Contents
Cal Poly Pomona

I&IT newsletter

Winter 2005 [Volume 2, Issue 2]

HIGH TRAFFIC VOLUME, BUT IT REALLY MOVED QUICKLY – Welcome to Winter Quarter 2005. The beginning of the quarter went extremely smoothly for the campus as students sailed through another class registration. BroncoDirect, the campus’s front door for PeopleSoft’s web-based services, saw record use on Jan. 3. Nearly 25,000 students, faculty and staff accessed BroncoDirect to add and drop classes, check class availability, pay fees and execute administrative and financial applications on the first day of the quarter. There were no reports of significant problems.

Meanwhile, the campus’ Learning Management Systems (LMSs) also showed record use. Nearly half the faculty members are using the campus LMSs as supplements to traditional classes, for creating hybrid classes which mix traditional and on-line sessions, and as vehicles for teaching classes completely on-line. Nearly 200 faculty members have set up classes in Blackboard, our primary LMS.  Back...

INITIATIVE UPDATES – Here are updates on other major I&IT Initiatives:

  • Learning Centered Classrooms and Laptop Initiative – Planning continues for this important undertaking that provides enhanced classroom technology and new computers for the faculty. This combined initiative is intended to support student learning and to provide all full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty with laptop replacements for their desktop computers. In collaboration with the Academic Senate, I&IT has completed a survey of 1,300 faculty members teaching this quarter to better understand their academic technology needs.
  • Plans for adding technology to classrooms are being developed with input from faculty in all colleges, as well as help from Academic Affairs and Facilities. Deans are preparing prioritized lists of classrooms that will receive data projectors, screens and instructor stations in this academic year. This project is designed to upgrade all classrooms with presentation technology during the next three-to-four years.
  • Getting ready for ordering and distributing new laptops is also a priority task in I&IT. Plans for configuring, distributing and maintaining the new equipment will be developed in collaboration with campus technology techs. Deployment of the initial 200 laptops will occur spring quarter this year. For more, see http://www.csupomona.edu/iit/facultylaptops/ .
  • ITRP – The Infrastructure Terminal Resources Project continues to move forward. This important initiative will convert about 60% of the campus from old and slow network wiring and switching equipment to 100 Megabits per second connections to each desktop, a ten-fold increase. Buildings 1 and 95 were moved to the faster network in the fall. Building 15 (the Library) was nearly complete at publication time. Buildings 3, 8, 67 and 92 are in various stages of moving to the new network.

An equipment list for the remaining 25 buildings was recently approved by the CSU Chancellor’s Office after a lengthy process. With the approval finally in hand, a deployment schedule is being developed. First target for this next set of equipment is Building 9. I&IT Systems manages the ITRP effort, and is working closely with the technicians in the colleges and departments to ensure that the new network meets the needs of faculty and staff. The campus technicians are key members of the network team, especially in working with Systems to handle various issues involved when someone needs to unplug from one set of wires and plug into a new jack. Questions on ITRP should be addressed to Susan Reese at 909 979-6344 or sreese@csupomona.edu .

  • Identity Management – Detailed planning and discussions with a variety of campus constituencies are continuing on an important initiative that affects people in all divisions and across the campus. Enterprise applications such as PeopleSoft and Blackboard, as well as campus resources such as checking out library books, should offer people access to certain services or grant particular privileges based on their role in the institution. This process needs to be accomplished in an automated process and not by hand for each person in each role for each resource. The Identity Management Initiative is intended to address this growing need by enabling secure, appropriate and responsible use of campus electronic resources. As this set of technologies and business practices are implemented, the campus will be able to comply with new laws for improved security and privacy of personal information, lower the cost and complexity of campus services and provide an improved user experience through single sign-ons. Several features of this large, multi-year initiative are already available, such as a common network logon process and automatic network account creation for all staff and students. For more information, look at a set of slides from a recent campus briefing: http://www.csupomona.edu/iit/documents/ IdentityManagementInfrastructure-final.ppt . If you have questions, please contact Mike Berman at 909 979-6300 or amberman@csupomona.edu .
  • Secure that computer – With the growing sophistication of hackers, spammers and electronic hijackers, all campus computer users need to ensure that their systems are well-protected. Protection includes keeping operating system patches up-to-date, using the latest versions of virus protection software, and using products that identify and delete spyware. I&IT offers several resources to help in this activity. An important tool is the Electronic Policy Orchestrator (EPO), which can be set up to automatically get updates of virus protection files and other protection files. If your college or department is interested in using EPO, please contact the I&IT Helpdesk. I&IT is testing a new Microsoft anti-spyware product and is recommending all XP users update to SP2. Also, ehelp, I&IT’s on-line help-information web site, recently added a spyware section, authored by a CIS class as a senior project. This page has all sorts of tips and explanations on spyware, ad ware and other innocuous little programs that can get into PCs, slow performance and copy parts of personal information. See http://www.csupomona.edu/ehelp/spyware/ . And finally, I&IT has recently reorganized to create a unit within I&IT Support that will, among its other duties, respond to individual computer security incidents.  Back...

