Major Changes to the Student U: Drive

Archive for 2015

Major Changes to the Student U: Drive

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Students,

With the recent summer addition of OneDrive (an online cloud storage solution that comes with your O365 student email), we have made the decision to decommission the StuFile servers (also referred to as your U: drive) on January 15th, 2016. This means that over the break you will need to begin moving the files that you want to keep onto OneDrive or another storage location.

What do you need to do?

Once the StuFile system is taken offline, you will not be able to access those files anymore unless you have either downloaded them to your computer or moved them over to your OneDrive account. You can access your StuFile data by logging into a Windows computer in a lab and browsing the mapped drives or you can access the web interface from anywhere (Stuftp.tcu.edu) and download the files that you want to save.

Warning: Keep in mind that the StuFile system is tied to the wwwpub folders that some students use to build webpages for class. We will be providing your professors with an alternative solution that they can use in the future, but your current webpages will stop working after January 15th, 2016.

How do I use OneDrive?

  1. Login to your O365 account at stumail.tcu.edu
  2. Click OneDrive from the top menu bar. The first time in OneDrive, you may see a message indicating the account is being activated. That process takes a few minutes to complete.
  3. Now upload your documents, create new content, and collaborate with others.

Check out this short tutorial video:

OneDrive

 

PeopleSoft Financial Upgrade

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Faculty/Staff and Students,

On Friday, December 11th, we will be doing an upgrade to the financial portion of myTCU.   We will begin work at 1 p.m. on Friday, December 11th and all services should be restored by noon on Sunday, December 13th.

What will I experience during the upgrade?

This upgrade will only affect the financial portion of myTCU and all other tools will remain available so you can continue to complete your work for finals.  If you have any questions, please contact the IT Support HelpDesk for assistance.

  • Students
    • You will still be able to make payments online, but those payments will not be posted to your account until Sunday afternoon.
  • Faculty/Staff
    • Apart from the features that the Financial Services office uses, only budget managers will experience an issue.  You will NOT be able to access FS8PRD or any of the links in the budget manager portlet until the upgrade is complete (see the screenshot below).

myTCU Image

Email on Mobile Devices – New Policy Requirement

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Faculty/Staff,

With the migration to Exchange 2013 in the earlier part of the year, we now have the ability to enforce a password requirement on all mobile devices connecting to our email system.  This means we can require your phone or tablet to have a PIN/passcode setup to help ensure that TCU’s data is protected in the case that your device is lost or stolen.

On Friday, December 11th at 10am, we will be implementing a policy requiring a passcode to be enabled on any Faculty/Staff mobile device that has TCU email setup.

What do I have to do?

A large percentage of the recent mobile device operating systems already require you to setup a passcode when you get the device so most of you will not even notice that a new policy requirement was applied.  This will work with the fingerprint feature on iOS devices since they just input the user’s passcode when the print is identified.

If you don’t have a passcode enabled on your device and are connecting to the TCU email system, then you will be prompted to create a PIN/passcode once we push this out.

What if I already have a PIN/passcode enabled?

If you already have a PIN/passcode enabled on your device, then no action is required. Your existing PIN or passcode will not be modified and you can continue to use it as normal.

Alert:  Some Android devices offer a pattern locking feature where you can swipe your finger in a certain direction or shape to unlock the device.  This feature is NOT supported by the new policy and the system will require you to change to a PIN or passcode once we make this modification.

Why are you doing this and can I opt out?

No, you cannot opt out of this policy if you have TCU email setup on your device.  You can remove the email connection from your phone or tablet and opt to check your email using a web browser to avoid the requirement.  This will keep the policy from being applied to your device and provides you with an alternative way to check your email.  Please, remember that we must be good stewards of University data and this policy helps to ensure that we are doing our best to protect TCU’s internal communication.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to reach out to the IT Support HelpDesk for assistance.

mobile device email

myTCU Maintenance on Friday

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Faculty/Staff and Students,

On Friday, December 4th at noon, we will take myTCU down to do a system upgrade and we should have everything back up by noon on Saturday, December 5th.  This upgrade is focused on security and backend features so you will not experience any significant changes when you log back in.

