EITS Status and Activity Report for February 2015

Prepared by Timothy M. Chester, Vice President for Information Technology (VPIT)

Lync Now Available for UGA Students, Faculty and Staff: Microsofts Lync is now
available with UGAMail accounts. Lync is an instant messaging, video conferencing, and
online meeting and presence tool that makes it easier for multiple people in an
organization to collaborate on their efforts. Microsoft will rename Lync as Skype for
Business this year. Lync is the latest service to be offered through UGAMail accounts,
which also include OneDrive for Business and free Office ProPlus software downloads for
all UGA students, faculty and staff. The EITS Help Desk has instructions on how to use
Lync on its website at http://eitshelpdesk.uga.edu. For more information about
Lync/Skype for Business, please contact Keith Martin by email at keith.martin@uga.edu.

SecureUGA Training Deadline Extended: The deadline for UGA faculty, staff, student
workers and contractors to complete their SecureUGA training has been extended to
March 31. The previous deadline was January 20. SecureUGA is an online security
awareness training program mandated by University System of Georgia (USG) policy.
SecureUGA helps UGA employees and contractors understand, identify and respond
appropriately to information security threats. Current employees who have previously
completed SecureUGA can select one of three options to meet the training requirements
for SecureUGA, based on their needs. For more information about SecureUGA, please
point a web browser to http://secure.uga.edu. For questions about SecureUGA, please
contact Brian Rivers by email at brivers@uga.edu.

2. Support for Student Technology Services

Funds Awarded for Student Technology Fee Projects: The Office of the Vice President for
Information Technology recently awarded one-time funding for initiatives funded by the
UGA Student Technology Fee. The process started in August 2014, when there was a call
for proposals. The Student Technology Fee Committee then reviewed those proposals and
award letters were distributed in December. Overall, more than $1.2 million in one-time
Student Technology Fee funds were awarded for 29 proposals. For more information
about the Student Technology Fee, please contact Lynn Wilson at llatimer@uga.edu by
email.

Laptop Security Checkups Offered at UGA-Gwinnett Campus: EITS recently held its
Computer Health and Security Fair at the Gwinnett campus, which marked the first time
the event had been held at one of the extended campuses. During the Computer Health
and Security Fair, technical volunteers check the personal laptops of UGA students, faculty
and staff to ensure they are free of viruses and malware, and, offer one-on-one security
consultations. The fair has been a popular event at the Athens campus and Gwinnett
leaders recently asked EITS to bring the fair to its campus for two days. EITS will hold the
Computer Health and Security Fair in April at the Miller Learning Center. For more
information about the Computer Health and Security Fair, please email Kerri Testement
at kerriuga@uga.edu.

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3. Support for Academic and Administrative Computing

Training Class Available on Using Office 365: EITS is offering a training class, called
What Can UGAMail and Microsofts Office 365 Do For You?, at UGAs Training and
Development Center, on February 19, from 10 a.m. to noon. The free class is open to any
UGA employee who wants to learn more about how to use UGAMail, which includes
OneDrive for Business for file sharing, storage and collaboration. UGAMail is powered by
Microsofts Office 365 platform. EITS has partnered with Microsoft to offer this training
opportunity. Participants may register for the class via UGA Training and Developments
website at www.hr.uga.edu/training.

Email Policy Changed for Faculty and Staff: The University recently updated its policy
for sending official communications to faculty and staff. Now, all official email
communications to employees from administrative systems, such as payroll, are sent only
to UGAMail addresses. This is similar to a policy for students, which also specifies that
official email communications will only be sent to UGAMail addresses. Previously,
employees could register a preferred email address to receive such emails. That system
has now been decommissioned. All employees are provided a UGAMail account.
Employees are encouraged to check their UGAMail accounts on a regular basis. They may
also choose to forward email from their UGAMail account to a third-party provider, such
as Gmail. EITS notified affected employees of this recent change. For more information,
please contact Russell A. Hatfield at hatfield@uga.edu by email.

URL Changes for Several Websites: In recent weeks, EITS has transitioned several
University websites used for administrative and academic services development purposes
to new URLs. These web applications have been migrated to new servers to enhance
security. The previous URLs for these specified websites will continue to redirect to their
new URLs. However, visitors are encouraged to update their web browsers bookmarks to
the new URLs, as the old URLs will no longer work soon. A complete listing of these URL
changes is available online at http://t.uga.edu/1dK.

