GC IT has been informed by CUNY CIS that CRM/ERMS (CUNYfirst Support) mailboxes are not functional at all campuses. This includes the Graduate Center's CUNYfirst Support mailbox, GraduateCenter.CUNYfirst@mail.cuny.edu.
If you need to submit a CUNYfirst support ticket request, please contact GC IT Services via e-mail at itservices@gc.cuny.edu. Please specify that your support request is for CUNYfirst.
We will notify the GC Community as soon as this issue has been resolved.
Information Technology
http://it.gc.cuny.edu
itservices@gc.cuny.edu
Read moreNYPD reported that starting on 10/23/18, pipe bombs were delivered to the homes and offices of high profile political figures in and around New York City. All of the devices were delivered in weighty large manila envelopes, addressed in block type and had the same number of American flag stamps. Graduate Center mail room personnel have been reminded of suspicious package identification and mail screening protocols and public safety officers have been informed of the threat. If you come across suspicious mail or packages, do not touch it, leave the area immediately and call Public Safety at 212-817-7777 (do not use a cell phone).
Read moreCIS is investigating reports of connectivity issues with the CRM/ERMS process. Incoming emails are not being processed at this time.
We are working with our hosting partner to resolve the issue as soon as possible. Until this is resolved, we ask that your user community report CUNYfirst issues and incidents directly to the local campus Help Desk and refrain from using the @cunyfirst.cuny.edu mailbox.
Please notify your user community. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Read moreGraduate Center closed on Oct 8th 2018 (Columbus Day) Read more
Beginning October 1, 2018, we will be implementing the use of Listserv for GC Community Notices.
The GC Community Notice Listserv will serve as a communication tool to be used by select offices within the GC for the purpose of conveying important institutional messages to the GC community.
Listserv will enhance GC communications by enabling users to specify their preferred email, which is necessary due to the consortial nature of the GC. The Community Notice list on Listserv is organized into three lists: Students, Faculty, and Staff. If you would like to change your email address, subscribe or unsubscribe to these lists, please visit: gc.listserv.cuny.edu.
Thank you,
Departments of Communications & Marketing and Information Technology
Read moreCUNY Graduate Center
Information Technology
IT Announcement for Fall 2018
Please take note of these important announcements from Information Technology (IT).
The university’s migration from Banner to CUNYfirst Campus Solutions was successfully completed in April. All student-related processing (including class scheduling, course registration, faculty grade submission, student transcripts, etc.) now occurs in CUNYfirst Campus Solutions. CUNYfirst represents a change process which will affect how business functions are experienced by faculty, students and staff and we want to congratulate and thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to this project. We could not have reached this point without the tremendous effort of many individuals and teams across the Graduate Center. Banner decommissioning is underway in phases, with an anticipated completion date in the near future.
Office 365 Implementation:
-As previously announced by Central Office CIS, the Microsoft Office 365 for Education suite, offered by CUNY, is available to all active faculty and staff. It includes OneDrive for Business with 1TB of storage, as well as widely used Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the downloadable Office ProPlus suite.
-As previously announced, GC IT has implemented GC Collaborate as a platform for team collaboration designed specifically for organizational units and departmental needs within the GC.
-With the availability now of these cloud-based file storage-and-sharing platforms, GC IT will continue to decommission local legacy file storage platforms that have become outdated and outpaced by more current and technologically-advanced environments.
All Konica-Minolta (KM) workgroup printers (112 units) at the GC have now been replaced with new units, featuring upgraded technology that provides additional features for use by faculty and staff. Some of the new features include live monitoring of the fleet performance, access to comprehensive reports, and coverage for all parts, labor and supplies. Importantly the new KM machines also enable GC IT to move forward on a variety of security provisions that were stymied by the previous outdated equipment.
The Student Tech Fee Committee has funded several new resources, including the continued support for library databases and subscriptions, funding for routine replacement of student computers (PCs/Macs), support for student printing consumables, and support for disability access technology. This past summer we replaced numerous failing desktop computers in the Library and student lounges; we are also collaborating with student services to deploy a new Romeo 60 Braille Embosser, and additional tools for students with vision and hearing impairments.
A limited number of desktop computers (PCs and Macs) that were procured via a special funding opportunity have now been deployed to address targeted staff and faculty needs along with needed software upgrades and migrations over the summer.
As noted previously, the new Employee Network Account Request Form is now available on the IT website to request a GC network account for new employees. Keep in mind that this form is to be filled out by the new employee's supervisor or administrator before employee's start date and must include the employee’s CUNYfirst Employee ID (EMPLID) for processing.
A new Software Pre-Procurement Assistance is also available to assist our community obtaining pricing information for software that is not already provided by the GC or CUNY. Please visit the IT Self-Service Resources page and login to access this new resource.
We made significant improvements to our IT infrastructure that include:
-The Caller ID for inbound calls to the GC has been enhanced to provide more information.
-The GC’s email SPAM filter has been upgraded to be more effective in blocking SPAM.
-The GC’s connectivity to the internet has been more than doubled providing us with much needed bandwidth and additional safeguards have been added to prevent malicious activity.
A variety of upgrades to Media Services resources in several GC venues have now been completed, including the replacement of 27 classroom projector systems this past year (including rooms C201-C205 and C197-C198), the upgrade of all the digital signage equipment on the Concourse level (C201-C205) with larger screens and upgraded backend infrastructure, and the upgrade and reprogramming of the room combining system used in rooms 9204-9207.
We continue to support our community based at the GC’s Advanced Science Research Center and have made significant progress towards the full integration of all desktops and backend equipment (network, backup, server infrastructure) between both sites.
Blackboard’s annual upgrade target date for this year is set for December 27-28 and we expect the system to be completely unavailable during that period of time. Expect a separate notice as we get closer to the upgrade.
Increasingly, CUNY students, faculty and staff receive e-mails appearing to be from legitimate sources which are fraudulent and clever methods to trick you into disclosing personal information for criminal intent. This is a friendly reminder to remain vigilant regarding phishing attempts. Stay up to date by taking note of IT alerts posted on the IT website.
Your cooperation is always appreciated as we continue to streamline operations, reduce overhead, and prune costs due to continued budget reductions. Additional cost-cutting measures will be pursued as opportunities arise and shared with those constituencies at the GC which may be impacted.
Information Technology
http://it.gc.cuny.edu
itservices@gc.cuny.edu
Read more
The Graduate center email system is currently being targeted by a phishing campaign.
The most common phishing email looks like this:
We urge users to never click a link in an unsolicited email message and to change all passwords if they suspect an account has been compromised.
Microsoft will automatically block accounts that were compromised and are sending spam emails. A number of users have had their accounts blocked this week. Anyone who is having this issue should contact us at itservices@gc.cuny.edu and we will follow up with them individually.
All staff, faculty and students are encouraged to take this 30 minute security awareness program.
https://course.enterprisetraining.com/cuny2017/launch/
Information Technology
http://it.gc.cuny.edu
itservices@gc.cuny.edu
Read more
IT assists the GC community in obtaining all the necessary pricing information to make price conservative purchases. In order to streamline the process for requesting software pricing assistance, we have created a new Software Pre-Procurement Assistance Form that is now available to the GC Community. Please visit the IT Self-Service Resources page and login to access this new resource.
If you have questions, please contact IT Services for support.
Information Technology
http://it.gc.cuny.edu
itservices@gc.cuny.edu
Read moreGraduate Center closed on Sept 3th 2018 (Labor Day) Read more
HR Connect with the 2018-2019 holiday calendar Read more