It is time to think about your spring semester classroom technology needs and we would be most grateful if you could submit your requests by October 16th. This date is earlier than it has been in past years as a key ITS staff member will be on leave beginning December and we want to allow ample time for testing the lab and classroom setup for the spring semester.

To see the services and software we currently offer in the computer labs and classrooms, please visit http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x23259.xml. From here you can request any additional needs you may have.

If you have any questions, please contact Shauna'h Fuegen, Student Computing Services Coordinator.

Thank you for helping us better serve your computing needs.

We had the pleasure of assisting approximately 255 students at the computer setup fair. Check out some of the pictures.

In the rapidly changing face of online communications, Information Technology Services (ITS) is staying nimble and meeting students where they are on Facebook and Twitter. These social-networking sites serve as direct discussion forums between Davidson students and ITS staff. Read all about it at:

http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x36726.xml

Inside Davidson, the new campus intranet, is now up and running. Beginning this fall, campus communication will increasingly be made available in Inside Davidson. Reports from the various strategic implementation teams, payroll pay stubs, minutes from faculty meetings, etc - will be posted to Inside Davidson. We ask you to set Inside Davidson as your startup webpage. For assistance with changing your default page - please email the Help Desk (helpdesk@davidson.edu) or call extension 2900. You may also follow the instructions below

Safari - Mac
Firefox - Mac

Internet Explorer - Windows
Firefox - Windows

We are pleased to announce the addition of the Plan-A-Meeting feature to Event Management Systems (EMS).
When you visit the EMS Website, and make a 'Room Request', you will see new options to add events to your personal calendar and email calendar invitations to attendees.

How to: Invite attendees to your events using the Plan-A-Meeting feature in EMS.

EMS is used by the campus community to coordinate the requests and booking of spaces and services on campus. (More EMS Info and FAQ's).

EMS documentation and training videos can be found on Blackboard.

If you have questions, please contact the Help Desk (helpdesk@davidson.edu, x-2900).

To keep our campus wireless system secure and virus free, we will begin deploying a new access control system, known as Bradford Campus Manager, on Monday, August 3rd. The existing control system, Cisco Clean Access, no longer delivers the comprehensive security, performance, or coverage required for safe computing.

All college and personally owned laptops that connect to the Davidson wireless network will need to download and install the new Bradford Campus Manager software before gaining wireless access. This change does not affect office computers. The Bradford software will only need to be downloaded and installed one time per device. To install the Bradford Campus Manager and register your computer on the network, you will need to connect to the wireless network, open your browser, and follow the prompts on the screen. The requirements for gaining access to the wireless network will remain the same as they were with Cisco Clean Access. These requirements include having up-to-date Macintosh and Windows patches and an up-to-date version of Sophos Anti-Virus.

As always, we are here to help. If you need assistance or have any questions, please call or email the Help Desk (helpdesk@davidson.edu or x-2900).

Do you spend time on Facebook or Twitter? If so, you can keep up-to-date with the latest happenings at ITS using these social networking sites.

ITS at Davidson is pleased to announce its presence on both Facebook and Twitter. Follow along as we announce new initiatives, offer helpful tips and share the latest news about campus technology.

Join us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

We look forward to sharing our latest news with you, and hope that you are having an enjoyable summer.

We are pleased to formally launch Inside Davidson, a new Web-based intranet system intended to be the primary information and communication tool for employees.

We invite you to drop in and talk with faculty colleagues using technology in creative and interesting new ways to enrich teaching and learning. ITS' instructional technologists will also be available to answer questions in what will be our first annual Teaching with Technology Fair. If you have considered teaching with technology and want to learn more about what works, what does not, and how you can get started with support from ITS, please drop by the 900 Room on May 12 any time between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

We invite you to let us know about your Fall semester 2009 classroom technology and course content needs. We will work on fulfilling those needs over the summer break and ask that you submit your request by May 15, 2009. Also, our Instructional Technologists are available to work with you in preparing course content.

