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The official newsletter for technology news at Centre College - Danville, KY - for Fall 2014
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Fall 2014 Brings New Technology Resources to Centre!
I am sure that most of you have received email messages from ITS about many of the new projects that took place over the summer. For those who may have been out or overseas during the summer, we apologize about your packed email boxes. We’ve been busy but we wanted to keep you informed!
This summer brought some very exciting new projects from new multi-function printers from Lexmark® to upgrades on Centrenet, the campus community web portal (centrenet.centre.edu).
In this newsletter, you will discover some projects that will affect you and your department so please read carefully. We REALLY want to keep you informed about the new resources and services that we are building for you.
As last year brought a new open source scheduling and reservation system, new automations in administrative processes, new classroom technologies and a host of other new resources, the coming year promises many more new changes. Just a few planned projects for Fall 2014 include the implementation/roll-out of our new Alfresco document management system, new automation projects in Finance and Student Life as well as even more new changes to Centrenet. All these are efforts to cut red tape and make your work lives easier.
Also, some of you will notice that you received a new business-line HP as your renewal computer. This year, we will be evaluating HP (Hewlett-Packard) desktop and laptop computers for a possible permanent move from Dell computers in Summer 2015. In our research with other institutions, we have found that HP is up to 10% less expensive than Dell while offering better reliability and service plans. Even with this, we want to hear your thoughts about the HPs we are bringing to campus. Over this coming year, it will be your reviews on this new equipment that will make the decision of whether we keep Dell or move to HP completely so please send us your feedback!
Let me share with you personally what a privilege it is for me to serve with you at Centre College. I hope to get around to see each of you in this coming year. All of us in ITS wish you all the best 2014-2015 academic year ever! Thanks and have a great year!
�1August 19, 2014
Centre ITS strives to meet the needs of the campus community so our students can
become the leaders of tomorrow.
ITS CENTRENET UPDATEe Quarterly Newsletter from Centre College Information Technology Services Fall Term, 2014
Keith FowlkesCentre College CIOInformation Technology [email protected]
�2August 19, 2014
This is our banner that will be located in the Campus Center in Fall directing our students on where to get support in the new Technology Support Center!
Need Technology Help? We’ve got just the place for you!! !In April 2014, Centre College opened the new Technology Support Center in McReynolds Hall (the building next to Old Centre toward Main Street). This new facility was created to provide a new central location for technology support for Centre students, faculty and staff. This beautiful newly-renovated facility features workspaces for one-on-one sessions with students, faculty and staff, new office space and viewing access to the new College datacenter. The new College datacenter is also a newly remodeled space adjacent to the Technology Support area where all core campus servers and network equipment are housed. This new datacenter features an environmentally sound facility with clean and redundant power and air conditioning as well as newly updated fire suppression. Keith Fowlkes, Chief Information Officer for Centre College, said, “this new facility reflects Centre’s commitment to the campus community, especially its students.” He continued “the availability of online resources has become core to the teaching, learning and business environment of the College. The new facility is crucial for the future of Centre.”!In Fall 2014, the Technology Support Center will offer: !• Computer and mobile device configuration support• Wireless and wired network connection support• Personal computer virus and malware support• Basic computer troubleshooting for hardware problems• Personal computer purchase consulting
(Dell, HP & Apple Computers)• Campus email and storage account issues &
configuration• Basic OS and software support
(MS Office, MacOS, Windows)• All this and extended hours this year from
8am-7pm Monday through Thursday in McReynolds! !As always, you can also call the Technology Support Center at x5575, email us at [email protected] or visit Centrenet to start up a chat session or enter a Helpdesk ticket directly into our support ticket system. ITS is here to help your use of technology go as smoothly as possible so you can get your work done!
STUDENTS!!PLEASE READ THIS! Remember that all official communications to you from Centre College are done through your @centre.edu email account. Make sure to check it often and make sure you are in the loop! !
�3August 19, 2014
Need a computer, printer or mobile device? We have news for you!!Centre College is a part of many educational consortia for purchasing computers, mobile devices and software. Through our friends at The Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU), Microsoft has extended academic pricing. !Several other companies have extended special pricing to our students, faculty and staff through their educational programs. Centre College is currently purchasing Apple Computers, HP Computers and Dell Computers and uses Microsoft Office for Windows and Mac as a campus standard.!
Find out how to get Microsoft software and computer equipment at educational pricing at our website at http://helpdesk.centre.edu today!!
