Summer Break Reminders for CDes Faculty
Now that the end of the school year is here, I’m sure that you’re looking forward to the summer. As you have seen from other recent announcements, the college’s IT staff will be very busy making improvements for you and CDes students during the summer months.
If you will be teaching this summer and are planning on student access to computer labs, there will be some impact on availability as a result of the planned improvements along with the decision to not have studios during the summer. Computer labs in Rapson and McNeal will be closed at times for hardware upgrades, etc. In addition, the Rapson Hall labs will only have support staff on-duty during regular office hours (Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.).
Before you leave for the summer, we’d like to remind you of some things that could make it easier to get back up-to-speed in the fall when you return:
- Make sure to request archival of WebCT courses that you’re planning to use again. More information about this is available on the WebCT support site.
- Unsubscribe to any e-mail lists if you’re not planning to regularly check your UMN e-mail over the summer. Alternatively, set up forwarding to where you will be checking your e-mail. While you’re at it, if you’re not planning to read your UMN e-mail, put in an “away� message to let people know. Instructions on how to do that are available on the dirtools web site under “Set e-mail forwarding and auto-reply.�
- Adjunct faculty may want to leave contact information with their department since e-mail and directory information typically are removed when you go off the payroll for the summer.
- If you have a laptop and are taking it with you during the summer, make sure that you regularly check for operating system updates so that you won’t be “behind� when you get back in the fall.
- Check the IT News blog occasionally during the summer for updates on our progress with projects.