To see the services and software currently offered in the technology classrooms and computers labs, please visit http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x23259.xml. From here you may make additional requests. Software requested for the Spring semester 2009 will continue to be deployed for the Fall semester unless otherwise requested.

Thank you for helping us better serve your instructional computing and course content needs.

We are pleased to announce the availability of Davidson's iTunes U site located at http://itunes.davidson.edu. iTunes U, the educational component of the popular iTunes music store, is quickly emerging as a dominant new platform in the delivery of educational, instructional and cultural content in a rich media format.

A virus named "Conficker" (also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido) has been very much in the news these past few days. The virus infects Microsoft Windows computers and is reported to have an activation date of April 1st, 2009. We want to provide information to you about what ITS has done to protect our campus systems and what you can do with your home systems.

Microsoft released a patch for this virus in late 2008. Shortly after this release, ITS began requiring this patch on both student and college-owned systems connected to the Davidson network. Our primary defenses against such viruses, Sophos anti-virus and Brightmail, are constantly scanning inbound e-mail and documents for suspicious or malicious files and attachments. Both of these systems are constantly updated with new and better ways to detect viruses and block them before they reach campus computers.

For home computers, we recommend you review the Microsoft website (link below) for advice on protecting your personal computer. At the very least, ensure that your home computer is fully updated with the latest patches from Microsoft and running updated anti-virus software.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx.

ITS is interested in soliciting your feedback about all the services we provide including Help Desk, Instructional Technology, Systems & Networks, and Administrative Systems. We are pleased to offer a new and improved customer satisfaction survey which will be automatically triggered for every fifth Help Desk ticket closed (so you will not receive a survey each time you contact the Help Desk). If you receive a survey, I hope you will take a few minutes to tell us how we are doing. You may also contact me directly by email or at x2672.

By way of a reminder, answers to your technology questions are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through Answers Online, a self-service resource customized for your use. You may also view or create Help Desk tickets through Answers Online. I hope you will take advantage of this valuable tool. Contact Lydia Lorenzin (x2431) if you have any suggestions for improving Answers Online.

DukeNet, our Internet service provider, is planning equipment maintenance this Wednesday, March 4th. Their work begins at 6:00 a.m. and may continue until 7:30 a.m. During this window all external network connectivity will be unavailable, VPN services included.

If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them to Robert Lee (rolee@davidson.edu).

DukeNet, our Internet connectivity provider, plans maintenance this Wednesday, February 4th at 6:00 a.m. We anticipate the resulting outage will be very brief--approximately five minutes. During this short window all external network connectivity will be unavailable, including VPN services.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Robert Lee by replying to this message.

On Tuesday, February 3rd, we will push install Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), long held back awaiting vendor certifications with most campus software, out to Windows computers. This version of Microsoft's browser is a substantial upgrade from Internet Explorer 6. It includes features now common in other web browsers such as anti-phishing, tabbing, and an overall better user interface. The transition will take a matter of minutes, be done in the background, and you may continue to work as usual during the process.

When you open Internet Explorer 7 for the first time you will be redirected to a "Customize Your Settings" page. Please select the following:

Section A. Please select "Keep my current default search provider." Section B. Please place a √ beside "Turn on automatic phishing filter" Please leave all other options as they are by default. After you "Save your settings" you may take a tour of the new features of Internet 7 or close your browser.

If you would like to take a tour of IE 7 before the upgrade, please see http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/tour/fre/interface/. Please do not download it from the Microsoft web site. For future support and maintenance, we will install it on your computer via the campus network.

