ITS News 2009 - 2010

ITS is pleased to offer an easy-to-use mobile web page for final exam and bus schedules that can be accessed on mobile devices that have internet capability. To access the Final Exam Schedule and/or Bus Schedule mobile web page from your phone, please go to http://m.pace.edu. 

Please Note: This mobile web page is currently available for iPhones, Droids, and iPads. We are in the process of setting it up to run on the Blackberry phones as well. In addition, this utility is a Beta product and a work in progress which is subject to upgrades as we receive user feedback and additional data.

Final Exam Schedule
By selecting Final Exam Schedule, this mobile web page provides Students and Faculty the ability to search for their Final Exam by Course Subject and Course Number (CRN).

Please Note: All posted exam dates are subject to change; students need to speak with their Instructor for the most up-to-date final exam date, time and room location. All courses not listed (such as online courses, off campus courses and special courses) should confirm exam information with the Instructor.

Bus Schedule
By selecting Bus Schedule, this mobile web page provides users with the bus schedule for the current Fall semester. This schedule currently is limited to specific routes – more routes will continue to be added as we progress.

If there are any questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk at (914) 773-3648 (itshelpdesk@pace.edu).
 

Based on feedback we received from the Pace community, we've made a number of improvements to the White Pages! These changes center around the way results are displayed, and will make it easier to see the information you want when searching for a person. Here is a brief summary of these changes, effective Monday, November 22nd.

Photos
The security photo option has been replaced in favor of a new “portrait photo”. For those that want a photo to display with their White Pages details, the portrait photo option allows you to use your own photo instead of the Pace security photo. It will also be visible to any Pace person with Outlook 2010 installed, allowing people to be identified by their picture right inside Outlook. If you prefer to use your security photo, you still have that option - you'll just copy it to the portrait photo in your White Pages profile.

Search Results
When searching White Pages, the search results will now show the full display name instead of separate first and last name fields. You can still sort by either first or last name but the name will match the display name that is on your e-mail, within the Portal and in other locations. (i.e. Smith, Mr. John J.)

Viewing Details
To view details about a particular person, you can now click on their name, instead of having to click on a separate link at the right of the page. The information will display within the existing browser window rather than opening in a new window.

New Fields and Viewing Options
Two fields have been added to the results list - username and type (Staff, Faculty, Student, etc.). This will make it easier to identify a student or a staff member when searching the entire university. In addition, anyone who wants to look up their username can now see it without having to click on the view details page.

All fields in the search results, except name, can be shown or hidden by the use of checkboxes above the search results. In addition to the default fields, you can also show 3 other fields: Portrait Photo, E-mail Address, and Office Telephone. Your settings are saved in a cookie, so when you go back to the White Pages, it will remember what you had checked off previously.

You now have the option of displaying a Home Phone number in addition to Fax and Cell Phone. Phone numbers have been reformatted to the standard +1-555-555-0123 format and are displayed as a link. When browsing from a smartphone, you can automatically call that number from your phone by clicking on the link.

We hope you enjoy the new enhancements and if there are any questions or issues, please report them to the ITS Help Desk at (914) 773-3648 (itshelpdesk@pace.edu) or online at help.pace.edu.
 

On Monday, November 8th, 2010, ITS will be upgrading all Departmental/Organization’s Mailboxes to Exchange 2010; as was done with all Faculty/Staff Exchange accounts over the summer. Departmental/Organization’s mailboxes will now have 250MB of quota space (increased from 100MB) in addition to the new features available in OWA.

What to Expect During the Upgrade
You will still have access to your mailbox during the upgrade period. However, as your mailbox is moved you may experience a brief e-mail delivery delay of up to 10 minutes - the average time it takes to move a mailbox. Your outgoing and incoming mail will be queued during this period and delivered once your mailbox move is complete.

If you have the Outlook client open during this process, the following message may appear on your screen: “The Microsoft Exchange administrator has made a change that requires you to quit and restart Outlook.” If you see this notice you will need to quit and restart your Outlook client.

How will I know if my mailbox has been upgraded?

• Go to http://email.pace.edu and login
• The following are all indications that your Departmental/Organization’s mailbox is now on Exchange 2010 

How can students access Departmental/Organization’s mailboxes?

• Go to https://email.pace.edu/owa/nameofdepartmentmailbox@pace.edu (for example, https://email.pace.edu/owa/csc@pace.edu)
• Enter your MyPace Username and Password

If you are experiencing any problems, please contact the ITS Help Desk at (914) 773-3648.

