Academic Services Building Computer Labs Hours for April 30 2012- May 11 2012
Monday – Thursday	7:30am-2:00am
Friday	7:30am-5:00pm
Saturday	1:00pm-8:00pm
Sunday	11:00am-Midnight
* This schedule is subject to change at any time. For more information contact our offices at 956-665-5343. Office hours are Monday-Friday 8am-5pm

To:	UTPA Students, Faculty & Staff
Description:	The University Listserv will be unavailable Monday (December 19, 2011) morning and part of the afternoon.
Customers Impacted:	Users of the LSOFT Listserv. This includes the Listserv Web Interface and emails sent to listname@listserv.utpa.edu, where listname is the name of the list you are sending to.
Cause:	The LSOFT listserv will be upgraded to the current version 16.0.
Outage Duration:	Monday, December 19, 2011 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Contact Information:	IT Help Desk 956-665-2020 helpdesk@utpa.edu Hours of Operation: Monday – Thursday 8am-7pm and Friday 8am-5pm For Computing Lab questions: 956-665-5343
Follow Updates at:	www.utpa.edu/dit www.facebook.com/utpadit
Division of Information Technology The University of Texas-Pan American

 

To:	UTPA Students, Faculty & Staff
Description:	To meet the needs of the students during the final two weeks of the semester we will be extending our public computing lab hours in the Academic Services Building. Below are the new temporary hours and our hours during the winter break.
Customers Impacted:	Students, Faculty & Staff
Contact Information:	IT Help Desk 956-665-2020 helpdesk@utpa.edu Hours of Operation: Monday – Thursday 8am-7pm and Friday 8am-5pm For Computing Lab questions: 956-665-5343
Division of Information Technology The University of Texas-Pan American

Date	Hours of Operation	Comments
December 5th to December 18th	Monday-Thursday: 7:30 AM to 2:00 AM Friday: 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM Saturday: 1:00 PM to 8:00 PM Sunday: 11:00 AM to Midnight	Extended hours for the end of the semester and finals
December 19th to December 23rd	Monday – Friday: 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
December 24th to January 1st	CLOSED	Official Holiday
January 2nd to January 13th	Monday-Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM	UTPA Business Hours-No Classes
January 16th	CLOSED	Official Holiday
Spring 2012	Monday-Thursday: 7:30 AM to 12:00 AM Friday: 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM Saturday-Sunday: 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM	Regular ASB Computer Lab Hours

 

IT-Data Center Services is planning Data Center Down Time that will affect all IT services to the campus on the proposed dates of Oct 22,2011@12:00am – Oct 23,2011@11:59pm.  The following work will be completed on these dates:

• Storage Area Network (SAN) Maintenance:
• Upgrade firmware on all SAN Arrays and Switches.  This will be for all three of the Data Centers two on campus and shared location in Arlington.
• Move rearrange nodes on san switches to allow new hardware to be connected to san
• Server Hardware Maintenance:
• Upgrade all production Blade Enclosures
• Upgrade all Blade Server firmware and drivers
• Network Maintenance:
• Upgrade F5 Load Balancer to latest firmware.  Affecting all websites
• Enable Spanning Tree on core data center switches

If you have any questions, concerns or conflict please call x2020 or send an email to syshelp@utpa.edu.

Thank you,

The Division of Information Technology

Dear UTPA Students, Faculty, and Staff,

On the behalf of the Division of Information Technology, we are informing you of the changes in our operating hours for the Computer Labs in the Academic Services Building. To meet the needs of our students, Enterprise Application and Computing Services has extended the computing lab hours Monday through Thursday (view below). If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Scheduling Office at 956-665-5343 during our business hours of Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm.

New Hours of Operation for COMPUTER LABS: Effective October 17, 2011

Days	Hours Open
Monday-Thursday	7:30 am to 12 am
Friday	7:30 am to 5 pm
Saturday	1 pm to 5pm
Sunday	1 pm to 5 pm

Thank you,

Enterprise Application and Computing Services on the behalf of The Division of Information Technology

If you access your campus computer from off campus there is an important change you need to be aware of. In October 2011, the Division of Information Technology will be making security changes that will no longer allow faculty and staff to use the remote desktop protocol (rdp) to access their office computers from off campus due to an information security risk identified by the Department of Information Resources. A solution for this vulnerability is to block all rdp connections from the greater Internet and have everyone use our Virtual Private Network solution to gain access to their office computers.

The VPN client must be installed and configured prior to faculty and staff attempting to access their office computer from off campus. Note: If you are currently connecting from home using remote desktop protocol to access your office computer from off campus, you will need to do one more step. To access our VPN, go to: https://vpn.utpa.edu/

Note: If you are using RDP on campus (internally), you will not be required to use the VPN. For example, if I am in a training in the Academic Services Building, I can use RDP to access my office computer without using the VPN.

Need assistance? Contact the IT Helpdesk via email at helpdesk@utpa.edu or call us at 956-665-2020 during our New Hours of Operation: Monday through Thursday from 8am to 7pm and Friday from 8am to 5pm.

