13 - Union County College

18
LEADERSHIP
IN
ADMINISTRATION
AND
TECHNOLOGY
A Conga line of trucks prepares for the
Elizabeth construction to begin.
cont’d
Academic programs, like the popular Game
Design program require increasing IT support
A new intercampus/internet Wide Area Network (WAN) infrastructure was
completed in FY -07. This was a multi-year joint project with the County
of Union Administration to inter-connect UCC campuses and local county
government agencies via high-speed optic fiber for voice, data, video, and
internet services. Through a partnership with the County of Union, the
College now manages the ongoing physical network as well as the internet
connection, and also supplies internet bandwidth to the County. The
optic network connects to the Halsey Street Carrier Hotel in Newark,
where the College has access to low-cost, high bandwidth internet from a
variety of telecommunication carriers. Implementation of these dedicated
fiber links has also dramatically increased network capacity.
This is a first project of its kind in New Jersey, and is being shown as a
model for collaboration and cost savings. Following the success
of this model, the IT Department is currently working to
organize the K-12 districts in Union County for a similar collaboration
project with the College, Union County government,
and the School Districts. This would enable high-bandwidth
internet and internet-2 access for the K-12 school districts
at reduced costs.
Web-for-Faculty was installed this year and faculty and staff
were trained in its use. This software application provides faculty
and staff enhanced web-based access to the Student
Information System (SIS), for a variety of tasks such as viewing
student schedules, viewing class schedules, and online
grading. It is scheduled to be implemented for all faculty in
the Fall 2007 semester.
Ad Astra, a web-based College-wide facilities scheduling system,
has been installed and a web-interface which will allow
college-wide viewing of room usage is planned for the future.
A total of 56 computer lab locations are operated, including
computer labs on the four UCC campuses as well as computer
labs located at off-campus locations. 1014 PCs (up from 914
in FY-06) are supported in these computer labs offering 174
software applications. For the Fall 2006 semester, a new
Architecture Design computer lab was opened, and a new
Computer Game Design computer workstation lab was opened
for the Spring 2007 semester. The Cranford Library renovations,
completed in 2006, resulted in new computer labs for
the Library and the Academic Learning Center, as well as a
new public computer access area. Microsoft Windows XP is
the desktop operating system for all of the UCC backbone network
computer laboratories.
In addition to the computer labs, 559 desktop office PCs (up from 520 in
FY-06) are supported for faculty/staff use offering 95 software applications.
Upgrading of all faculty/staff PCs will continue, to enable the conversion
to Microsoft Vista begin in FY-09. Faculty/Staff continue to have
access to current versions of application software such as Microsoft Office
and WebMail. Microsoft NT server is implemented on Intel platforms to
support current and future academic and administrative software applications
College-wide.
Web-based streaming video services are also offered across the UCC
Network. In coordination with the Media Services Department, streaming
video can be supplied to the Internet, as well as faculty, staff, and student
desktop PCs. Video of UCC graduation ceremonies are now routinely
streamed live on the Internet allowing distant families unable to attend to
witness these proud moments.