 

Internet Connection Bandwidth Increase
On Thursday, October 21st Pace University ITS increased the internet connection bandwidth from 100Mbps (megabits per second) to 1000 Mbps. The bandwidth increase has improved the overall speed of accessing external web sites and ended the throttling (limiting) of any services (i.e. YouTube).

Guest Wireless Account
ITS is pleased to present a brand new, streamlined, self-service system for students, faculty, and staff to generate guest accounts for the wireless/wired network. Students, faculty, and staff sponsors can create guest accounts by clicking on the follwoing link: https://miisweb.pace.edu/miisworkflow or from Account Services on the ITS homepage and then selecting Guest Accounts/Request an Account(standard guest accounts will expire after 7 days).

A sponsor can request accounts for people who do not normally have accounts at Pace University. To get started, a sponsor will log in (if you don't see a link to log in, then you are already logged in) with their MyPace Username and Password. From there, a sponsor can either request a new account, or make changes to accounts that have already been requested. Within one hour of submitting a request for a guest account, the sponsor will receive an e-mail with a temporary username and password for accessing the Pace network. Guests will need to use these credentials for changing the temporary password to something more manageable, via adam.pace.edu and clicking on Password Change.

Please note: Faculty and staff can use the self-service system to create multiple/bulk guest accounts as well as obtain additional IT services (i.e. Blackboard, e-mail, Banner, etc.). Also, for security purposes, users must close out of all open browsers to complete the sign out process.

Please contact the ITS Help Desk at (914) 773-3648 for any questions or concerns with the bandwidth increase or the Guest Wireless Account process.

The immunization compliance deadline was October 7th, 2010 and numerous attempts were made to contact students who still needed to fulfill the immunization requirements.

Public Health Law requires Pace University to exclude students from attendance for immunization non-compliance. Beginning Monday, October 25th, 2010, students who have not taken immediate action will be withdrawn from their courses. The University may, as permissible by Law, reinstate those students’ registration once they meet the NYSDOH immunization requirements for attendance at a post-secondary institution.

Please call the OSA/Immunization Compliance office at (877) 672-1830 (select NYC Campus then Option 5) or by e-mail at immunization@pace.edu for an explanation on what documentation must be submitted to resolve this matter.

Pace University assesses a Technology Fee to ensure students have access to the latest instructional technology resources available. All revenue generated from the technology fee goes directly towards funding instructional technology initiatives that are focused on enhancing the student learning experience. A committee comprised of students and staff will vote to determine which discretionary initiatives receive funding each year, with annual reports to be provided to the Pace community.

To propose a technology initiative or vote on an existing proposal, please click on the following link: Submit a Proposal or Vote.
Your input and feedback is critical in ensuring we are meeting the technology needs of all Pace students.

For more information visit the Student Technology Fee page at www.pace.edu/stf.

It has been brought to our attention by many faculty and staff members that certain e-mails are getting accidentally caught in their Outlook junk mail folders. This can be problematic as most users do not regularly check their Outlook junk mail folder. This can cause important messages to be overlooked. To eliminate this problem ITS in collaboration with the IT Directors of each school has developed a solution that will turn off local Outlook junk mail filtering for the faculty and staff on their work computers (specifically those which join the Pace Domain) beginning Wednesday, September 8th.

The Outlook junk mail filtering is generally unnecessary because Pace University utilizes an excellent spam control tool called Positini which catches the vast majority of junk mail that Pace users receive on a daily basis (over 200,000 junk messages per day). Users also have the ability to flag messages that they feel should have been marked as junk, but Postini did not.

For more information about Postini and how to utilize its functionality, please visit the following link: http://bit.ly/ajI2r6. If you have any questions or would like individual instructions on how to utilize Postini, please contact the ITS Help Desk at (914) 773-3648.

ITS Help Desk will have extended hours from Wednesday, September 8th – Sunday, September 19th:

• Monday-Friday: 8-7pm
• Saturday, September 11th/Sunday, September 12th: 9-5pm
• Saturday, September 18th/Sunday, September 19th: 9-5pm

Please note some other changes that took place over the summer:

• ITS Help Desk and the Briarcliff Client Support Offices have moved to Pleasantville! They can be found in Willcox Hall, 2nd Floor.
• The new Pace University Online Help Desk system is up and running. You can access it at http://help.pace.edu. A video tutorial on how to use the new system is available at: https://help.pace.edu/client/whdclient.htm. A notice to access this online tutorial will appear automatically the first time you log into the new system. Afterwards you can access it by clicking on the link labeled There is 1 public message on the Log in page. Note: With this new system, you can now also submit your ticket by sending an e-mail to pacehelpdesk@pace.edu!