Thank you,

The Division of Information Technology

Your Bronc Mail calendar is about to get a whole lot more useful. Soon, The Division of Information Technology will be loading the University’s holidays and special dates into your Bronc Mail calendar. It’ll be easier than ever to know when degree application deadlines, exam dates, special events, and holidays are. Beginning in September 2011, log onto your Bronc Mail account at live.com to see your updated calendar.

Questions? Contact the IT Helpdesk via email at helpdesk@utpa.edu or call the us at 956-665-2020 during our New Hours of operation: Monday through Thursday from 8am to 7pm and Friday from 8am to 5pm.

Dear UTPA Students, Faculty, and Staff,

On the behalf of the Division of Information Technology, I, Janie Palacios, Director of Computer Support Services (CSS), am informing you of changes in our operating hours for the Computer Labs and the Help Desk. 

BACKGROUND

On March 21, 2011, I presented to President’s Cabinet a proposal to allow us to hire 4 full time positions to support our labs and our helpdesk operations.  Part of presentation included three options for proposed hours of operation for the computer labs and the help desk as the other 9 vacancies would remain unfilled. 

 On April 14, 2011, we received approval by the President’s Cabinet to hire 4 vacant positions and to modify our hours of operation.  Note: As mentioned during the President’s Cabinet meeting, we will make arrangements to open the labs during the weekend mornings for special events.    We are developing the procedure for these types of special requests, which must be made in advance to allow us to properly schedule our computer lab resources.   

New Hours of Operation for COMPUTER LABS: Effective May 16, 2011

Days	Hours Open
Monday-Thursday	7:30 am to 10 pm
Friday	7:30 am to 5 pm
Saturday	1 pm to 5pm
Sunday	1 pm to 5 pm

 

New Hours of Operation for HELP DESK: Effective May 16, 2011

Days	Hours Open
Monday-Thursday	8 am to 7 pm
Friday	8 am to 5 pm
Saturday	Closed
Sunday	Closed

 

OUR COMMITMENT TO OUR CUSTOMERS

The last four years, our department has improved and increased the services we provide.  Our department discussed our options regarding our hours of operation.  We determined that we did not want to reduce our quality of service to our customers nor increase the resolution time for issues.  We spent the last year tracking all incoming issues for the help desk and our computer lab usage.   For a summary of the data presented to President’s Cabinet, please see the information posted in the section, “Data Analysis for new hours of operation”.

We implemented various process improvements, which have allowed us to survive despite having all these vacant positions.   We also reviewed our processes to improve our services to our customers including reducing password reset time to less than 3 minutes. 

Our department is committed to improving our services.  We appreciate your support and patience as we make the needed adjustments to provide quality support to you, our UTPA students, faculty, and staff. 

Thank you, 

Janie Palacios, Director of Computer Support Services
________________________________________________________________________

DATA ANALYSIS FOR NEW HOURS OF OPERATION

We analyzed the number of customers whom we provided service to and determined the following:

• §  Over the last year, on the weekends during the hours of 1pm and 5pm, our computer labs see their highest utilization averaging 30 students every Saturday and Sunday afternoon (2935 students total).   Note: While we selected the interval with the highest utilization, there are 47 other students each weekend day (or 4987 students total) that will be forced to adjust or not have access to the labs on the weekend due to the reduction of hours.   

Lab Computer Logins for Saturday and Sunday (March 2010 to March 2011)
Time Intervals	Logins	Average logins
midnight to 8am	610	6.4
9am to 12:59pm	1855	19.3
1pm to 4:59pm	2935	30.6
5pm to 11:59 pm	2522	26.2

 

• §  For our helpdesk, the University receives more value of having our staff working Monday-Friday (during regular business hours) than working on the weekends.    Note: Our staff works on catching up on the weekends while waiting for incoming calls, but they can support more customers during the work week.   

Help Desk Call Information
Info Requested	Saturday	Sunday
# of calls received on the weekends for Fall 2010.	We received 128 calls during the scheduled 112 hours worked.  We received 1.1 calls per hour.	We received 38 calls during the scheduled 56 hours worked.   We received .7 calls per hour.

Starting on April 22, 2011, the Division of Information Technology will upgrade the anti-virus/anti-malware software on all campus computers.

The upgrade will be from Microsoft Forefront Client Security to Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010.  Endpoint Protection is Microsoft’s latest and greatest anti-virus software with many improvements that users will appreciate. For example, you will now have ability to perform an on-demand scan on a file, folder, or drive.  Simply right click on the item that you want to scan and select the menu item called “Scan with Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010.”

You will also notice that the Forefront icon on the bottom of your computer screen is changing in appearance to the new green shield icon.

• Users can modify the time that the daily virus scan starts. The default time is 7:00 PM Monday-Friday.
• Individual files, folders, or drives can now be scanned for viruses. If you receive a file and you want to be sure it’s safe, you can now scan just that one file.
• Current Icon:  New Icon: 

If you have any questions please contact the Computer Support Desk at 956.665.2020 or on campus at Extension 2020.

Tags: anti-virus, antimalware, antivirus, security