Beginning Monday January 19th, there will be a change in the way campus guests obtain access to the wireless network. The change keeps us compliant with current legal requirements. Anyone planning a visit to campus may request a temporary guest account in advance of their visit. Similarly, sponsors bringing visitors to campus may request temporary guest accounts. During regular business hours, guest access may be obtained by contacting the Help Desk (helpdesk@davidson.edu or x-2900). After hours, guests may obtain access at the following locations: Library Reference Desk, Guest House and Campus Center. For more information about this change, please visit: http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x34549.xml

Spring courses are now loaded onto Blackboard. As a courtesy to students, we will make all fall semester 2008 courses "unavailable" on January 08, 2009. The courses will still be visible to you. If you have any questions or want additional training on Blackboard, please do not hesitate to contact an ITS Instructional Technologist.

We also remind you to let us know about your spring semester 2009 classroom technology needs. We will work on fulfilling those needs over the winter break. To see the services and software we currently offer in the computer labs and classrooms, please visit http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x23259.xml. From this site you may make additional requests. Software requested for fall semester 2008 will continue to be deployed for the spring semester unless otherwise requested.

In an effort to make it easier to find lab computers and check for availability, ITS is pleased to introduce a new service that allows students to find open lab computers in real-time online. The new service should be particularly useful during finals when labs are crowded, helping avoid the frustration of walking from lab to lab to find an open computer.

Visit the ITS website and click on the "Available Lab Computers" link under the "Resources" section. From there you can check all the campus computer labs. If you are interested in finding a specific computer type (Windows or Mac), the map link will show you a visual layout of each lab and display information on operating systems available on each lab computer.

As always, we welcome your feedback on how we can improve this service and/or your overall campus computing experience.

ITS is pleased to announce a new sustainability initiative that will improve the student printing experience at Davidson. PawPrint allows students to actively manage their printing in the public labs and contribute to a greener Davidson. Phase one of PawPrint begins this week in the Student Computing Center in the lower level of Belk. ITS anticipates that PawPrint will lead to a reduction in paper and toner, as well as a more organized and efficient system of printing. There is no charge to use PawPrint.

How does PawPrint Work?

• Print from any computer in the lab
• Swipe your CatCard at one of the printers
• Select which of your documents you want to print from the touch screen
• Retrieve your document(s) from the printer

In addition to the environmental benefits of conserving paper and toner, PawPrint provides the potential to offer enhanced services to students in the future, such as:

• Photocopying
• Color Printing
• The ability to retrieve printed documents from any public printer on campus

If you would like to learn more about PawPrint, please see:

http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x33387.xml

Information Technology Services recently improved campus security systems and simultaneously reduced the recurring operating costs by moving to Internet protocol (IP) communications. Prior to this change, two phone lines connected each alarm panel to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) for primary and backup communications. The system required 140 dedicated phone lines to communicate with a central monitoring service. By moving the communications to the campus PBX switch and the Internet, ITS was able to eliminate direct connections to the PSTN for each alarm panel, significantly reducing the system's recurring costs. For more details, click the link below:

http://www.cbpmagazine.com/article.php?articleid=260

We are very pleased to announce the rollout of a new service called ITS Answers Online to extend and enhance campus technology support. The new service is a comprehensive database of answers to technology issues. This rich web-based resource allows searching on Davidson-specific solutions and a collection of over 150,000 solutions from vendors such as Adobe, Apple, Blackboard, Microsoft and SCT Banner. Starting on Monday, September 29th, you can access this new resource from the ITS website (http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x1108.xml).

If you are unable to find the solution to your question, a link on the website will open an ITS Help Desk ticket for you to detail your inquiry. You will also be able to review your open and closed Help Desk tickets.

To learn more about this new service, please plan to attend an Information Session on Monday, September 29th from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. in Alvarez 313 of the Knobloch Campus Center.

NITLE Update - September 2008.pdf

Please check out the September 2008 NITLE opportunities by clicking on the link above. If you wish to attend any of these opportunities, please email Mur Muchane

As part of our campus sustainability efforts, we hope you will elect to use an eco-friendly online AT&T phone directory instead of the traditional paper-based phone books we distribute each fall. To access the online AT&T phone books, browse to www.realpageslive.com You may search on the main page using City, Community or Zip or you may click on the state of North Carolina and it will show you all the NC directories.

