Spam Mail

Many of you had notified us that you were once again feeling deluged with the amount of unpleasant solicitations and garbage. In response, we recently lowered the Spam filter from 20 to 13. So now the mail server will automatically trash any mail that is evaluated with a total of the key markers equalling 13. At this point, if it's calculated as over 9 and up to 13, you will still get the mail; it'll just be labeled that it MIGHT be Spam. Then you can decide quickly whether you want to read it or not.

As before, if you would like to automatically trash anything that is labeled as Spam, you can do so. Instructions are available to filter the Spam mail directly to your trash if you use Netscape, Eudora, Outlook, or Entourage. Log in to Blackboard with your SHSU username and password, and follow the step-by-step instructions detailed for each e-mail program.

SHSU GUI Administrative Menu

We're looking for suggestions. What should we call the Graphical Administrative Menu? It was recently suggested to us by one of the deans that calling it the GUI (gooey) menu was bad! So help us rename it. The purpose of this conversion is to help provide easy-to-use screen displays, and also allow you to quickly print administrative information.

Write us back, and give us some ideas. Each person that sends in a suggestion will be placed in a drawing for a memory stick. You can' t win if you don't enter. We already have SamInfo, SamNet, and SamWeb. As you can see, we've reached the end of our creativity. Send us yours.

New Software

• A new version of Paint Shop Pro 7 is now available from SHSU Program Installation\Presentation\Paint Shop Pro 7.
• Adobe Acrobat 6 is currently in final testing and should be released before the start of the Fall Semester.
• We have a package for Quark XPress 5.01 but need volunteers to test it on the PC platform. E-mail Steven Piraino with your node number and he can send you a test package.

Blackboard

August 20th will usher in a new Fall semester, and a new Blackboard. Our test migration to Blackboard 6.0 has been a success thus far and we are looking to do the real migration just before school starts. If you are interested in learning how to operate in the new Blackboard environment, we highly encourage you to attend one of our two Blackboard Orientation sessions in August. The Blackboard 6.0 Orientation sessions will take place in the Olson Auditorium in AB4 on August 18th from 2 – 4pm and August 19th from 10am – 12pm. We will have refreshments and the buzz on the new Blackboard. We look forward to seeing you there!

Lab News

The Evans 157 Lab has been closed at the request of the English Department, and a new lab, Evans 360 is under construction.

If your students need to use a Macintosh, there are labs in the Rather Building. For use other than the scheduled times in Rather, there are Macintoshes in the AB1, 144 lab, and we are adding four Macintoshes to the Newton Gresham Library Lab.

All the Computer Services labs have some machines with zip drives or CDRW's. Encourage your students to use these or memory sticks. Reminder: The AB4 lab, 203 does not have floppy drives.

Telephone Directory

Remember the deadline for your information for the new 2003-2004 telephone directory is August 5th. The Publisher charges us extra if we're late---so we have no choice about the timeframe. We want it to be as accurate as possible, so please help by returning your changes to us as soon as possible. Just drop your pages by the Helpdesk in AB1, 147 or send to Box 2082.

Have you created an e-mail alias yet? If not, now's the time to do so. We can still print it in the new phone directory if you do it right away. With your new alias, you can use your name instead of having to give people an e-mail address with the underscore and department abbreviation. You can do this yourself online through the SamInfo link, Computer Accounts, E-mail Alias Request. You will receive a confirmation e-mail within a couple of days.

Security

Have an old PC or Macintosh that you're turning in to Property? First call Computer Services Helpdesk at 41950. For security reasons, we need to ensure that all data is cleared off your machine before it's sold. Just ask us to do a work order to pick it up, and we'll erase the hard disk for you. Then we will have Property pick it up from us for resale.

A federal law, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, sets many restrictions on the protection of our "customer" information. We need to ensure we do not release any information on our students, faculty, or staff. It actually is a federal case now! If you want to know more about how this impacts your records, requirements are listed in the National Association of College and Business Officers (NACUBO) Report. From the NACUBO page, you select Advisory Report Archive, and then 2003-01 Colleges and Universities Subject to New FTC Rules Safeguarding Customer Information. The University has drafted a policy on this; it is linked from the main University site from the Privacy Link. If you have any questions about how your department can comply with these guidelines, e-mail Mark Adams, the Information Security Plan Coordinator for SHSU.

In last month's Update we strongly urged you to reset your passwords. Only 50 people did so. Your password is even more critical for security now since we no longer require you to use the PIN for many of the transactions. Since password protection is the most basic form of security that we legally must be providing, we will be setting expiration times on your Windows/E-mail passwords in the future. Please change yours now so you won't be inconvenienced by it expiring.

Account Creation

We realize that you want your new staff and faculty to have access to their desktop computers immediately. We want to expedite the account creation process as much as we can, while maintaining a careful control over access. These two goals are almost always contradictory! However, you can create their accounts for use for e-mail and logging on PCs immediately---once their information is in the Human Resource system, and they have a SamID number. Then you print out the actual form if they will need Nell access, get the necessary signatures, and send that to us.