FROM RAVI
As the academic year winds down and everyone is getting ready for the summer, we wanted to let you know some of the changes that you can expect to see when you come back in the Fall. We have described the most important ones below and we will communicate the rest to you throughout the summer.
I am extremely happy to report that the move from Banner to Workday is going really well thanks to strong collaboration between HR, Payroll, and Student Financial Services (for student employment). On May 2, many of us got to see the initial version of our data in Workday and how we will be working with Workday for much of the HR-related administrivia. As is the case with all of these systems, the initial data had some issues, however, it was amazingly simple to fix them with a few clicks here and there. This illustrated the power of Workday. Our colleagues in HR and Finance are taking this opportunity to think about improvements to some of the current processes, which you will get to hear about after they have finalized their decisions.
Our MOOCs and Blended Learning initiatives are doing extremely well. In collaboration with faculty representatives from CCAP, ER&D, and ACLTP, the Provost’s Office and LTS will help draft a strategic plan for Online and Blended Learning at the College. We plan to circulate this draft to faculty, students, and staff for comments in the Fall, so we can have a finalized document sometime during the Fall.
Summer also provides us a great opportunity to work on certain projects that are otherwise hard to do when the semester is in session. We will be taking an inventory of such projects soon and begin working on them.
I also want to encourage you to go to My Wellesley > Administrivia > Record My Name and record your name. It is very simple! After you finish, a link to your name appears in the Directory. This can be very useful to get others to say your name correctly!
From LTS, I wish you an enjoyable and productive summer!
WIRELESS IMPROVEMENTS
LTS will be replacing all wireless access points on campus beginning in June 2016 and continuing through the summer. The schedule will be posted on the LTS website in the coming weeks. All residence halls will receive expanded wireless coverage to keep pace with the growing needs of students, and the entire network will use the latest wireless technology standard.
OFFICE 2016
Office 2016 has been released for both the Mac and Windows platforms, and students will be arriving with this new version of Office this Fall. We have not found any compatibility issues with the older versions of Office on campus computers. We will release Office 2016 on classroom computers in Summer 2017. You can see the new version and test files on it during Spring 2017. In the meantime, if you would like Office 2016 installed on your office computer, please contact the Computing Help Desk.
For personal use, you can find Office 2016 for Windows PCs and Macs in the Software Store (in MyWellesley > Administrivia > For Everyone) as part of Office 365 ProPlus. A one-year free, renewable subscription is available to current College faculty, staff, and students for up to five personally-owned computers and mobile devices. An inexpensive non-subscription option is also available for faculty and staff.
FOUNDERS FALL 2016 CLASSROOM UPGRADES
The Classroom Committee has approved an upgrade to the control systems in the Founders classrooms (except FND 120, which was updated more recently). Updated touch screen panels, similar to those in the new Green Hall classrooms, will replace the current remote control devices. Wireless projection through AppleTV, region-free Bluray players, and laptop cables (with our adaptor rings) will be installed in each room. The current projectors, screens, and computers will remain the same. LTS staff will be available in Founders for the first week of classes to answer any questions, and training opportunities will be available at the end of August.
STAFF CHANGES
We are excited to announce that our new Director for Library Collections, Karen Bohrer, will join LTS on August 15. Karen is great addition for the library, based on her experience as Head Librarian of the Blegen Library at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Director of the Bissell Library at the American College of Thessaloniki, and Library Director of the Oliver Wolcott Library in Litchfield, CT. Karen is currently working as the Collections Assessment & Development Librarian at WPI, where she has guided WPI’s development policies, led the library’s Assessment Task Force, partnered with their library platform development partner (ProQuest), and fostered collaboration among library teams and faculty. The campus will have an opportunity to meet Karen in early Fall.
Sarah Barbrow, Research & Instruction Librarian, is moving to the Science Library and will be supporting the Sciences, as well as Psychology. A search is currently underway for a new quantitative Social Science Librarian. Questions can be sent to Elliot Brandow, our Assistant Director of Research Services.
Pam Bristah, our Music Librarian, is retiring after many years of dedicated service on May 27. A search will commence after we have a new Director of Library Collections.
Carolin Ferwerda, our Instructional Technologist for data and GIS, will be leaving the college on June 9. A search for her replacement will begin in early June. Questions can be sent to Jordan Tynes.
MATLAB & JMP
Based on faculty requests, Matlab 2015b and JMP 12 will be updated in classrooms over the summer. If you need assistance installing this software on your office computer, please contact the Computing Help Desk.
OS 10.11 IN SOME CLASSROOMS
Apple is requiring that all new Macs have OS 10.11 (El Capitan, a small, not significant upgrade). Classrooms receiving new Macs this summer will have 10.11, which is faster overall but has an initial 1 minute login time, slightly longer than what most faculty experienced with 10.10 (Yosemite). If you have any questions about the computers being installed in specific classrooms or if you would like to try out the new image on a testing station, please email classrooms@wellesley.edu. We will be posting a list of 10.11 classrooms in June when final replacement orders have been made.
WINDOWS 10
We will continue to support Windows 7 on College-owned office computers. For personal computers, Windows 10 is often the default on new purchases and older home computers may be prompted to upgrade. If you are interested in upgrading to Windows 10 at home, we encourage you to confirm that your software and home printer are compatible before upgrading.
MUSIC LIBRARY SUMMER HOURS
The Music Library will be open weekday afternoons this summer (May 31-August 12, noon to 4:30 pm, Monday-Friday). Reduced hours will address staffing needs as we seek to replace the current Music Librarian. Faculty and staff will have swipe access to the library during the morning (8:30am to noon, Monday-Friday), or by appointment. During the Composers Conference (July 18-25), the Music Library will be open 8:30am-4:30pm Monday-Friday.
WORKDAY UPDATE
We have successfully uploaded basic HR data for the faculty, staff and student employees into an instance of Workday and will be receiving it shortly for review. We are excited that this phase went very smoothly. We are in the process of providing payroll, benefits, and additional data for the faculty to Workday for a subsequent load. Wellesley team is also looking at implementing additional changes to our business processes. Please check for updates periodically.
WAITLIST
The Registrar’s Office and LTS have collaborated with the faculty in implementing a waitlist system which is now available to students. Several students have already used this system to add themselves to a centralized waitlist and a few have already been offered a seat! Learn more about the waitlist system.