If you wish to have a hard copy of the phone books, please contact the ITS Help Desk and we will get the books out to you.

This Saturday morning (8/30) beginning at 12:01 a.m. our Internet Service Provider, NC-REN (the North Carolina Research and Education Network) is performing major maintenance on the communications equipment into which all Charlotte area colleges and universities connect.

Because of this maintenance, we expect the campus to be without Internet access on August 30, between 12:01 a.m. and 6:00 a.m.

Beginning in 2003, ITS implemented a wireless (Wi-Fi) network that has since been expanded to cover virtually every indoor and outdoor gathering space -- classrooms, labs, residence halls, library, offices, etc. Encryption, sometimes referred to as Wi-Fi security, was not originally implemented because of limitations in hardware and software owned by students and the college. Practically, the absence of Wi-Fi encryption means web browsing to addresses that start with http instead of https could be potentially compromised by electronic eavesdropping.

Advances in hardware and operating systems have eased the implementation of encryption and, on Tuesday, July 29th, ITS plans to replace our single wireless network, DavidsonWLAN, with two separate secure networks:

Students and personally-owned laptop computers will connect to WildcatNet.

Employees using college-owned laptop computers will connect to DavidsonSecure.

The unsecured DavidsonWLAN will remain available for guest access and non-computer devices (cell phones, PDAs and other such devices that have wireless capability).

Please follow these instructions to set up your laptop computer on the appropriate network.

As always, if you have questions or need assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk at helpdesk@davidson.edu or ext. 2900.

Below are the latest opportunities from NITLE, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education. Please note there is a new call for Instructional Innovation Fund (IIF) proposals with a deadline of May 15th, 2008.

There is a nomination process and it is simply letting me (Mur Muchane) know which opportunity you are interested in.

On Monday, March 24 ITS will be upgrading its Internet service with an approximately 50% boost in speed, from 42 megabits per second to 62 megabits per second. At the same time, we are building in growth potential for speeds as fast as one gigabit.

Please take a moment to review the NITLE opportunities below.There is a nomination process and it is simply letting me (Mur Muchane) know which opportunity you are interested in. These are open to faculty, technologists and librarians.

Faculty and staff email accounts will be moved to an Exchange 2007 email server on Friday, September 21st, at 5:00 p.m. Your email quota will increase from 100MB to 1GB.

Students returning to campus for the new semester will find a world-class campus-wide wireless (Wi-Fi) network. The new high-speed, high-performance Wi-Fi network will provide mobile broadband access to students, faculty and staff throughout most of the buildings and grounds of the campus.

Your colleagues in Information Technology Services are pleased to introduce our new ITS News Blog. For those not conversant with the term, a Blog is simply a web-based journal that is frequently updated with news. We have retired the monthly ITS newsletter and moved to this new format to provide you with campus technology news on an ongoing basis rather than through a monthly publication. Better yet, our new Blog is intended as an interactive exchange allowing you, our clients, to post your comments and reactions to the posted technology news stories.

As we interact with you in this new medium, a large part of our work will be listening to you. We look forward to your comments on what you are looking to accomplish with technology, how you anticipate your IT needs changing over time, what you like about what is currently available and what you need that is not currently offered.

It is our hope that patterns emerging from your responses will guide us as we plan for current and future technology services to better serve you.

A recent survey of higher education institutions by the Campus Computing Project showed that generating reports from enterprise administrative systems, such as Banner, to be among the key challenges faced by many colleges and universities. Administrative systems are primarily intended and designed to manage vital campus resources and functions – admission and financial aid, academic affairs, student life, college relations, human resources, business and finance, and more. The critical nature of the day-to-day transactions, such as tracking grades or recording donor gifts, coupled with the complexity of the thousands of tables found in such integrated databases makes administrative systems ill-suited for reporting purposes.

