R E P O R T S > Current Technology

1. The computing environment has changed radically during the past five years. Today, Information Technology at SCSU is integrated into university life. All faculty members have a desktop computer attached to the campus network and the Internet. Students are technologically enabled, with over 700+ computers available in General Access and subject specialized computer labs. Additionally, ResNET has connected the student residence halls and provide labs and support for students living on campus.
   
2. The Internet has changed everything. At SCSU students utilize the Internet to communicate with friends, do research for class assignments, access supplemental course materials offered by faculty, interact with potential employers, and surf the web for recreation. The Faculty are developing personal and course web pages in increasing numbers. Each school and most of academic department within the university and most of administrative departments, have web pages to offer information to students and the general public.
   
3. Since 1998, SCSU has invested over $600,000 in classroom technology and. the faculty has quickly begun to integrate technology into SMART classroom (computer, VCR, projection system, Internet and cable TV access, ELMO projection system). These technology-equipped classrooms have become highly sought after by faculty in all disciplines. With the addition of these new SMART rooms, the University now provides 16 high-technology teaching facilities. In addition, portable technology units will be available for the Fall and recent classroom renovations and construction have integrated technologies into the fabric of the instructional space. We expect that the demand for up-to-date teaching facilities will continue to grow, and the pace of demand will be driven by the pace of pedagogical integration.
   
4. A number of new initiatives on campus require a robust IT organization and infrastructure. The campus has implemented a new financial, Admission, Alumni modules and is in the process of implementing other critical modules including the student administration system from SCT. Our BANNER programming staff is working with campus departments to move the system into a production environment.
   
5. Last October, a campus-wide help desk/Call center was open for operation. Because of the budget constraint, the center is currently managed under Telecommunication Services (Ray Kellogg), staff only with student workers.  The help desk eventually will provide a wide range of support to SCSU faculty and staff, including consulting on desktop computing applications (such as word processing, spreadsheet, and database software), voice technology, unix, email, and Internet applications, remote access, and basic networking technology. The help desk also serves as the centralized access point for all work requests. They log and assign service request # for hardware repairs, software installations, telephone moves, adds, and changes, data connection requests and repairs, password resets, server problems, and general network failures.
   
6. Also, starting in the fall of 2001, the campus will be constructing a new student center. Technology will be infused throughout the new facility, including high-end computer labs, a Faculty & Student Technology Learning center, and various other areas for advanced technology learning and use. Another major impact of IT on campus is the administrative merger of Academic Computing, Administrative Computing, and Telecommunication Services into one cohesive unit, Office of Information Technology (OIT).
   
7. Training will be an increasingly important focus for SCSU in the next year. The Faculty is encouraged to utilize newer technologies in the classroom and will need to be trained in new products as they become available. Students who do not have IT skills when they enter SCSU will be educated so that all students may take advantage of the IT resources available on campus and be able to apply IT to all areas of their personal and professional lives.
   
8. SCSU’s current network consists of over 35 buildings connected via multimode fiber, with 68 telecom closets/hubs feeding approximately 1800 nodes. Last year, the complete CSU system-wide WAN (wide area network) was upgraded to handle the additional traffic that will be coming to Hartford (CSU System Office) from the Banner system at all 4 campuses. Frame Relay technology and leased lines were replaced with ATM via a public cloud from SNET.