4. Support for Research

Buy-In Program Available for New Cluster: To encourage faculty use of the new cluster
for the Georgia Advanced Computing Resources Center (GACRC), the Office of the Vice
President for Information Technology is offering a matching program for an additional
computing node at no cost, to match the ones purchased through the options available in
this buy-in program. A total of $100,000 will be made available through the program in
FY15 and will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. The GACRC is currently
installing a major new cluster, called Sapelo, which will provide additional computational
and storage services for researchers throughout the University. For more information,
including specifics about the buy-in program, please contact Dr. Guy Cormier at
gcormier@uga.edu by email.

5. Core Campus Infrastructure

Funds Available for Wireless Network Access in Faculty, Staff Areas: In order to expand
faculty and staff access to the PAWS-Secure wireless network, the Office of the Vice
President for Information Technology is offering a 50% subsidy towards installation of
new PAWS-Secure wireless access. The University offers PAWS-Secure throughout the
campus to areas primarily used by students through funds provided by the Student
Technology Fee. For faculty and staff areas, wireless service is charged to departments. To

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qualify for a subsidy, PAWS-Secure must be in areas primarily used by faculty and staff
offices, or in meeting and collaboration spaces. A total of $100,000 is available on a firstcome, first-served basis. Departments should request a quote for PAWS-Secure wireless
service by using the form available at https://eits.uga.edu/support/request/cable. After a
quote is received from EITS, it should be forwarded to the VPIT office with a memo
seeking a 50% subsidy. For more information about this program, please contact Mike
Luca at mlucas@uga.edu by email.

EITS Helping Units with Significant Relocations: EITS has been extensively involved with
units making major moves to other buildings throughout campus. One of the largest such
projects is the opening of the new Veterinary Teaching Hospital located off College Station
Road. The complex, which totals about 300,000 square feet among five buildings, is set to
start operations in March. EITS has been working with the College of Veterinary Medicine
to coordinate of a number of technical aspects of this large construction project, including
Internet, wireless and phone services, along with instructional technology for classrooms.
So far, EITS has deployed more than 200 wireless access points and 50 network switches
at the complex. EITS is also working with the School of Social Work, the Graduate School,
the Office of Sponsored Programs, and the Contracts and Grants Division to coordinate
their technology needs for their moves around campus. The School of Social Work is
moving to the Williams Street building that currently houses the Graduate School, which
is moving to Terrell Hall. The Office of Sponsored Programs and the Contracts and Grants
Division will move to Tucker Hall, which is where the School of Social Work is currently
located. These moves of faculty, staff and resources require significant coordination
among units and EITS to make these transitions as seamless as possible. For more
information about these moves, please contact Mike Lucas at mlucas@uga.edu.

6. Did You Know?

The EITS Office of Information Security is offering a free training class for UGA employees
on how to avoid email scams. The class will be held on March 5, and will cover the most
common types of email scams and phishing attacks, along with information on what
motivates attacks and phish-spotting practices. Participants will learn how email scams
and phishing work, and how to protect themselves from such attempts. The class, called
Avoid Email Scams, will be held at UGAs Training and Development Center on March 5,
from 10:00-11:30 a.m. Registration is available online at www.hr.uga.edu/training.

The EITS Mentorship Council recently announced its pairings of mentors and protgs for
its spring mentorship program cycle. The EITS Mentorship Program has grown in recent
years to not only include participants across the University of Georgia in various units, but
also a number of individuals across the University System of Georgia. This mentorship
cycle includes several people from Georgia Southern University serving as mentors and
protgs for employees at UGA. Overall, 22 mentorship pairs have been assigned for the
spring semester. The EITS Mentorship Program was designed to offer volunteer mentors
and protgs an opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences in specific topics or
resources. There are two mentorship cycles each year. For more information, please point
a web browser to http://eits.uga.edu/mentorship_program or email mentor@uga.edu.

University of Georgia students, faculty, and staff, as well as interested others, may subscribe to
this monthly report by sending an email to listserv@listserv.uga.edu with the phrase subscribe
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