V. Support Services and Miscellaneous Information

F. Information Technology Services (ITS) Facilities and Support

ITS provides resources for the Colgate community in support of academic, extracurricular and administrative applications of technology.

Computing Extensive computing facilities and a pervasive high-speed campus network connected to the Internet are available at Colgate for the academic and research needs of students, faculty, and staff. The network runs to every office, classroom, and room in the residence halls. Over 80 percent of Colgate students purchase their own computer, and more than 300 public computers are available in computing clusters and classrooms throughout the campus.

Full-time faculty members are provided with a desktop or laptop computer that is connected to the network. Many classrooms have computer projection and other multimedia equipment for use in teaching. Scanners, digital editors and other specialty equipment are available in Media and Instructional Technology in McGregory Hall, or in the Information Technology Services' (ITS) lab in O'Connor Campus Center.

Public computing facilities in the O'Connor Campus Center (the largest lab on campus) are open from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, and the lab opens at 10 a.m. on Sunday and remains open until Monday morning at 1 a.m. For the last six weeks of each semester, the lab is open 24 hours a day. There are other public and departmental labs as well. Please see the ITS web pages at http://offices. colgate.edu/its for more information.

All members of the community are required to abide by Colgate computing policies. These include policies for responsible use of computers and networks as well as individual obligations related to copyright laws. The full policy manual is available from the office of the Chief Information Officer (ext. 7224) and is available on-line at http://offices.colgate.edu/its/policies/. Colgate strongly urges members of the community to adopt current software standards to help assure seamless collaboration between members of the community. The Committee on Information Technology, a subcommittee of the Academic Affairs Board, oversees strategic planning and policy development for computing and technology.

Support for computing is provided by Information Technology Services through a three-pronged approach. The Colgate Helpline (ext. 7111) is the central point of contact for computer support and handles all emergency computer problems and routine questions. Problems that are of a less urgent nature are referred to members of the ITS staff called Technology Support Analysts (TSA), who are assigned to each division of the college. The TSAs also work with departments on computer upgrades and long-range planning. Front-line support for students and, after business hours, for the whole community, is provided by the Student Operated Computing Resource Center (SOURCe, ext. 7198).

ITS can make arrangements to meet with classes to provide introductory computing materials to students. Faculty desiring to use software in their classes should discuss their plans with their TSA as early as possible to assure adequate time for installation and testing both on their own desktops and for installation on lab machines. Special support and grants exist for faculty members who want to incorporate technology into their teaching. Contact the Chief Information Officer (ext. 7224) for more information.

Beyond the services already mentioned, other services routinely available to the user community include handling hardware and software installations, questions for faculty and staff, documentation, disk file recovery (where possible), networking support, and virus protection software. Also, numerous short courses are conducted on a variety of computing topics throughout the year. Program announcements are distributed by campus mail. Special requests can also often be honored. Contact the Director of Technology Education ( ext. 7478) for more information.