Keep in mind that myTCU manages multiple systems across campus so you will NOT have access to the following items during the upgrade:

  • myTCU Portal:
    • Student Center
    • Employee Center
    • Faculty/Advising Center
  • This will also include the following services that are not part of the sections listed above:
    • New TCU Guest Account Creation
    • Network Device Registration for Students
    • Financial Reporting
    • Qualtrics Survey Creation/Management
    • Computer Asset Information
    • FrogBucks Access
    • LearningStudio (eCollege) – To login to eCollege during the outage go to www.tcuglobal.edu and use your TCU ID number as the login ID and your birthday (mmdd) as your password.

Please, plan your activities accordingly so you are not affected by this maintenance window.  If you have any questions, you can contact the IT Support HelpDesk for assistance.

Used Computer Sale – December 2nd-4th

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Faculty/Staff,

Information Technology will be selling gently used computers at reduced purchase prices. We have very few Mac desktops, a limited number of PC laptops, and PC desktops available for purchase.  The purchase price for the base model PC desktop computer includes a flat panel monitor, keyboard, mouse, and new installation of the computer’s operating system.

Computer Sale Details:

  • Where:  Sid Richardson, Room 111
  • When:  December 2nd – 4th, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
  • Price:  See below
  • No limit on PC desktop purchases.
  • Mac and laptop purchases are limited to one per customer.
  • All equipment is first-come first-served.

Payment Information:

Payment can be made by check in Sid Richardson 111.  Cash and card payments can be made at Financial Services in Sadler Hall, but make sure to come by Sid Richardson 111 first to ensure equipment availability.

***Please, note that purchased computers are for personal use, sold in as-is condition, and are not supported by IT.  Purchased computers may NOT be used on the TCU network or purchased with departmental funds.***

Mac OS X El Capitan

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Faculty/Staff,  Apple recently released its newest operating system named Mac OS X El Capitan for their laptop and desktop computers. While the update to El Capitan (10.11) isn’t expected to be dramatic, IT still needs to test key applications and University systems before installing it on campus machines.

While Mac OS X El Capitan is free, we have a process in place that will keep you from being able to perform the upgrade on your TCU machine until we have completed the testing phase.  This is a standard process and one that applies to all releases of new operating systems (including Windows machines).

Some common software applications have already reported issues with El Capitan and it is customary for vendors to take 60 to 90 days to fully support the release of a new operating system.

Once the new operating system has been tested for compatibility with University technology, then we will send out a message about how to upgrade your Mac.  As long as we don’t find any problems, we expect this upgrade to be available by the Spring semester.  If you have any questions, please contact the IT Support HelpDesk at (817) 257-6855.

Changes to TCU Student Printing

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We are excited to announce some big changes to the TCU student printing service that is offered on campus.  Please, take a few minutes to review the following items:

We are moving your free pages to a money based system so things will look a little different.

In order to give you some extra flexibility, we are changing over from a free page system to one that reflects your printing balance in the form of money.  This means that instead of having 300 free black/white pages that you will now start with a $30 balance every semester (which equals 300 b/w prints at 10 cents per page).  This also represents an increase in the number of overall free prints from previous years which was set at 200 pages (or $20 in the new system).

This will now give you the flexibility to use your free printing balance on color printers (90 cents per page) which is something that you couldn’t do before.  Keep in mind that this $30 balance only works on the printers that you use in the labs and does not cover copies.  See our service catalog for more information about Student Printing.

You can now print from your personal device to the Pharos printers!

Today we are launching a new system called Pharos MobilePrint.  This system will allow you to print from your personal computer or mobile device simply by attaching and sending the document via email to our online system.  Please, see our MobilePrint page for more information about how this new feature will work with the Pharos printers on campus.

O365 is Coming Soon

Students, this summer the Information Technology division will be transitioning all student email accounts (contacts and calendars included) over to an online cloud service called Office 365 (O365).

We are excited about this change since it brings some amazing enhancements that we know you will enjoy.   Please, take a few seconds to read the information below and see if you would like to volunteer to be one of the first students to get access to this new tool.

Can I volunteer to be in the first group?
Yes, we are looking for 500 bleeding edge students to volunteer to go in the first two rounds (Mid/Late May).  You will get access to these new features weeks before your friends and all we ask is that you provide us with feedback on how things went.  Sign up by clicking the button below:

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What are some of the new features?

  • Available as soon as you are moved:
    • Increased Mailbox Size – Now up to 50GB*
      *Storage space subject to change
    • Keep your TCU email for the life of the service.
  • Coming after all students are moved (late summer):
    • OneDrive – 1TB of online storage
    • Office Online – A web version of Office
    • Ability to download and install Microsoft Office on up to 5 of your personal computers

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to the IT Support HelpDesk for assistance.