Our Internet “Pipe” is expanding!We currently have a 250Mbs Internet connection with AT&T but, starting with Fall 2014, we will be adding an additional 300Mbs connection from Time Warner Business Class. We will use both connections equally so that the total bandwidth available to campus will be 550Mbs. !What does this mean? More “Mbs” means faster and better connections to Internet resources. It means that all the Internet traffic for students, faculty and staff will be faster and more reliable, especially at peak times of use.!Great, but why not just make our AT&T pipe bigger? The major advantage to having two internet providers with separate paths into campus is if one has an outage it is unlikely to affect both and although our available bandwidth will be reduced we will still have an Internet connection.
Need to reserve a meeting room? !Over the summer, we have made some nice upgrades to the EventCentre reservation and scheduling system on Centrenet (https://centrenet.centre.edu/). Just click the icon for “EventCentre” from the Centrenet Launchpad and login with your normal email username (without the @centre.edu) and password. You can see all the buildings and rooms there along with any reservations already made.!Just click the date/ time you want a room and book it! You can visit it directly online at:https://eventcentre.centre.edu !!!!!!!Just visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CentreCollegeITS and Like us to get in on all the fun and prizes!
How do I set up my cell phone or tablet for Centre email?
Just go to http://
helpdesk.centre.edu/?q=faq online. Full instructions on
setting up iPhone and Android devices are there plus getting
your computer setup for campus email too!
�4August 19, 2014
New Lexmark® MFP units across the Centre campus !During the summer, College Services partnered with ITS to roll-out new Lexmark® Multi-function printers (MFP) in campus buildings to replace Ricoh printers. These MFP printers feature high-speed printing, scanning and, in selected locations, faxing capabilities. Papercut® software is being used on the new printers to help us automate print charges to departments and students. Also, this new software allows us to offer campus printing for iPad and iPhone devices wherever you are on the Centre wireless network. Full instructions on how to print to the new system are on our new ITS FAQ online at http://helpdesk.centre.edu! !Here are just a few answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions) related to the new Lexmark®/ Papercut® rollout on campus:!Q: When I swipe my ID card to release a print job, does that get charged to me? !A: If you are a student, YES. All students get $33 of free printing at the beginning of each year. After you have run out of paper funds, you can visit the College Cashier’s office to add additional funds or purchase a print code card in the Library. The card code works like an iTunes gift card. Instructions on how to enter this one-time use code are printed on the card.!B: If you are a faculty or staff member, NO. Your charges are all directly billed to your department. If you have personal print jobs, please keep up with these and send a personal check to the Cashiers office with “personal printing” and your department in the memo field. Your funds will reimburse your department.Q: How do students access their PaperCut® account online?!A: Centre’s PaperCut® web login can be found through the Centrenet icon launchpad or directly at http://papercut.centre.edu/ . Student can login with their username (without @centre.edu) and password for email.!Q: How can I login to see my printer usage and environmental impact to the campus? !A: Students, faculty and staff can login to the same web interface at https://papercut.centre.edu/ to view their paper usage and see their personal environmental footprint from their print activities throughout the academic year and how their use contributes to the College’s overall paper use.!Q: How can I help reduce paper use on-campus? !A: Use and encourage the use of scanning across campus. Each new Lexmark 7155 printer features scanning and scan to email functionality. Every scan could mean one less printed page.!More information can be found on our ITS FAQ page at helpdesk.centre.edu online!!AND again, if you need assistance with Lexmark MFP units, please call the Technology Support Center Helpdesk at x5575 or email us at [email protected].
�5August 19, 2014
What is the Centrenet NeXT online newsletter? !The Centrenet NeXT online newsletter is the digital replacement for the campus email newsletter “Noteworthy.” Faculty and staff (students can post to this newsletter through a faculty advisor) can post announcements of events, important dates, reminders and other notifications important to the entire campus community. !The postings do not stop with the appearance through the Centrenet page! Items posted on the general information area are also distributed to digital signage around campus as well as by email to those who have subscribed to the email notifications.!Got something to sell or need to buy something? Students, faculty and staff are also able to post classified ads in the Classifieds section of the newsletter page (username and password is required). !Try it out today on Centrenet at https://centrenet.centre.edu!!!!
ALERT! CENTRE STUDENTS PLEASE READ!!! !Incoming students and returning students!!!!ALL OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION TO CENTRE COLLEGE STUDENTS IS DONE THROUGH COLLEGE ELECTRONIC MAIL (@CENTRE.EDU). MAKE SURE TO CHECK YOUR ACCOUNT OFTEN! !We really cannot stress this enough! The last thing you need in your academic year is a missed email message from your professors, the Academic Dean or the College Registar so make sure to…STAY IN THE LOOP!!!!FACULTY: Please stress this to your students! Thanks!
SO LONG CALLISTO. HELLO LISTS! !The time has come to say goodbye to our old listserv
system called “callisto.” We have now moved to a new, updated system called “lists.centre.edu”. !
