Ups and Downs

As an enhancement to the security infrastructure, we will be upgrading a portion of the SHSU local area network. On Friday, July 28th, there will be a brief period of downtime in the morning, starting at 9 a.m. This downtime will impact wireless connections, as well as, non-SHSU-install machines that are plugged into a port. Save often during this a.m. timeframe.

On August 10th, the AB1 long-awaited Server Room renovation and changeover will be officially made. This will require a period of downtime during the night on Thursday, the 10th, as we literally unplug machines and move them. We will do everything possible to minimize any inconvenience. The changeover is scheduled to start at approximately 10 p.m.

Parking and BearkatOneCard

New this Fall: As of August 1st, you may pay for your 2006-2007 parking sticker by credit card online. You will still pick up your sticker at the UPD office at Sam South. Login to SamWeb; under Financial System, select Parking Sticker payment.

Also as of August 1st, the University will begin to strictly enforce the Bearkat OneCard activation policy. The policy requires all faculty and staff activate the University ID, Bearkat OneCard. In order to buy your parking permit, attend Bearkat ballgames, use the HKC fitness center, and/or check out books at NGL, you will need an active card.

You are strongly encouraged to check online to verify that your ID card is activated. You may also contact the Bearkat OneCard Office at 294-CARD for assistance.

Please note: Activation of the Bearkat OneCard ID does not require activation of the optional OneAccount. Activation of the ID card is simply required for university access and security measures.

Attendance Initiative

ROST09RG, Attendance Rosters, is a new option on Sam Menu, under Faculty Reports. This program is designed to help faculty comply with the federal guidelines for financial aid and student attendance records.

Faculty may use this individually, or a departmental staff member could print attendance rosters for the entire department. With ROST09RG, you can select a single section or all departmental sections.  Iif wanted, the departmental secretary can print every professors' rosters for that day (or select another day of the week) and print the rosters, sorted by faculty name. She/he can then distribute the attendance rosters to each faculty mailbox as a tool to allow them to record attendance.

SamMenu Option allowing Least Privilege

On Sam Menu, programs may have different levels of access. Administrative owners of programs may control who has access to their programs at what level with a new program, MITX05MG. The special access levels that are available for a program are listed at the bottom.

For instance, you may want certain users to have View access only, and others to be able to modify only a couple of fields, and others to have complete Add/Modify/Delete privileges. If your program has already been created in this manner, you may use this MITX05MG program to assign levels by username. If your program does not yet have levels that you need, you may do a Software WO for these changes through SamWeb, and that will be added to the queue of requests.

Note: Users must still be added through the standard request/approve options from the menu. Once they have been approved they can be "maintained" (changed/deleted) with MITX05MG.

Home Security

Aon offers some tips for working from home. One bit of advice is to make sure you completely turn off your laptop with a shutdown before bringing it back to work. Some viruses remain in memory only as long as the computer is on. If your PC is in standby mode, it could still be infected when you return to campus.

Training

It is the time of year that lots of new faculty and staff are arriving. We would be glad to provide departmental or one-on-one training for your new folks. Please contact us to request training.

Blackboard

Want to give extra credit with Blackboard's Gradebook?

1. Create/add a gradebook item worth one point that does not participate in gradebook calculations.
2. Give everyone that one point as a give-away. 
3. Then, weight your gradebook so that this one point corresponds to 1% of the overall course grade. 
4. Then any percentage point of extra credit that you want to give a student is assigned in that item's column.  For example, two points of extra final credit would mean the student should have a 3 in this column. 

For more Blackboard Questions and Answers, stop by the Blackboard FAQ pages in Blackboard Central .

Account Creation

New computer accounts can be created online within SamWeb for faculty and staff, as well as students and correspondence students. The paper form is no longer needed UNLESS your new faculty/staff members meet one of these three criteria:

• Your new staff member is transferring from another department, and has the departmental prefix as part of their current username.
• Your new faculty/staff member already has a student account with the STD prefix.
• Your new staff member needs Nell access.

Mail Services Relocating

The temporary building is now here. The move of the campus mail service to the area close to the Art Department and the Chemistry-Forensic Science building is anticipated to be sometime after August 7th and before the Fall semester starts. (Still waiting on exact date!)

Window hours will be expanded after the move. Since students will not have actual mailboxes, it will be especially important that all mail be addressed correctly and include the student's SamID as mail will be sorted using this number.

In the past, student local and permanent addresses were only three lines. Addresses will now be four lines to accommodate the need for the SamID line. You may need to modify your mail merge programs that you use with downloaded Nell or SamMenu addresses. Contact the Helpdesk if you need assistance.

New Staff

We are pleased to announce the addition to the programming staff of Brent Campbell (BJC005). Brent is a cum laude May 2006 SHSU graduate with a B.S. in Computing Science. Brent's primary area will be cobol programming for administrative software.

Jurden Bruce (jeb017) is joining the staff as our new webmaster. Jurden attended the University of South Alabama, and has had his own web design consulting business. He is relocating to the area from the state of Washington.

What's Good, What's Not and What's Happening When?

The Helpdesk provides support for university equipment and software on the local area network. Each month's Update will includes the versions of software and minimum requirements for hardware with the new or changed information highlighted and bolded.

• Memory Sticks: Purchase (and encourage your students to buy) flash drives that are USB Mass Storage Compliant.
• Operating Systems: The supported version of Macintosh machines is OS X, versions 2, 3, and 4. The supported version of Microsoft's Operating System is Windows XP.
• Software Packages: The supported versions of Office suites are Microsoft's Office 2003 and WordPerfect 12 for PC's and Microsoft Office 2004 for Macintoshes.
• Hardware Configurations: The minimum requirement for SHSU Local Area Network support for a PC is a 1Ghz processor, with 512mb RAM, and a 40GB disk. The minimum requirement for a Macintosh on the LAN is a 733 mhz processor, with 512mb RAM, and a 40GB disk.
• Computer Services may schedule significant periods of downtime for major system upgrades and maintenance. For your planning purposes, the weekend following each Graduation will be set aside for scheduled outages.

Approved for campus-wide e-mail distribution by Associate Vice President Jim Stevens