November 2020

CIO MESSAGE

UMS Colleagues,

We remain in the shadow of a global pandemic.  I had not imagined making that statement ahead of the upcoming Fall semester in our previous edition of the IT Connections Newsletter, yet here we are.  Students, faculty and staff across the University will continue to rely heavily on technology to facilitate teaching, learning and business operations this academic year.  Accordingly, the US:IT team has been hard at work this summer to prepare for this demand and ensure access to robust, reliable tools to support instruction, both in the classroom and online.  I remain highly impressed by the entire US:IT team for their creativity, dedication and commitment to serving the University community; it is truly an honor to be a part of this team.

This past Spring term, a number of new tools and services were quickly launched to support the shift to remote teaching, learning and work as the University responded to the evolving COVID-19 Pandemic.  Through this effort, we learned which tools and services worked well and proved valuable for the community.  The Welcome to Campus 2020: IT Resources and Tools page has been updated to provide quick access and instructional support for these services.

With a $2.5M investment approved by the Board of Trustees, classroom facilities across the system have been upgraded this summer to enable robust web-conferencing capabilities to support remote and flexible instructional delivery.  These rooms will allow remote classroom participation to help reduce classroom density and support social distancing while providing high quality audio and video broadcast and recording capabilities.

In this newsletter, you will find additional information on key initiatives that have been ongoing and will be available this Fall including:

We hope you find the content in this edition of the IT Connections Newsletter informative and wish you a safe and healthy Fall semester.

Sincerely,

David M. Demers, Ph.D.,
Chief Information Officer