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 11

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Faculty/Staff, this weekend we will be pushing an update to our Windows users that will upgrade them from Internet Explorer (IE) 9 to IE 11.  This upgrade will NOT change the look and feel of the IE web browser, but it will include some added features that will make your experience more positive.

Note:  If your machine is off campus (or turned off) when we push out the update, it will still receive the upgrade when you turn the machine back on or return to campus and connect to the TCU network.

Why are we upgrading?:
Upgrading to IE 11 should provide a few of the following benefits:

  • Web pages will load faster.
  • Compatibility with more websites especially newer sites that have recent web browsing standards applied.
  • Better security in terms of detecting and identifying phishing sites.

If you have a question about this upgrade, you can reach out to the IT Support HelpDesk for assistance.

Technology Purchase Deadline for FY15

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Faculty/Staff, the end of the Spring semester is fast approaching and is bringing us closer to the end of fiscal year 2015. To make certain that all technology purchase requests utilizing current fiscal year funds are fulfilled before the end of the budget year, Information Technology will stop processing technology equipment orders for fiscal year 2015 on Friday, May 1st, 2015 at 5pm.

***Please, email computerpurchasing@tcu.edu for all technology purchasing questions or requests.***

The ordering cut-off is necessary so that any equipment orders placed using current fiscal year funds are received in the current fiscal year and not billed to fiscal year 2016.  We will do our best to make sure equipment is received before the end of May, but cannot guarantee delivery due to variable lead times.  Please order sooner than later to avoid any billing issues.

Be aware that orders received for technology related equipment after May 1, 2015 will be processed in fiscal year 2016.

Acquisitions Policy
Keep in mind that all computers, software, and other computer related technology purchases must be placed through the Information Technology purchasing department.  Technology purchases made outside of Information Technology will not be added to the TCU network and can create support limitations for you and the product. The policy for Computer Technology Acquisitions can be found by visiting the following link:

http://it.tcu.edu/policies/acquisition-policy/

Power Outage Affecting IT Services

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On Saturday, January 10th, there will be a planned power outage that will affect several buildings on the East side of campus. The primary IT data center will be affected by this outage which means that many of our technology services will NOT be available to the campus community.  Please, review the information below to get more details about the specific services that are affected by this outage.

How will this affect me?

The power outage will start at 5 a.m. on Saturday, January 10th, and will end that afternoon at 3 p.m.  A large portion of our technology services will be completely unavailable until power is restored.  Since some systems take an extended period of time to bring online, we do not expect everything to be back in service until noon on Sunday, January 11th.

Here are some of the major services that will be down during the power outage:

  • CableTV
  • Email – Students will be down but employees will still be able to access email.
  • File Shares – Homefile and Commonfile
  • Lab Printing – Student printing in labs will be down.
  • New Account Creation
  • Network Access – Only in buildings without power.
  • Password Self Service
  • Phones – Only on the East side of campus.
  • Sign Sign-On (SSO) – Orgsync and IT Self-Service
  • VPN – This means no remote access from off campus.
  • Windows.tcu.edu

The items listed above contain most of the major systems that are affected by this power outage.  If you are interested in a detailed list of the service impact to the campus, please refer to this document.

Upgrade to Exchange 2013 for Students

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Students, in an effort to resolve the loading or message not downloading issues that have been reported when using email on a mobile device, we have decided to accelerate our plans on a project to move everyone over to Exchange 2013.  We are making every effort to move all student mailboxes over before the beginning of the semester.

How will this affect me?
You will not have to do anything when we transition your mailbox over to the new system.  You will still be able to connect the same way that you have in the past and should not see any major changes except on the web interface.  All of your email, contacts, calendar items, and tasks will be available in Exchange 2013.
We will be moving people over in several batches so your account may be transitioned over before other students, but you will still be able to communicate with them during this process.

New Look for Outlook Web Access (OWA)
We are excited to let you know that your experience on the web interface will be much improved (especially for Mac users).  Once you are moved over to Exchange 2013, you will see the new design when you login to your email from a web browser.  Here are a few quick tips on how to use the new version of OWA:

If you have questions about this transition or run into problems, you can always contact the IT Support HelpDesk for assistance (after the holiday break).

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