JUST LIKE BEING ON CAMPUS – More and more students, staff and faculty are using Cal Poly Pomona computing resources from home, at conferences and even on vacation. In the past, the primary way to stay connected from a remote location was to dial in on a phone line to the campus network. These dial-in connections are slow and costly. Luckily, newer technologies offer a more efficient and faster way to connect. The increased bandwidth in these connections also makes it possible for people to access the increasingly media-rich resources like streaming video even while away from the campus.

More than 60% of all Internet connectivity nation-wide is based on high-speed access. One of the least expensive services is Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access, although not all areas are DSL-capable. To determine if DSL is available in any particular area, contact the local telephone provider, either SBC (http://www.sbc.com ) or Verizon (http://www.verizon.com ). Cable modem is another way to get high-speed Internet access and works through a local cable television provider.

Once a broadband service is established, people at home can use the Cal Poly Pomona VPN (Virtual Private Networking) service to access resources and services across the network as if they are on campus. For instructions on installing VPN, see http://www.csupomona.edu/ehelp/vpn/index.html . Back...

HELP AVAILABLE – Got a problem with spam, spyware and wireless configurations? The I&IT Help Desk has become the destination of choice for people seeking assistance with any of these problems. The knowledgeable staff is available for phone or walk-in requests Mondays through Thursdays 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Fridays 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., except state holidays. Simply call 909 869-6776 or stop by Building 1, suite 100. Faculty, staff and students may obtain copies of campus-licensed software, ask questions about email accounts, set passwords and receive assistance using BroncoDirect and our LMS applications.

The Help Desk provides many services and will increase its support offerings in the next several months. One task, however, that the staff is not equipped to handle is computer hardware repair. These requests should be directed to the college or department technicians (for state-owned equipment) or to the place of purchase for privately owned computers.

TECHNICAL LEADERS – I&IT is continually refining its organizational structure to better serve the campus. The division’s latest organizational initiatives involve putting senior technical personnel in lead roles. Dave Drivdahl is now leading the Windows server team within I&IT Systems, while Louis Mills is the Help Desk Lead. Recruitment for a Lead of Second Tier Support (which will include the information security response function) is currently in progress. On the administrative support side, I&IT has added Toni Mutz (formerly of Student Affairs). She is staffing several projects, including the Learning Centered Classrooms and Laptop Initiative. Susan Reese continues as group leader of the networking unit within I&IT Systems. Along with augmenting and maintaining our Cisco-based campus network, Susan’s unit is in charge of rolling out the ITRP equipment. Back...

IN MEMORIAM – Tom Adamski, I&IT’s Director of Applications, died suddenly in early December, 2004. Tom will no doubt be highly missed by all those who worked with him and by the many faculty, students and staff members whose lives were made easier by Tom’s leadership of automation projects. The Thomas Adamski Memorial Endowment Fund has been established for library collections in support of computer sciences curriculum and in Tom’s memory. See http://www.csupomona.edu/library
/html/adamski_endowment.html . Back...

 

I&IT Leadership

A. Michael Berman
Vice President, I&IT		 amberman@csupomona.edu
909 979-6300
Stephanie Doda
Associate Vice President, I&IT		 sndoda@csupomona.edu
909 979-6322
Pamela McQuesten
Associate Vice President, I&IT 		pmcq@csupomona.edu
909 979-6366
Curtis Clark
Campus Web Coordinator		 jcclark@csupomona.edu
909 979-6371
Peter Deutsch
Director, I&IT Systems		 pdeutsch@csupomona.edu
909 979-6419
Carol Heins-Gonzales
Interim Director, I&IT Applications 		cheins@csupomona.edu
909 979-6335
H’Sundiata Keita
Director, I&IT Operations		 hkeita@csupomona.edu
909 979-6427
David Levin
Director, I&IT Learning 		dslevin@csupomona.edu
909 979-6304
Denny Mosier
Director, I&IT Support		 dbmosier@csupomona.edu
909 979-6334

“I&IT Newsletter” is a publication of the Instructional & Information Technology (I&IT) division of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA.

Send comments to Denny Mosier at (909) 979-6334 or dbmosier@csupomona.edu.