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Support
home
Faculty/staff
supported hardware and software
Supported Software
What
does supported mean
Limited
support
We'll try but no
guarantee
Unsupported
What
we don't do
Alternatives
to ITS support
Where
else can you turn
Peripherals
Basic installation
only
Personal
or home computers
What we can help
you with
Networked
services
To what can I connect
Communications
News and upcoming
events
Partner
organizations
Formally allied
with Macalester
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Communications Policy
Information Technology Services provides mission-critical support
for our educational community. The community must be fully
informed of, and appropriately engaged in, significant developments
affecting their access to these services. ITS staff explicitly
accept the responsibility for communicating appropriate information
about system events, policy changes and other updates to the
Macalester community. Members of the community, in turn, must
take responsibility for staying abreast of available information.
Changes of policy and procedure
The community will be informed of discretionary changes that
substantially affect their work well ahead of time. Examples
include migration to a new e-mail service or introduction of
major new services. When proposed changes are especially significant
and are the result of considered choice among multiple viable
options, there will be a comment period for community input.
If a representative policy-oriented group is available, the choice will
be discussed with them. Announcement of pending changes will be made through the campus Bulletin and also,
when possible,
through Today. Training and documentation, as needed, will be
available at or ahead of the time for the change. Community members
are responsible for reading the Bulletin or Today to inform themselves
of impending changes.
Implementations, upgrades, other scheduled system events
Occasionally it becomes necessary to interrupt network or system
services for routine maintenance, installation of software upgrades,
repairs, etc. These events are planned in advance. We will work
to alert members of the community to these impending events through
multiple communication venues, in the hopes that at least one
of these messages will get through to each person who will be
affected. When feasible, we will test systems to gauge possible
unforeseen problems - however, it is not always possible
to perform such tests in advance.
- Notification-L postings. Notice of scheduled events will be sent
out via the notification-l lists, well ahead of time, with appropriate
reminders as the scheduled event nears. All Macalester e-mail
accounts are subscribed to one of the notification-l lists when created. Depending on the information being communicated, postings may be
sent to faculty-notification-l, staff-notification-l, student-notification-l
or some combination of these lists (see
http://lists.macalester.edu/). During
summer months, when department coordinators with 9- and 10-month
contracts are not working, we strongly encourage departments
to designate another person to temporarily act as the office's "information
contact."
- Notes in regular campus news media. Information Technology Services
staff will publish news on upcoming system events in the Bulletin
(including the Bulletin Flash) and the Today if time is available.
- Archived postings. Postings by Information Services departments
to the Bulletin, to the Notification-L list
and to the Today will be archived and available.
Unscheduled System Events
Unfortunately, unexpected system outages do occur, in which one
or more file servers, e-mail services or some portion of the
network becomes unavailable without warning. When these events
take place, staff will take the following steps to communicate
with users:
- Notification-L postings. Notice of unscheduled events will be
sent out via appropriate notification-l lists as soon as possible when a system
event occurs. Office coordinators will be expected to pass along
this information to members of their departments. Further notification-l
messages may be sent as appropriate to keep the community apprised
of developments, and a final message will be sent when the problem
is resolved.
- Voicemail notification. If an unscheduled system event interrupts
campus e-mail service, informational messages will be sent out
via targeted voicemail instead of e-mail. In circumstances where
the interruption is of extraordinary duration or of campus-wide
impact, we may send information either via targeted or all-campus
voicemail. We recognize that the latter is not as effective as
we would hope, since all-campus voicemail messages do not activate
telephone handset voicemail lights.
- Recorded informational message. In the case of interruption of
central information technology services, Help Desk staff - or,
under certain circumstances (such as after-hours service outages)
other ITS staff - will record a message to be placed in the
Help Desk's "information queue," accessible
24/7 by dialing extension 6525. This message will give information
about the unexpected event. Users who would like to be called
when a problem is resolved will be able to leave a message requesting
this service. When the problem has been resolved, the old message
will be replaced by a new one so stating, and giving details
as appropriate.
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