Student Entries in the Campus Directory

Sponsor:  ITPG Authentication/Directory Group

Support for Academic Mission

As more and more courses, research projects and administrative processes utilize a variety of information services, the number of computer systems to which individuals must identify themselves increases and people are faced with remembering more and more id/password combinations. At the same time, the ability of instructors and administrators to locate individuals and/or to communicate with specific people or groups is hampered by the multiplicity of directories and databases containing names and addresses. The construction of a single campus directory containing a unique entry for each member of the faculty, staff and student body would address these issues and support the continuing use of information technology in many campus activities.

A campus directory containing entries for faculty, staff and those students who are employed by the campus is currently under construction in IS&C. Adding entries for the remaining students who are not also UCSB employees would create a single directory for all current faculty, staff and students. The resulting repository would be made available for browsing by its members and would also serve as a common mechanism for the many computing services needing to authenticate the individuals they serve. Thus, campus people would need to remember and maintain only one id/password combination and campus computing services would have a single source to authenticate their users.

Funding Source

IS&C plans to support directory entries for faculty, staff and student employees as part of its mission to build infrastructure for the administrative systems it supports. No funding source has been identified to support entries for students who are not UCSB employees. IS&C revenues come from its administrative customers and, while customers such as the BARC and Registrar’s offices might find it convenient to have a single directory of all students on campus, it is not clear that these customers can or should pay all of the costs to support entries for students. Units such as Instructional Computing, Student Affairs and the Library would also benefit from a common student directory. Thus, members of the Authentication/Directory Group believe the addition of all students to the campus directory is a funding issue that should be addressed at the campus level.

Costs

Estimates are based on the assumption that a complete directory will have about 25,000 entries and that about one-half of those will be faculty, staff and UCSB-employed students covered by IS&C. Thus, funding is needed for about 12,500 entries. Netscape, the only vendor of industrial-strength "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol" (LDAP) software appropriate for use on a campus server, charges by the total number of directory entries. Assuming educational pricing and quantity-discounts at the 25,000 entry level, each directory entry is expected to cost $2.13 the first year and $.53 each year thereafter. Further assuming that the campus directory service will require two "mirrored" servers to support the reliability necessary for such a key service implies that we budget $4.26 one-time and $1.06 ongoing for each entry. Thus, this proposal is for $4.26 * 12,500 = $53,250 one-time and $1.06 * 12,500 = $13,250 per year ongoing.

Based on preliminary discussions of the Authentication/Directory Group, it might be preferable to replace the existing PC/NT directory servers with a single UNIX server. This would decrease the cost of the Netscape LDAP license by half, but would increase the cost for the new directory platform. The budget outlined in the paragraph above should adequately cover either scenario.

Matching Opportunities

As outlined above, IS&C plans to support one-half of the directory entries using a combination of core funding and revenues available from administrative customers.

Staff Support Required

Assuming a common-directory architecture, little additional staff would be required to support the directory platform and LDAP software. Additional staff support would be required to resolve conflicts and mismatches in the additional student entries. Help-desk support might also be required to assist students in accessing the self-service screens to find their directory entries and change their passwords and other personal information.

Existing Resources to Be Used

Again, assuming a common-directory architecture, the IS&C platforms and staff used to develop the faculty/staff LDAP schema and self-service web screens would also be used to support the additional students.

Note: the acceptance of this proposal does not dictate a common directory platform architecture. Other campus units may find it compelling to support their own LDAP platforms in the future. LDAP provides a mechanism to keep such directories synchronized and, thus, offer the appearance of a single directory to users.

Project Timeline

The LDAP is projected to be ready for the addition of students during the first half of 2000. Availability of funding beginning in FY 2000/2001 would suffice.

Life Cycle of Result

The need for a complete and current directory of UCSB people is expected to continue into the indefinite future. Further, there are good reasons to consider providing lifetime directory entries to UCSB alumni and emeriti.

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