The Hub: Published By, For and About ITS

Proposals for presentations at the 2008 UNC CAUSE conference are now being accepted through Aug. 15. The 2008 UNC CAUSE conference will be held at the Greensboro Marriot Downtown from Nov. 17-19. The theme of the conference is “The University of North Carolina Tomorrow: Striving for Excellence through Technology and Collaboration.”

The program committee is inviting proposals for presentations, discussions, and Birds of a Feather groups. Proposals should be submitted through the 2008 UNC CAUSE Web site by Aug. 15. Notification of successful presenters will be made by the end of August. Continue Reading

ITS is growing – and on the move! Due to the temporary demand for additional space resulting from the ERP student system implementation, several location changes are underway.

Moves that will alleviate the current shortfall are as follows:

• On July 25, Desktop Infrastructure, Infrastructure Management and Enterprise Storage Management will move from ITS Manning to ITS Franklin.
• Also on July 25, the Carolina Computing Initiative (CCI) staff currently at ITS Franklin will join their colleagues already at ITS Manning.
• The Learning Space Design group has relocated from ITS Manning to the Porthole building.
• The Identity Management group has moved from ITS Franklin to ITS Manning. Continue Reading

Recently, a message encouraging flexible work arrangements was sent from Brenda Malone, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, to the University community in acknowledgment of the unprecedented increase in the price of gasoline and the burden it places on UNC-Chapel Hill employees. The University encouraged individual units to perform their own assessments and determine the best approach for their staff.

In an effort to consider all viable options for ITS, Vice Chancellor and CIO Larry Conrad and ITS senior management focused on the issue of flexible work arrangements and reviewed various options – including flexible work hours, 4-day work weeks and telework.

The conclusion was that ITS is limited to offering staff the option of flexible work hours. Continue Reading

Following a brief mid-summer break, the Carolina Training and Orientation Program Sessions (CTOPS) are back in full swing. Throughout the summer, the University will host close to 4,000 first-year and transfer students at the two-day sessions, offering students a solid foundation on which to build their life at Carolina.

ITS’ contribution to CTOPS requires collaboration and a huge commitment of staff from all of the major ITS divisions. Each group works with other teams from across campus to prepare facilities, software, hardware, processes and applications to ensure a smooth introduction to technology for new students. Continue Reading

Access to UNC’s Oracle calendar will be unavailable this coming weekend beginning Friday, July 18 at 11 p.m. until Sunday, July 20 at noon. During this time all access to the calendar server via Oracle desktop client, Microsoft Outlook connector, Web interface, smartphones and PDA’s via SyncML or desktop conduit will be unavailable.

The UNC campus calendar server (also known as schedule.unc.edu, webcal.unc.edu, calendar.unc.edu, and syncml.unc.edu) will be upgraded during this period to maintain support from the vendor, Oracle. Continue Reading

ITS Teaching and Learning’s Games4Learning initiative will host a discussion on “Does Game-Based Learning Work? Results from Three Recent Studies” on Wednesday July 16 at 12 p.m. in room 222, Murphy Hall. Laura Christopherson, a doctoral student in the School of Information and Library Sciences, will lead the discussion. Continue Reading

Welcome Richard Edwards to Enterprise Resource Planning, effective June 30…Jason H. Whitley to Teaching and Learning, effective July 7…William “Timm” Drexler to User Support and Engagement, effective July 14… and Thomas McKeon to Enterprise Resource Planning, effective July 14.