Sam's Board

Have you browsed through the Bulletin Board yet? It's a link off the main University page under News & Info. You can create your own screen name and be a vocal part of communicating with our students and visitors. In the past ten weeks, the number of Board members has risen by almost 50%. This open forum addresses approximately 400 topics--so you can see there's a wide variety of interests for the Sam community. We need you to be proactive; listen to the student concerns and questions.

Students are venting about Orientation, talking about politics, questioning policies, and just getting to know one another. Please jump in to the Sam conversation. After all, it might be your department they're talking about!

SHSU GUI Administrative Menu

We are just now adding the Section Maintenance function to the GUI menu. You'll be able to update your Fall 2003 sections as of July 14th on the SHSU GUI Menu using SECT01MG under the Miscellaneous category. The Registrar's office will be offering training on using the new programs. Two training sessions will be offered: Wednesday the 16th and Thursday the 17th. Each session will be at 2 p.m. in NGL 200. Let us know you're attending----reserve your place now.

Computer Services will also be there to help if you have any questions about the GUI menu system itself. If you haven't yet tried using it instead of Nell, take this opportunity to find out more. Other new options are POST41RG and POST40RG. These provide you with the Account Detail by Reference, and Account Detail by Account and are now under the Financial System category.

Under the Payroll category, we now have PBUD28RG, Personnel Budget Records. You can use this program to view all the payroll transactions for an individual for that fiscal year. This view also provides the job title, pay grade, and the minimum and maximum scales for that grade.

Sharing Large Files

Last month we suggested you save your large files on the Unix server where the web documents are stored. We recommended you upload the file(s) to your web space and post a link to the particular file in your e-mail. 

This month, we have a follow-up tip. You can use Winzip to password protect files. If your information is sensitive or confidential, this will give you a further assurance that only the person that you want to access it will. Another suggestion is that you then communicate with your recipient to ensure you can delete it promptly once they've downloaded it themselves.

Training

July is Hands on Training Month for faculty and staff at Sam Houston. Jump in and “learn by doing” in 3 separate and very useful courses.

Faculty, bring your syllabi, class notes and PowerPoint presentations and get them online during our Getting your Course Materials on Blackboard course.

Learn how to exchange large files via the Internet without bogging down any e-mail server by enrolling in the Large File Exchange course. Finally organize your address book and clean out the clutter of a spam filled Inbox by completing the Microsoft Outlook: Distribution Lists & Spam Filtering course.

Just Boxes, Not PO Boxes

Here's a quirky change! Sam Houston State University addresses should not have the P.O. abbreviation as part of the official mailing address. The University actually owns the boxes in the Mail Services area, not the United States Postal Service. The USPS has asked us to not use the P.O. in our addresses. So the next time you're revising your business cards, stationery, web pages, or other documents, just put your department name, and then Box XXXX, instead of including the P.O. abbreviation. (This would also hold true if you have a personal box here on campus; drop the PO from your address.)

SHSU Help

There's an icon on your PC desktop that says SHSU Help. Macintosh users may also access this from the Blackboard fast link. Bb is the academic course management system, but it's also a great way to communicate easily, and provide in-house training. Your username and password are the same as you use for your e-mail. All the Computer Services software guides are being moved into Blackboard.

Staff/faculty now have a section just for them in this system with the documentation and step-by-step guides that affect them. You can also suggest that your students access their section. You can post questions, suggestions, or other ideas to the discussion forums with Bb. One of the members of the web/faculty support team will post a prompt reply.

Security

Change your passwords! We know it's a hassle trying to remember it, but it is essential for our University system's protection. Here's a tip for ways to make the password something hard to guess, while easier for you to remember it.

1. Substitute a letter with a number. For instance, decide that an S will always be an 8, an A will equal a 4, or an I will be replaced by a 1.
2. Use Capital letters part of the time.
3. Then think of a phrase saying something memorable or fun, and use just the first letters of each word.

For instance: I think Disney World is fabulous would give me the password of 1tDW1f. At first glance, this sounds really complicated, but it would take a very long time to hack so it's good for our system. And you're almost guaranteed that as you say the sentence to yourself each time you log in with your nonsensical password, you'll smile.

Administrative Printing

Since many of you are now using the Web PDF print for your Nell files, much of your printing can be done in your office. As you know, there are still some files that are being printed at the Computer Services Helpdesk area. To save you a trip across campus to pick these up, the Mail Services area will be including these in your departmental mail deliveries. If you do NOT want this personal delivery, and would instead prefer to pick them up, please notify Lucrecia Neff by e-mail