June 2009

Fellow IS Division Members,

I have two pieces of organizational information to share with you this month.

First, I would like to introduce Jennifer Goings Smith to Information Services. Jennifer will join our team as an executive director for planning, security and disaster recovery. Her office will be located in Room 150 of the Library, where she'll be starting Monday, June 15. Please stop by to welcome her.

Jennifer comes to us with more than 15 years of experience in information technology management, having worked for IBM, PPG Industries and Agilysys. As IT director at Agilysys, she provided leadership, planning and management of all application development initiatives. Her background also includes e-commerce and major ERP systems accountability, as well as the successful launch of a major customer extranet portal. Jennifer received her Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees from Purdue University. A resident of Twinsburg, she is active as a board member for Dance Cleveland and a member of the Twinsburg Schools strategic planning team.

Next month, we will gather for a division-wide meeting, and we can welcome Jennifer together.

Additionally, effective immediately, Todd Ryan's responsibilities will include the building of a systems operations team. Following a successful ERP implementation and the decommissioning of the university mainframe, our focus will turn to how to best manage key file servers in the data center. To facilitate this, a six-month process will begin now to create the new systems operations team, under Todd's direction. During the next six months, Todd and Johnson Fisher will work together to develop an appropriate plan of action. In addition to working with Todd during the conversion, Johnson's role will now also include maintaining our change management processes.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to give me a call or drop a note to cio@kent.edu. And, as always, thank you for your support.

Ed Mahon
Vice President for Information Services
and Chief Information Officer

Staff News

The division welcomed the following new hires in May:

• Utpalvarna Gautam, associate educational technology designer, Course Management
• Meghan Hansen, associate educational technology designer, Educational Technology
• Phillip Nelson, associate educational technology designer, Educational Technology

Congratulations to the following IS staff members who received a promotion in May:

• Shelley Evans, promoted to telephone communication coordinator
• Catherine Zapytowski, promoted to senior business manager

Finally, congratulations to the following employees who mark a service anniversary at Kent State in June:

• Administrative Support: Janice Williams, 10 years
• Client Infrastructure: Chris Bues, nine years
• Educational Technology: Vicki Gutierrez, two years
• Networking Services: David Wallace, six years
• Project Management: Andrew Knotts, one year; Prasanna Joshi, four years; and Liz Wyglendowski, five years
• Security: Kim Price, four years; Ransel Yoho, 26 years

Diversity and Inclusion Group Update

Please remember to sign up to participate in the division-wide video celebrating diversity. Remaining taping days include June 9 and 11, with time slots available from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Room 310 Moulton Hall. The entire time commitment is approximately 15 minutes.

A spreadsheet of all available time slots can be found in the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group folder on the IS shared drive. There, you'll also find a copy of the video script for reference. If you have questions or problems accessing the spreadsheet, contact Christa Skiles at 330-672-8588 or cskiles@kent.edu.

Diversity Dates for June:

• Juneteenth (June 19): Commemorates the emancipation of more than 250,000 slaves at the close of the Civil War. The celebration takes its name from the day in 1865 when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.
• June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month: First established in 1999, the month commemorates the Stonewall Uprising in 1969 that marked the official beginning of the Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement.
• June is Caribbean American Heritage Month: First proclaimed in 2006, the month celebrates the contributions of Americans of Caribbean descent. Notable examples include Colin Powell, W.E.B. DuBois, Sidney Poitier and Roberto Clemente.

Infrastructure and Operations

Network/Telecommunications Services

• The initial pilot of Unified Messaging/Exchange voice mail has been going on for several weeks, and the entire Division of Information Services joined the pilot during the first week of June. Unified Messaging allows for the retrieval of voice mail messages through Exchange and the retrieval of e-mails, calendar entries and contacts via the telephone. The IS pilot will help to refine the processes and documentation needed for campus-wide implementation, scheduled for later this summer.
• FlashZone wireless coverage in the Music and Speech Building was completed for areas not currently under construction. The remaining areas, as well as the new addition, will be completed throughout the remainder of the construction process.

Operations

• Implementation of the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) upgrades has begun. This includes replacing one UPS and upgrading the other. This project is expected to be completed by the end of June and will provide for more capacity on each UPS and allow for more equitable distribution between the two.

Security and Access Management

• A security vulnerability assessment has been completed by CDW. The results will be shared with the responsible groups and plans made to remediate the identified vulnerabilities.

Educational Technology

• Educational technologists are finalizing work on six courses that go online for the first time this summer. The courses include Black Experience II, General Psychology, Introduction to Business, Introduction to Financial Accounting, Modeling Algebra and Survey of Architecture. All of the sections incorporate audio/visual components, including the integration of Twitter, video introductions, interactive maps and innovative student assessments. (The architecture course, for example, includes an assignment in which students can look at modern construction and alter it based on ancient Roman architectural principles.)
• Approximately 40 classrooms across the Kent Campus will receive technology enhancements this summer. The number of rooms with classroom audio-visual technology has grown from approximately 150 in 1999 to nearly 270 in 2009, an 80 percent increase.
• More than 260 computers are being replaced this summer as part of the Faculty Computer Refresh program. All tenured and tenure-track faculty on the Kent Campus are eligible to receive new computers on a three-year cycle.

End User and Business Services

• Helpdesk representatives will participate daily in this year's Destination Kent State registration and advising program, staffing a resource table for students and families at the Kent Student Center. Additionally, all student packets include a new student technology checklist, with information about passwords, getting connected to Kent State's network and getting help via the Helpdesk and new Tech Spot@ResNet computer repair service.
• Potential Helpdesk vendor finalists will be at Kent State on June 8 and 9 to meet with the review committee regarding the transition of services. They'll answer specific questions about their implementation processes, ticketing system technology and pricing. The deadline to notify vendors of a contract award selection is June 15.

Enterprise Support and Application Services

• Kent State University has been recognized by CIO magazine as a 2009 CIO 100 award winner for its enterprise resource planning implementation. The CIO 100 awards recognize 100 innovative organizations around the world that exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence in information technology. Kent State will receive its award at the organization's 22nd annual symposium in August. The university also will be listed in a special August edition of the magazine, which has a circulation of 140,000 chief information officers and high-level information technology executives across all industries.
• Cognos Boot Camp was held May 26-28 with a full class roster. Training topics ranged from basic ODS and Cognos skills to more advanced capabilities. Due to its popularity, the session will be repeated in July. Details are available online via the Human Resources training registration Web site at http://www.kent.edu/hr/register.
• Mainframe data for Human Resources and Finance now is accessible in Cognos for ad-hoc reporting.
• The Ice Arena and Recreation and Wellness Center databases have been merged to provide more efficient processing and support.
• Ethnic codes were updated to comply with new federal and state regulations. A survey was issued to all employees (as necessary) to update their ethnicity information.
• The fee waiver workflow has been updated with several enhancements to improve the accuracy and availability of data for reporting.