The most important thing for you to remember is when you are sending to moderated campus email
lists, SEND TO @LISTS.CENTRE.EDU and NO LONGER TO @CALLISTO.CENTRE.EDU. (example:
for sending to all College staff, send to “[email protected].”)
Major Technology Development Project UpdatesI. Jenzabar CX to JX Project !We are continuing to work with Jenzabar to prepare for a possible move to some of their new JX (Java Extended) product modules, targeted for summer 2015. Centre College has used their CX/ CARS software product since the early-90s. Any move from this platform would be HUGE in database migration terms. This fall, we will be starting a major push for database clean-up and prep that will take several months to complete. !Jenzabar is on target to complete several new modules for the new JX project this year and next year. While we are cleaning up our current database records, we are watching carefully to see how early adopters are doing with the new JX modules. In our case, it is very good to be a late-comer to a new product, waiting for most of the bugs to be worked out of the new software.!We are targeting late spring term or early summer for possible upgrades to our current CX system as the JX modules progress. More information will be communicated to offices on our direction as well as Jenzabar’s progress.!!II. Campus Document Management & Imaging !Last fall, we suspended our implementation of the Perceptive ImageNow® to reevaluate the direction of our campus document management and imaging. After many discussions with various
offices, it was clear that we needed to move in a different direction for many reasons. After several months of internal discussion on institutional needs, a review committee aided the process of looking at needed
services and needed software for effective and affordable document management, we have have found a strong partner for
institutional scanning in KUSI (Kentucky Underground Storage, Inc.). Soon after, we adopted an open source document management software package called Alfresco Community and repurposed equipment to be used with the Perceptive project for this new software.!The use of Alfresco will save the College nearly $600,000 in licensing, maintenance and expansion costs over the coming 5 years while providing affordable, reliable and easy-to-use software for the long-term to many offices across the campus (at no additional software licensing cost to the College).!As we continue to develop this software for our campus, we will make it more and more convenient to use from within Centrenet for faculty and staff.!!!
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III. Extensive Cognos Administrative Reporting Project !At the beginning of 2014, we began working with a number of College offices on Cognos reports that would help them get more use out of the data from our College systems. Using our data for better analytics and business intelligence will help Centre to know and understand our institution and our College community (internal and extended) better in order to find operational efficiencies. ITS is currently working with Institutional Research and the Finance Office on reporting that will help them each make better decisions for the College. The project has already shown great success and we are continuing to develop more reporting resources for other departments.!IV. Upgrade to Email Listservs - So long Callisto, long live Lists! !Over the summer, we completed a move from a fairly old listserv system in Callisto to a newer system called “Sympa.” As open source software, Sympa doesn’t cost the College in licensing fees and is designed to be an easy-to-use and manage system for emailing large groups of people at once.!PLEASE NOTE THAT NOW you will email moderated listserv groups to @lists.centre.edu instead of @callisto.centre.edu. For example, emailing the moderated listserv for faculty is “[email protected].”!V. Development of Centrenet’s GROUPS module !ITS has been working with many several departments on-campus on using the “GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS” module in our JICS Centrenet portal software. This software allows campus groups and organizations to communicate with and track their membership through an integrated portal. This membership information can then be tracked and documented for students’ organizational involvement information in students’ records. This new functionality is found in the “Organizations” tab after you have logged into Centrenet.!Currently, Student Life (clubs & organizations) and Athletics (intramural) are taking advantage of this newly implemented feature in Centrenet.!VI. Central College Form Repository on Centrenet !Over the last 6 months, ITS has been working with a host of College departments to create one central repository for all College forms and documents. This project is ongoing but management of these forms has been distributed to individual departments. Participating departments are currently: Academic Affairs, Finance Office, Human Resources and Student Life. If you have College forms that need to be added to this page, please email [email protected].
�7August 19, 2014
Save the date! Wednesday, October 8, 2014 for the College Technology Forum
!!!
�8August 19, 2014
David AbneyWeb Developer/[email protected]
Daniel ClarkTechnology Support [email protected]
Keith FowlkesDirector for Information TechnologyServices & Chief Information [email protected]
Dave FreyAssociate Director ofInformation Technology [email protected]
Susan KirkpatrickTechnology Support [email protected]
Allen LeviSystems and Security [email protected]
Patrick LoweAcademic Systems [email protected]
Donna PhillipsTelecommunications [email protected]
Russ StrunkUser Support & Helpdesk [email protected]
Shane WilsonSenior Systems & Networks [email protected]
Stacie YatesSenior Database Programmer/[email protected]
2014-2015 Centre College Information Technology Services Staff DirectoryAll General Support Issues call 859-238-5575 or email us at [email protected]
Call us at the Helpdesk
at x5575 or email
