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Dear Colleagues,
Thanks to all of the faculty members who responded to my June survey about communication from I&IT.
This input will be very helpful to us in planning our updates.
For now, you can check out a quick summary of what we heard.
Learn about our efforts to improve I&IT services (email, network performance, wireless access).
See what the PeopleSoft team is working on.
Learn about the changes we expect to have in place for you by the fall quarter.
If you’re dissatisfied with your campus email access, this may be a good time to migrate your email to the Exchange server and update your virus and spam settings. Check out email information on ehelp http://www.csupomona.edu/~ehelp , or call the Help Desk at extension 6776.
Have a great summer!
Debra
We heard from about 80 faculty members in response to our survey about I&IT communication and faculty development opportunities. We will begin implementing these suggestions in the fall.
Topics for updates: You told us that information on viruses, Spam, and spyware is the most important topic for us to keep you informed about (92% of you chose this topic). The second and third topics were PeopleSoft and BroncoDirect (87% of you) and Information security (84%) and Email enhancements (also 84%). These topics are important to us, too, and we'll plan a strategy for communicating about them.
You told us that updates should come monthly (61% of responses) and by email (78%).
Workshops and presentations: The highest level of interest in workshops/presentations was for Video production and video editing (75% of respondents). That's a happy surprise to us! The other high-demand areas are Blackboard course management system (72%), Web site design, development & maintenance (72%), and Graphics/animations (70%).
You told us that email is the best way to announce workshops/presentations. The most popular format was 1.5-2 hour mini workshops (81% of you said that you would attend these). Web-based how-to guides came in second at 64% and half-day workshops came in third with 52%. There were 20-25 people who said they would attend full-day workshops or summer institutes, so while we'll concentrate on the more popular approaches, we may offer these formats for the faculty members interested in them.
For more than a year, the campus has been building an enhanced network infrastructure that will deliver data to faculty and staff workstations at the rate of 100 megabits per second. Most of the wiring has been installed. The current phase of the project, known as the Infrastructure Terminal Resource Project (ITRP), involves making the connections from the wiring in the walls to your desktops. Fourteen buildings are now fully connected. Equipment is installed in another seven buildings, where we are working to move users to the new network so they can also enjoy full-speed connections. We hope to have all or most equipment for the remaining 20 buildings installed by the end of summer. ITRP is collaboration among the Chancellor’s Office, I&IT, and building technicians. In moving users to the faster equipment and wiring, we will be working closely with the campus technicians. So thank your department or college tech when your data starts flying! ITRP also brings with it 45 additional wireless access points.
The Bronco Student Center will go wireless before the end of June. We hope to increase the availability of reliable wireless access on campus by 30% during the 2005-06 academic year.
The intranet, which has supported faculty and staff email and file storage needs for nearly 10 years, is at the end of its useful life. The first step in replacing the intranet is to move faculty and staff email to the campus Exchange server. By migrating to Exchange and optimizing settings on your email client, you should see performance gains, greater security and reliability, better virus protection, and better spam blocking.
An I&IT staff team is preparing a proposal to replace the intranet email service that students currently (don’t) enjoy. We’re looking forward to providing students the kind of email access that a polytechnic, learning-centered campus should offer.
We’re also collaborating with Procurement to increase the number of commercial cell phone sites throughout the campus. Vendors are competing to design a cell site plan for the campus that will eradicate “dead zones” but use antennas that are invisible to the untrained observer.
Teach in Classrooms with Learning-Centered Technology
During the summer, 20-30 classrooms will be outfitted with current learning-centered technology. More than 40 faculty members have already received their new laptop computers. Many of them are devoting summer time to preparing innovative uses of technology to enhance student learning.
Almost every day we experience the impact of insecure information. In the news in just the past week, we saw students rejected by Stanford because they breached the student system to peek at their application status; a bookstore computer at the University of Iowa was hacked and as many as 30,000 active credit card numbers captured; email fraud at Ohio University of Athens; a tape containing credit information on 3.9 million Citigroup customers disappeared in transit. Cal Poly needs to pay attention to information security, and you’ll be hearing more about this topic in the fall.
As recently as summer 2004 online registration, online grading, and advising through BroncoDirect were completely new. BroncoDirect provided the schedule of classes, service indicators, enrollment appointments, fee payment, financial aid, and enhanced prerequisite checking – all of this for the first time in summer 2004. In summer 2005, Banner is gone and PeopleSoft/BroncoDirect is providing the Banner basics and a whole lot more. We migrated our data warehouse to PeopleSoft and BroncoData is answering lots of important campus questions!
Almost all (98%) of our students are now registering through BroncoDirect. Online grading is providing convenience for the faculty. In the last month, unofficial transcripts became available to students through BroncoDirect and we began delivering official transcripts using PeopleSoft. We’ve converted and cleaned up 5.7 million student records. We’re proud of the accomplishments of staff and faculty in Academic Affairs, Administrative Affairs, I&IT, and Student Affairs. But we have a lot of work ahead of us!
The current challenges include:
Future Possibilities
When you have problems, here are some resources:
The Help Desk (ext. 6776 or helpdesk@csupomona.edu) can help with account and password, and browser questions
Email broncodirect@csupomona.edu with BroncoDirect suggestions or questions
Many department and college administrative staff have become PeopleSoft/Bronco Direct experts, able to answer lots of faculty and students questions
During registration, students and faculty members can call the help line in Undergraduate Studies at ext. 6975 – they’re great at diagnosing enrollment issues.
Of course the Registrar’s Office is the definitive source for information about student data, service indicators, class rosters, and grading (extension 4900).
20-30 modern classrooms
200 faculty members with new laptop computers
All new tenure-track faculty members will have new laptop computers
Improved faculty and staff email service, and a plan for student email
75% of campus buildings fully wired for 100 MBs
30-45 new wireless access points
Students and advisors will be able to view test scores through BroncoDirect
Degree audit will be in place for the College of Business and the Collins School, and work on Engineering will be under way
An awareness campaign on information security
This page last updated July 12, 2005.
