Information services is having an Open House to celebrate their new offices in Tyson Hall on Friday, November 14, from 1-4 p.m., with a blessing by Fr. Jeff Allison, C.S.C., at 1:30 p.m. Information services personnel are excited to have the UP community tour the new offices, visit with staff, and enjoy some snacks. For more information contact information services at 7000 or help@up.edu.
Information Services
Cybersecurity Newsletter, Chance to Win A New Tablet
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and is also a perfect time to launch the new Information Services Cybersecurity Newsletter. Information services will highlight the latest security tips and alerts, provide higher education security news and point readers to helpful online resources in each quarterly edition. The purpose of the newsletter is to raise awareness across campus so everyone can do their part in keeping the UP computing environment secure.
Information services is also offering a chance to win a new tablet device. Take the Cybersecurity IQ Quiz by November 7 to be eligible for a chance to win. Find the newsletter and learn more about the IQ Quiz at https://sites.up.edu/cybersecurity.
New Papercut Reporting Tool
In support of the University’s commitment to sustainable and cost-effective printing practices, information services and printing services are proud to announce Papercut, a new campus usage reporting tool. Papercut has been used at UP for the past several years to successfully manage student printing. The rollout will start the week of October 27 and will impact 23 multi-function machines across campus. For more information contact Michelle Sunderland, technical services, at 8870 or sunderla@up.edu.
Professional Development Workshops, Lectures
Academic technology services will offer new professional development opportunities this fall, according to Maria Erb, information services. A faculty speaker series, “Managing Technology in the Classroom,” will debut on Tuesday, October 28, from 3 to 4 p.m., in the Clark Library classroom with guest speaker Eric Anctil, education. His talk, “When Technology Invades the College Classroom and Threatens Everything,” will address the challenges of teaching with technology, not as a pedagogical tool, but as a tool for distraction and transportation to a new social environment. All are invited to attend.
Academic technology services will also present a curation workshop, in collaboration with the Clark Library, on Wednesday, November 5, from noon to 1 p.m., in the Clark Library classroom. Heidi Senior, library, will share best practices around finding pictures and music licensed for reuse or in the public domain to support the creation of multimedia projects. Participants are invited to bring their lunches. Snacks and beverages will be provided.
For more information contact Erb at 8841, erb@up.edu, or http://wordpress.up.edu/erb.
Information Services Moving to Tyson Hall, Week of October 13
The information services division will move the majority of its staff to a new office space in Tyson Hall during the week of October 13, according to Curt Pederson, chief information officer.
On Monday, the CIO office and web and enterprise services will be moving all staff to their newly constructed offices in the lower level of Tyson Hall. Most technical services employees, with the exception of media services and the help desk, will be moving as well. Media services will maintain their office in Buckley Center room 018, and the help desk will remain in Franz Hall room 111. Academic technology services staff will move to Tyson with the exception of one office supporting student labs and technology support for students with disabilities.
Please be patient during the move as staff availability is likely to be affected. If you have any questions, please contact the help desk at extension 7000 or help@up.edu.
New Virtual Service Center Opens for Business Aug. 6
Information services is excited to announce the release of the new Virtual Service Center (VSC). Starting August 6, campus staff and faculty can submit requests for IS services and technical support via the new website. To learn about this new online resource and how to get started using it please visit: https://wordpress.up.edu/vsc. Please note that the Zendesk ticketing tool will be retiring on August 15. After then no new Zendesk tickets will be accepted. There will continue to be access to Zendesk for IS to close out in progress tickets and reference any legacy tickets. For information or any questions regarding the new VSC or Zendesk retirement contact the help desk at 7000 or help@up.edu.
Let’s Talk Tech
Information services has announced the launch of Tech Talk (http://wordpress.up.edu/techtalk), a monthly online news blog. Tech Talk features articles about new tools and technology, spotlights on existing IS programs and services, security tips, and important technology trends. Tech Talk is the place to learn about news and important information from IS. This month, learn about academic social networking with “Celly” and online training from Lynda.com. Find out about the causes of slow wifi on campus and the coming improvements. Feedback and suggestions are welcome. Please direct comments to kerr@up.edu.
Network Expansion to 1.5Gbps Complete
The final stages of the campus network bandwidth expansion to 1.5Gbps were completed on Thursday, June 5, according to Michelle Sunderland, information services. Over the course of the past five months the IS infrastructure team has taken campus bandwidth from 320Mbps to 1.5Gbps, an increase by 4.6 times. The upgrade included transitioning service providers by bringing TW Telecom and Comcast to the campus. Having two carriers with unique routes to the UP campus provides redundant service in the case of a service outage.
We are excited about the resulting performance and reliability improvements this upgrade will bring to the campus network. This past year users experienced many challenges streaming video content and getting reliable and high speed results when using Google. The IS infrastructure team has completed the initial validation of the new network and reports that video streaming and performance issues have been addressed.
If users experience any issues with network performance they are encouraged to reach out to the help desk at 7000 or help@up.edu to report them.
Coming Soon: Information Services Virtual Service Center
Information services is proud to announce its new Virtual Service Center, designed to be a one stop IS support and service website for campus users. From this new web interface users will be able to submit IS service requests, search a robust knowledge base, and chat with help desk staff. In addition, users can report issues, view real time outage information, and receive timely IS communications regarding current projects and services.
The Virtual Service Center will be launched in late June. Both online and classroom based training will be available upon release. Additional training details will be provided in the near future.
The VSC will replace the current Zendesk ticketing system which will be retired later this summer. This new platform will provide the additional features of a full-service request catalog, a searchable knowledge base, a workflow engine, integrated asset and change management tools, and help desk chat. IS looks forward to better serving the campus community through the new Virtual Service Center.
For additional information please visit http://up.edu/IS.
Free Anti-Theft Software
The information services office has purchased a campus-wide security software package that protects laptops and MacBooks from theft. Once downloaded, FrontDoor Security Software will protect devices for four years. University owned laptops are required to be protected, and employees may download the software on personal laptops as well. Installing the software is fast and easy. Simply click on https://pilots.up.edu/group/main/tools and install today. For assistance call 7000 or e-mail help@up.edu.