Website Conversion
We have converted much of the site to the new template and are continuing the project in cooperation with web editors from several departments. If your department's pages have not yet been converted, don't be left out! Please contact Ron at webmaster@wou.edu to get started. This is also the time to update all the information on your department's web pages; we can provide you with tools, free of charge, to make this much easier than it has been in the past.
Soon the new template will also begin appearing in web-database applications such as the online directory and the account lookup system.
Computer Labs
Joan Guralnick has recently taken over management of the computer labs. You can read about some of her ideas for changes here.
Banner SIS/FIS/HRIS
Connie Atchley from OSU is leading the Banner consolidation project. Currently SIS and FIS/HRIS reside on separate database instances in Corvallis. The project goal is to bring all Banner products into a single instance of the database. The go-live date is set for Thanksgiving break 2007.
Both Brian and Michael regularly blog about their current Banner projects.
In March, after ETS upgrades the Banner INB, the workstation client will no longer function until the Java client has been upgraded to version 1.6. INB will cease to support the jinitiator. Stay tuned for upgrade plans.
Software development
Michael Ellis is developing a web-portal application. The goal is to provide single sign-on to multiple applications and access to your most common information through a single portal. Look for a release announcement over the next month.
Summer Runyan has developed a web-based data reporting and archiving system. It has been named theVault. It can be found here.
Dale Goodell is currently developing a scheduling and data collection application for the Writing Center, Academic Advising and Learning Center and Disability Services. He reports progress here.
Reassigned Duties
-- Shaun Gatherum resigned and took a security position with the Department of Administrative Services
-- Summer Runyan has taken over security systems.
-- Joan Guralnick manages the student computer labs
-- Joe Crowe maintains student computer lab software and hardware
-- Bill Kernan manages Nathan Sauer
-- Shaun's position will be replaced by a Desktop/Classroom support position that is currently in the recruitment process
Software updates
-- Centralized scheduling application
---- Tom Neal and I are leading a committee of schedulers from across campus to evaluate scheduling software.
---- The application must provide both classroom and event scheduling, interface with Banner, provide customizable reporting features, provide automated event notification to service providers via e-mail, have a web-client, provide end-users with the ability to schedule their own rooms, ....
---- College Net and Astra are the two main competitors in the academic market. Portland State University currently runs College Net but is re-evaluating and considering Astra. Montana State went through an RFP process and Astra won. I have been in contact with five other Universities with Astra experience and they have all given me positive feedback. We had a 1 1/2 hour remote demonstration of Astra and also a half-day on-site demonstration by Astra. No decision has been made at this point.
A copy of Windows Vista has been purchased and UCS is evaluating it. No deployment plans exist at this point. Comments on Vista by Nathan.
Systems
There are still a few alumni and emeritus faculty that are being move from the old e-mail system to our current production system.
We are currently looking at alternatives for storing files that either have not been touched for a year or are of questionable academic nature. We are looking at several different products that would move these files off to cheaper storage until they either were touched or became higher priority files. All of this would happen behind the scenes and the end user would not know that their h: drive was stored in two different locations.
Alex has installed both Sakai and Moodle, alternatives to WebCT. WebCT currently has a $9,000 per year fee, while Moodle and Sakai are free. Scott Carter is currently evaluating both systems.
Smart Classrooms / Labs
ITC001 is currently under construction and will be a full smart-classroom by the start of spring term. The design will simulate Albany middle school classrooms. Mary Bucy is the primary consultant on this project.
Education 204 (Maria Dantas-Whitney -- design consultant) and Smith 123 (Joeeph Harchanko -- design consultant)are scheduled for spring term.
The nursing lab will be housed where we currently have two computer labs, ITC 002 and 003. John Marsaglia and I met with the Physical Plant February 1, 2007 to discuss moving ITC 002 to MOD 104 this summer. ITC 003 locations are still under consideration, but it will be moved this summer also.
We are behind on getting the smart-classrooms into the rotation cycle. Tricia has information on the upgrades here.
Security
The Bradford security system has been implemented in the residence halls and for wireless. The open network ports in the Hamersly Library will be next, followed by lab network ports.
The current rule set in Bradford does not allow a device to be connected to the public network until virus definitions and the operating system is current. A non-secure device is placed on a private network and a fix-it resource web page is displayed with links to solutions. In addition, when connecting via wireless, the system checks for a paid flag that is set when you purchase wireless from Telecommunications.
The Hackers -- bad guys
The bad guys found ezproxy and exploited it. We upgraded it to the current release, turned on auditing and implemented all security features. Now we have slowed down the bad guys, but they will be back. We are currently taking further steps to secure our systems.
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