was generally held to be a good idea. SRW/PB were asked to cost provision of combination locks for lecture rooms to allow student access during untimetabled hours. ACTION SRW/PB
It had been hoped that the WWW would provide the distribution mechanism this year. However this would not be possible in all cases as some papers had been scanned in which may have introduced inaccuracies. Further, most papers could not be printed properly on a line-printer. Finally, there were problems with printing to line-printers from Netscape. There fore, this should be treated as a transition year.
GJK will make available information on printing from Netscape and Mosaic to lineprinter so that papers which do not contain diagrams & formulae may be printed by students without affecting their print quota. ACTION GK (In fact this was done by Jon Crowcroft)
NM to make available hard copies of those papers which contain diagrams & formulae which are not available on WWW. ACTION NM
This is being addressed at present and will be solved in the short-term. A further printer will be located in B03 for Mres only use as their graphic printouts take much time to produce. JC pointed out that print quotas were measured in terms of pages not bytes.
It was agreed that there should be reciprocal use of MRes and other departmental facilities. ACTION JC
More floppy disc drives were needed on student machines so that students could transfer files more easily. RC was asked to investigate the provision of two drives per lab and inform SRW of the cost. ACTION RC
There was no time for discussion. GJK asked that students should inform him if a further meeting was required.
The issue was raised especially by MRes and MScCS/IT students.
It was pointed out that the problem was with College safety rules which insisted on a designated person being present. It had proved difficult and costly to provide such people in the past.
Several students pointed out that other institutions seemed to be able to manage this matter more successfully. It was also suggested that we should investigate whether taught students could be employed as designated persons.
The problem had become worse since ISD had cut their Unix provision. Whilst cluster rooms are sited around College there is now a shortage of Unix machines in cluster rooms. The Library has Unix machines but is not open 24 hours a day. SAS will again point out to ISD that there is a shortage of Unix machines in College and will report back on reply. ACTION SAS
There was other criticism of ISD provision; access to machines was difficult at certain times and printers were poorly maintained.
The opening hours of the Library are under investigation - this is a topic of discussion within the College Administration. SRW will put the case for better access.
There was no objection to MRes students being treated differently from others.
GJK would discuss taught student access with the Departmental Librarian (Tessa Rickards) and make the outcome known. ACTION GJK.
The department could have little influence on this.
Students requested provision of the numbers of students taking each option in the previous year plus summaries of Course Assessment. The summaries will be make available. ACTION GJK
Last year the Maths/CS students had a problem of getting from one side of London to the other due to badly situated exams sites. This problem must be brought to the attention of Robin Hirsch the Maths liaison in the department in order to ensure that there is not a reoccurrence. Denise Gorse (Exams Liaison) should also be aware.
A meeting will be called with Student Reps as soon as the draft timetable is available so that any problems can be dealt with ASAP. Note that draft timetable information is not to be widely disseminated. ACTION GJK