The staff of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will be using the next few weeks to perform updates and enhancements to a variety of areas around the campus. Please make note of the following planned maintenance items, as some of them are potentially service-impacting.
- Holiday Closure Support: during the University’s extended closure we will not be routinely staffing the IT HelpDesk. Instead, IT managers will be monitoring emails sent to the IT HelpDesk twice daily and high-priority technical issues impacting a large portion of the campus will be escalated to technical teams on an appropriate basis. Emails to the IT HelpDesk and other routine requests will be responded to after January 2nd.
- Network Infrastructure Updates: in the early morning hours of December 19th our technical team will be performing network infrastructure updates that may be service-impacting. We are aware that grades are due and that students will likely be checking grades in PeopleSoft during this time and we will seek to avoid impacting those activities.
- Save a watt or two and power-down your PCs: Since we just applied a large set of Windows 10 patches during the Thanksgiving holiday, most campus computers should be up-to-date on required/critical patches. So, you are encouraged to power OFF your computer and monitors when you leave the office on December 16th.
- Classroom Lecture Stations and Computer Lab Computers: A select few computer labs and classroom lecture stations will all be re-imaged before classes resume in January. There will only be software updates made where necessitated by licensing requirements; new software installation can be requested via the IT HelpDesk and will be considered on a time-available basis. Existing software will remain at their current versions. We encourage faculty to use the time in early January to test any critical classroom software to ensure it is working as expected.
- Technology Loans: If you have borrowed items from the faculty tech loaner pool, please plan to return them before December 16th so that we can prepare to re-issue them to others in the new year. If you need to borrow a 2-in-1 convertible tablet, webcam, microphone, or other piece of technology to support your teaching in the spring, please contact the IT HelpDesk to place your request. ‘Renewals’ of existing loans will be considered if sufficient equipment is available. Items being returned can be dropped off at the IT HelpDesk on the second floor of the ERC. Please remember that the faculty loaner pool is not intended for long-term loans (exceeding one semester) or for TAs/RAs except in emergency situations.
- Classroom Technology: AV staff will be working in classrooms to make adjustments and fixes to all known audio, video or computing issues prior to beginning of the spring semester. If you are experiencing any technology related issues in the classroom, please report them to helpdesk@clarkson.edu.
Questions/Comments:
Office of Information Technology HelpDesk 315-268-HELP (x4357) or helpdesk@clarkson.edu