If there are any questions or issues, please contact the ITS Help Desk  by phone (914-773-3648) or e-mail (itshelpdesk@pace.edu).
 
 

Configuring Wireless– Starting September 1st, ITS will be implementing a new more secure wireless network called Pace_Secure that will encrypt all wireless traffic. This is a one time configuration change that will automatically log you into the wireless network, without having to re-enter your MyPace Portal Username and Password multiple times when moving to various locations on campus.

All wireless users will need to make specific configuration changes prior to connecting to Pace’s wireless network. Again, these changes will only need to be made once, as your operating system will be able to remember your settings! For details and configuration documentation, please visit Configuring My Wireless.

Please note: All devices should be WPA2 compatible. Users with WPA hardware will need to upgrade by the Spring semester.

If there are any questions or issues, please contact the ITS Help Desk  by phone (914-773-3648) or e-mail (itshelpdesk@pace.edu).
 
 

Pace University Student Accounts Are Moving to Google Apps for Education – On Monday morning, August 23rd, 2010, ITS began moving students that are registered for Fall classes and have zero credits to Google Apps for Education (GAE). The process will be completed by the end of the day and you can log in to your GAE account at: http://google.pace.edu. Please remember to use your MyPace Portal Username and Password when logging in for the first time to your new Google powered account.

Returning Students:
ITS will be moving over the remaining student population after the semester begins and will complete the process before the end of September. If you are a returning student and would like to move to Google Apps for Education now, please visit www.pace.edu/gogoogle.

Please Note: 

• Your account will be provisioned and ready within 3 hours of submission and your e-mail address will remain the same.
• Please remember to use your MyPace Portal Username and Password when logging in for the first time to your new Google powered account.
• All existing mail, sent items, calendar items, and contacts will finish migrating in up to 36 hours.
• Any existing forwards for e-mail will be removed and re-establishing the forward can be done from settings tab once logged into http://google.pace.edu.

What will I get?

• Over 7 GB of e-mail storage; no more worries about having to delete mail
• Google Docs to create and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online
• Google Calendar to schedule meetings, create events, and share calendars with others
• Instant messaging from within your mailbox
• Access to your information from anywhere with an internet connection; you can also access your email with a mobile device - http://www.google.com/mobile/sync or http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/mobile.html
• You will own your e-mail account after graduation

Where can I go for more information or help?

• The Google Apps for Education log-in page – http://google.pace.edu 
• For more information on Google Apps for Education at Pace University, please visit: /information-technology-services/getting-help/googleapps/ 
• You can also visit Google Apps for Education at Pace University's Frequently Asked Questions page or contact the ITS Helpdesk at (914) 773-3648
• Need help setting up your Blackberry, Droid, iPhone, or Windows Mobile device? Please click: http://www.google.com/mobile/sync or http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/mobile.html

For any questions/details, please contact the ITS Help Desk at (914) 773-3648 (itshelpdesk@pace.edu).

Pace University Online Help Desk system– On Monday, August 16th, we moved to the new Pace University Online Help Desk system. To access this new system, please go to: http://help.pace.edu and bookmark it for the future in your browser.

 A video tutorial on how to use the new system is available at: https://help.pace.edu/client/whdclient.htm. A notice to access this online tutorial will appear automatically the first time you log into the new system. Afterwards you can access it by clicking on the link labeled There is 1 public message on the Log in page.

Note: With this new system, you can now also submit your questions by sending an e-mail to pacehelpdesk@pace.edu! To view the status of tickets placed before 8/16/10 please visit http://oldhelpdesk.pace.edu (requires VPN for off campus connection).

If there are any questions or issues regarding the new Helpdesk system, please contact the ITS Help Desk by phone (914-773-3648) or e-mail (itshelpdesk@pace.edu).
 
 

Blackboard upgrade – Blackboard has been upgraded to version 9.0. This version brings increased user-friendliness. An example of new features in this version includes the addition of blogs and journals. For Blackboard 9 Resources, visit: /page.cfm?doc_id=18392 We are also working feverishly to upgrade Blackboard to version 9.1 and also support Bb Mobile, a version of Blackboard that works on selected Mobile devices. Stay Tuned!

   
Click on the following to view 2009 ITS News Updates