As Davidson’s liaison to the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE, pronounced as “nightly”), I invite you to participate in the broad range of opportunities offered through this organization. NITLE, a non-profit organization funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, offers a range of programming geared toward creating transformative learning experiences for and with students by applying technology in innovative ways.

Programming is offered in three general categories:
Professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.
Conferences, meetings, and seminars tailored around specific technology topics
Collaborative curricular development such as Sunoikisis and Al-Musharaka. Under Sunoikisis, inter-institutional collaborative team-taught courses in Classics have been developed. A similar collaboration under Al-Musharaka is growing in studies related to the Arab and Islamic worlds.

There is a nomination process and it is simply letting me know which opportunity you are interested in. As you look at the next three months of opportunities below, keep in mind our subscription to NITLE covers expenses for travel, food, and accommodation.

Emerging Technologies and the Liberal Arts Campus. Program Dates: December 8, 2006. Union College. Deadline: Friday, October 27. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1215

Copyright and Digital Materials. Program Dates: January 7 – 9, 2007. Honnold/Mudd Library of the Claremont University Consortium. Deadline: Wednesday, November 1. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1142

Managing Digital Collections: A Symposium on Technical and Organizational Interoperability. Program Dates: March 11 – 13, 2007. Smith College. Deadline: Wednesday, November 1. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1143

Instructional Technology Leaders Conference. Program Dates: March 26 – 28, 2006. DePauw University. Deadline: Wednesday, November 1. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1146

New Music and Media. Program Dates: April 12 – 15, 2007. Colorado College. Deadline: Wednesday, November 1. Details forthcoming.

Teaching with Media Resources in Middle Eastern and Asian Studies. Program Dates: April 27 – 29, 2007. Lake Forest College. Deadline: Wednesday, November 1. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1148

Introducing GIS (iGIS). Program Dates: December 14 - 16, 2006. Nomination Deadline: Friday, November 3. Location: Beloit College. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1217
Multimedia Narrative. Program Dates: December 18 - 20, 2006. Nomination Deadline: Wednesday, November 15. Location: Skidmore College. http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/content/view/full/1127

Mur Muchane

As we settle into a new semester, this seems like an appropriate time to look ahead and share our plans for the coming year. But, first, let's take a quick look back at where we’ve just been. As many of you know, ITS made a special effort this past year to study our organizational structure and revisit everything we do and the services we provide through fresh eyes. Our goal had two components: first, assess how we are doing; and, second, look for ways to improve technology services and support. Your input through our campus surveys and many conversations with faculty and staff have shaped our organization and the delivery of technology services.

Beginning this summer, we transitioned into a new structure comprised of the following five service units:

Application Development - responsible for enterprise systems such as Banner and application integration.

Business Services - responsible for budgeting, contracts, licensing, invoicing, capital projects, and general administrative services.

Instructional Technology and Media Production - responsible for supporting faculty in teaching, learning, and research as well as audiovisual support in and out of the classroom.

Technology Help Services - responsible for the Help Desk, office and residence hall support, and computer labs.

Systems and Networks - responsible for the network, servers, telephones and cable TV.

Now, let's look ahead. This summer members of ITS management spent a productive and enjoyable two days on the campus of Wake Forest doing our strategic planning for the 2006-07 academic year. The goals we emerged with break out into four categories. We will be talking with you about the specific tactical goals in each category as this academic year unfolds.

Client Services and Customer Satisfaction. We plan to introduce new applications including the latest Mac and PC operating systems, Leopard and Vista. We’ve planned information sessions to share all the details of changes coming to your desktop.
Training and User Education. We will partner with the new Human Resource Manager for Learning and Development to institutionalize training on a variety of fronts including Banner, Reporting, Content Management System, etc.
Application Development and Integration. We plan to begin the process of integrating Banner with systems such Blackboard and OneCard.
Enhanced Security/Disaster Recovery/System Resilience. Our goals are to document and perform a full disaster recovery of all mission critical campus systems.

