Training
The August schedule for on-campus training is now on the web. Have you tried a class through ElementK yet? The courses available online include web page creation and design, spreadsheets, and word processing. Some are instructor-led, and others are self-paced. For instance, if you're frustrated using Excel, check out the variety of Excel classes offered at ElementK. Perhaps you haven't yet mastered WordPerfect 9; ElementK offers self-paced courses for WP. Give Jacob a call at 43929 and he'll get you registered in ElementK. You can then select the courses you'd like to take anytime throughout the next year.

Fall Semester Preparation
Send in your requests for lab space for your classes now. Ken Clark is making the schedule now. Send him e-mail at ucs_kdc with the number of students expected and the times.

The programming staff members are focusing on installing Blackboard 5, FrontPage 2000, and Active Server Pages for use in time for the Fall Semester.

Blackboard 5
We hope to have Blackboard loaded very soon. We will notify you via e-mail as soon as it's ready for testing. It can be used to enhance your lecture class with supporting information from the web, or it can be used for creating a standalone web-based class. We will be having Blackboard trainers come to SHSU during the fall semester to help you prepare for the Spring semester. We have several faculty attending a BB training session at Texas Woman's University August 11th.

SamInfo-Web
The program to allow students to change their majors and minors has now been placed on the Web. Students may use this before they file an official degree plan. The program for students to look at their degree plans now has a new streamlined interface. We have also added the Registration Status and Registration History reports. These programs are all available from the Registrar's link on SamInfo.

Telephone - FYI
The University is participating in the TEXAN 2000 Telecommunications contract. The cutover was made in late June. We anticipate the telephone long distance charges to the departments will be cut in half.

The residence hall students may use SamLD, the on-campus long distance service. This service has been offered for the past two years, and the pricing has just been lowered. It's now approximately 10 cents per minute with no access fees. Students may pay their long distance bills along with their other fees at the Cashier's Office---or via the SamInfo-Web credit card payment. One change for the students this fall will be dialing 31 from their room phones to access SamLD instead of 61. If you interact with students in Housing, please help share this information.

This fall we will be publishing a combined student/staff/faculty phone directory. In order to get this to the printer in a timely fashion, we're requesting your assistance in assigning your office phone numbers to your faculty and staff as quickly as possible. We will be sending you the phone list to update this month and would appreciate a fast turnaround.

Printing
If you require your students to access large amounts of information from the Internet, please encourage them to print this two-sided---so we save as many trees as possible. The following Computer Services labs provide duplex printing: AB1 144, NGL 200, CJC A104, AB2 110, AB2 119, EVC 212, and LDB 203.

Grade Entry
Reminder: The Registrar's Office is resetting faculty personal identification numbers (PIN's) August 2nd.

If you need help with your NELL password, come by the Helpdesk in AB1, 147 with your faculty I.D.