Tuesday, July 24, 2012

... the other half is maintenance

This morning I arrived at work early - I was hoping to complete a mail-merge before my morning meetings and my afternoon with the kids.  But I made the fatal mistake of pulling up my email to make there wasn't anything more important/pressing.  Lo, and behold, I needed to finish some edits on the CASA Annual report.

I pulled up the report from the email, added an explanation about why our calculated retention rates for orientation attenders and first year freshmen do not match exactly Institutional Research's numbers (we include some students that begin in the summer and some populations that are excluded for state reporting purposes), moved some graphs around and other minor edits.

Next, I pulled a list of the remaining assignments to an advisor who left the university - a flaw in the current system is that when an advisor is inactivated, other departments can no longer look at his list - I have to use the historical database to pull that information (one of many reasons that assignments are due for a re-write).  

I answer a couple more emails.  Time for my 8am meeting with ACNS/the Library.  Walk around construction on campus and into the Library.

8am
Today's topic is the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) on CASA taking over daily management of the laptop checkout program in the Behavioral Sciences Building.  For the past year, it's been a joint venture where Undeclared Student Tech Fees have paid for machines and our lab staff have worked equal hours along with Library student staff to checkout the machines.  The Library did all the maintenance and setup of machines.

So, now we will take over
  • 10 Macbooks and 15 Dell laptops paid for by Undeclared Student Tech Fees
  • 18 Macbooks and 20 Dell laptops paid for by University Tech Fees
We'll continue to use the library system to checkout laptops for convenience and to charge students who checkin items late and damage/destroy machines.

We (Undeclared Student Tech Fees) are augmenting the laptops with 18 Macbook Pros.

We are adding printers in the area and two printing kiosks.  Students will be able to use the laptops and webprint to print using quota on http://acnspapercut.colostate.edu:9191.  Quota can be added by transferring money from  http://ramcash.colostate.edu.

The Library added surveillance cameras over the checkout desk and will continue to handle the study rooms and seating, and the checkout program is still an extension of Library Technology Services.

We'll be extending hours and having two students watch the desk, hopefully filling the student technical needs even better than we did in the just-in-May-closed-Durrell-lab.

9am
I setup a new Orientation Graduate Assistant whose first day is today.  I talk about technology at CSU, what we provide, and an overview of how technology supports the CASA units.  We provision his account meaning I give him access to:
  • A CASA account and ability to login to machines on the CASA domain
  • Access to install programs on his assigned office machine
  • An exception so that he can have an exchange account on mail.colostate.edu
  • Access to edit portions of the Orientation and Transition Programs website
  • Access to Lighthouse, Leave, Timesheets, and the Orientation Reservation system
  • Access to InvolveNet, the tracking system for First Year Mentor Programs
  • Membership in the appropriate Exchange groups for Calendar management and Distribution Lists
  • The ability to remotely login to his office machine
10:15am
Head over from Aylesworth to TILT.  Finish moving a few items between rooms.  The computer staff moved across the hall from our former office into the former resource room.  Yesterday, the computer staff moved a fridge out and a bunch of desks, computers, monitors, etc into the new space.

*Found the door to our office unlocked.  Old habits die hard - someone unlocked it in the morning, but now there is no reason for it to be unlocked when no one is there.  So, I updated the sticky note on the door.  We'll see if people read.*

Move a bunch of stuff around.  Pulled the black crates and laptops that need to be moved back to Aylesworth.  Promptly forgot them for the rest of the day.

11am
Met with TILT staff about the Great Hall - we have added printers up there and a single machine for printing.  Worked out lots of logistics, and attempted to add the printers to the machines already in place.  Determined I'll need to work with their IT folks to install Papercut Client on laptops.  Lots of documentation needs to be written!!!  

The printers will work just like the BSB printers - purchasable quota can be used to print at any of the locations - Library, BSB, TILT Great Hall.  Housing is also adding printers in several of the residence hall main offices.  *Note to self - order the test printer for housing*

12pm
Rush home to spend the afternoon with my wonderful kids.  It's library day!


Now, here I am during quiet time - Tristin is sleeping, Collin is watching Spiderman on TV, Marcia has been learning Photoshop drawing using a Bamboo drawing tablet (and is now starting dinner), and I am adding way too much detail to this blog.

Gotta go back to work after the kids go to bed.  Still didn't get that mail-merge done.

Just another typical (a-typical?) day in the life of a University IT Geek Father.

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