As we did last academic year, we will be out and about on campus in conversation with you, our clients. As we interact with you, a large part of our work will be to listen, learn, and continue to respond.

Mur Muchane

The National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE, pronounced “nightly”) has been around since 2001. It was established as a non-profit organization with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with the stated purpose of promoting liberal education through innovation and collaboration among national liberal arts colleges.

In January 2006, NITLE was restructured under the larger umbrella of Ithaka, another non-profit organization whose mission is to help foster the acceptance of information technologies for the benefit of worldwide higher education. The “new” NITLE now encompasses and merges the formerly separate Mellon-funded regional technology centers: The Associated Colleges of the South Technology Center, based at Southwestern University; the Midwest Instructional Technology Center, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan; and the Center for Educational Technology, based in Middlebury, Vermont. Under this new NITLE management structure, the three regional technology centers will operate as a cohesive and coordinated entity to deliver the following programming to the 93 member national liberal arts colleges:

Professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.
Conferences, meetings, and seminars tailored around specific technology topics.
Collaborative curricular development such as Sunoikisis and Al-Musharaka. Under Sunoikisis, inter-institutional, collaborative, team-taught courses in Classics have been developed. A similar collaboration under Al_Musharaka is growing in studies related to the Arab and Islamic worlds.
The new NITLE is advised by five regional Advisory Councils. The councils are responsible for long-range strategic planning, advising NITLE on the issues that will face liberal arts colleges. Karen Goldstein, Davidson Vice President for Business and Finance, serves on the regional council for the south.

Each participating campus has a Liaison. My role as Davidson’s Liaison is to publicize, promote, and nominate Davidson faculty, staff, and students for NITLE opportunities. To this end, you will receive regular communication from me urging you to participate in NITLE’s wide array of opportunities. The nomination process is straight-forward; simply let me know which opportunity you are interested in. As you look at the next three months of opportunities by following the link below, keep in mind NITLE covers all expenses for travel, food, and accommodations.

http://www.nitle.org/index.php/nitle/opportunities

Mur Muchane

Barn raising, the act of coming together as a community to achieve a specific goal, is a wonderful metaphor for campus preparations currently underway for the Banner 7 upgrade. Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, barns were the largest and most costly structures built by families and essential for protecting valuable farming resources. Because many hands were required, communities raised barns. Now, fast forward to life at Davidson in the 21st century. Banner is the single largest and most costly campus computing resource. Like the barns of yesteryear, Banner is essential for virtually all functions of Davidson College. In short, Banner is the barn that is raised by the campus community to protect and facilitate our vital campus resources and functions – admission and financial aid, academic affairs, student life, college relations, human resources, business and finance, and more.

As we upgrade from Banner 6 to 7, your involvement and commitment is essential to the success of this endeavor. The Banner 7 upgrade is a significant undertaking for the college and it requires involvement of staff from all areas. We will cutover to the Banner 7 on May 29, 2006. In the weeks ahead, we will be calling on you to be energetically, enthusiastically, and fully involved in testing, training, documentation, data cleanup, data standards development, and revising procedures as necessary.

Our expectation is that each of us will commit our time, resources, and energy to make the transition to Banner 7 a success. If you have any questions or concerns, we encourage you to contact Ms. Kenitra Smith, Director of Administrative Computing (kdsmith or x2175).

Thank you in advance for your teamwork and efforts in ensuring a smooth transition to Banner 7.

Mur Muchane

In a recent survey by the Campus Computing Project, 30 percent of the respondents identified data and network security as the single most important information technology issue facing their institutions. These survey results come as no big surprise in light of the highly publicized security breaches at dozens of higher educations institutions and companies like LexixNexus and the Choice Point data services.

What is ITS Doing on the Security Front?
Shoring up the defenses against unauthorized access to campus computing resources is a continuous process and high priority for ITS. We recently completed several large projects that target enhanced security. Our approach is multi-pronged, spanning user education, best practices for desktop and centralized computing management, an arsenal of defensive tools on the network, anti-virus and operating patch management procedures among other initiatives.

Last summer we converted campus databases from using social security numbers as identifiers. An audit of Banner user accounts and permission classifications is currently underway. As part of this process, accounts identified as no longer in use have been disabled and will be removed. We have recently implemented strong passwords in Banner, passwords consisting of at least six characters that are a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

We also recently completed the rollout of three secure options for accessing campus computing resources from off campus. These remote access options provide for secure access to email, network file storage (Louise) and Banner.

On the user education front, clients are reminded on a regular basis to protect confidential data on campus servers. It is the responsibility of every campus computer user to become knowledgeable on who has access to data stored on desktop, departmental or central servers. Reviewing file permissions each semester is a good and recommended practice.

Proposed Policy for Computer and Data Security
Over the course of Spring semester, we plan to begin a series of conversations with the Academic Computing Committee (ACC), the Joint Committee on Information Technology (JCIT), and the Principal Executive Staff (PES) on a Computer and Data Security policy for Davidson. The policy will set forth the mechanism by which data stored on College-owned computing systems and utilized by College employees and students is secured and protected.

Success in this area will ultimately depend on each of us acting in a way that protects the information resources of the College.

Mur Muchane

New collaborations between the students, Residence Life, the College Union, and Information Technology Services (ITS) have resulted in two new computer facilities formally unveiled on Tuesday, January 17. Using various avenues, students have, over the years, expressed the need for easier and more distributed access to computers and printers across campus. To fully understand and respond to student requests for more computers and printers in distributed locations across campus, we entered into discussions with the students, Residence Life, and the Union in autumn of 2005. The discussions were productive and two new locations for computers and printers were identified.

New Facilities
ITS staff worked hard over the Winter break to deploy the new computing facilities on the fourth floor of the Campus Center and in an under-utilized TV lounge on the third floor of Tomlinson Hall. The fourth floor of the Campus Center is now home to 10 computers – eight of them are on desks in the main open area and two are tucked away near the fireplace on the same level. The printer for these computers is located on the third floor near the elevator. We believe this new facility will enable groups of students to collaborate more easily by providing an environment where they can congregate easily and still have access to a rich set of information resources. The Tomlinson location is now home to eight computers and a laser printer. Students have access to the Campus Center computers anytime the building is open and 24/7 CatCard access to the Tomlinson facility.

Improved Access
With the addition of the computers in Union and Tomlinson, ITS provides and maintains 104 computers in public computing facilities. The vast majority of these computers (77 to be precise) are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The other 27 are available based on the hours of the library and Chambers. Another 120 computers are available in the Science instructional labs and Language Resource Center. These computers are available until 1:00AM in the Chambers, Watson, Dana, and Martin buildings.

Ubiquitous Computing
The need for more distributed computing and printing resources has been largely driven by the rapid growth in the use of electronic resources (Blackboard, library databases, the web) in teaching, learning, and research at Davidson. ITS has anticipated and responded to these trends well by making ubiquitous computing a central focus of our technology planning for the campus. Today all major campus buildings are interconnected by a fiber-based Gigabit backbone network that provides high-speed access to the rich set of information resources at Davidson and beyond. While much work remains in the area of wireless networking, important strides have been made. Wireless connectivity now extends to the Campus Center (including patios), Library, Chambers, Sloan (including North and East lawns), Vail, Watson, Dana, Martin, Patterson Court as well as a few others locations scattered across campus. Here is a full list of wireless locations on campus.

Campus technology planning is largely driven by the input we receive from you as our clients. We do like to hear from you and look to you for answers to the following questions:

What do you, our clients, want to accomplish with information technology?
How will your IT needs change over time?
What do you like about what is currently available to you?
What do you need that is not currently offered?