MARS (Management of Accounts and Resources System)
The Banner Information System is the software application that provides many of our campus-wide administrative functions. The web interface to the Banner Information System is referred to as "Banweb." A new feature added to Banweb this summer is called MARS (Management of Accounts and Resources System). The MARS system provides a central place to keep track of your computer and technology resources. You can view your computer account, email address and file server directory location; or reset your computer account and email password.

Email communication to faculty, staff and students is a critical part of our campus-wide technology infrastructure. One important part of MARS is the automatic creation of email accounts for all faculty, staff and students. SPU email accounts have now been created for all registered undergraduate or graduate students. We need your help in getting the word out to all students that they now have an SPU email account. When you meet with your students this summer or into the fall, please encourage them to log into Banner to learn about our campus provided technology resources. (By the way, some students would prefer to have their SPU email delivered to another Internet address. This can quickly be done through the MARS system.)

Computer Viruses
Another wave of email viruses are hitting the campus. Our Exchange servers are effectively removing the virus "payloads", but the "cleaned" messages are still delivered to the recipient, which can cause some confusion. Here are some suggestions to deal with viruses:

• Do not open any files attached to an email from an unknown, suspicious or untrustworthy source. Do not open any files attached to an email unless you know what it is, even if it appears to come from a dear friend or someone you know. Some viruses can replicate themselves and spread through email. Better be safe than sorry and confirm that they really sent it.
• Update your anti-virus software regularly. Over 500 viruses are discovered each month, so you'll want to be protected. These updates should be at the least the products virus signature files. You may also need to update the product's scanning engine as well. For campus owned computers they should be configured to automatically download updates on a regular basis. Check with your CIS Micro Systems support representative if you're not sure.

Personal Web Page Creation and Migration
Current faculty, staff and students have the ability to create and maintain a personal web page on SPU web servers. We call this your personal WebSpace. Your SPU WebSpace is a resource where you may put files and folders that will be viewable via the web, including HTML files, ASP files, graphics and other files that you wish to be seen via the Internet!

CIS has installed a new web server for staff and student personal web pages. We are ready to begin the migration of web pages from paul.spu.edu to myhome.spu.edu. For people who currently have personal web pages shared out through Paul, now is the time to begin migrating your information to the new server.

CIS will be drawing two lucky names from those who have configured their new WebSpace prior to October 1, 2001. Prize winners will be awarded a personal copy of Dreamweaver! You must have created your new WebSpace (and converted from old Paul pages if applicable) to be eligible for the drawing.

For instructions on how to setup your WebSpace and/or migrate to the new server, please go to http://www.spu.edu/help/web.html

Do You Want Your Course Materials to be Online?
Faculty have a couple of choices if they want to make portions of their course materials available online to students. One method would be to post those items on their personal web page (see the section above on personal web page migration), or they might want to consider setting up their class in Blackboard, the system dedicated to providing access to online course materials.

If you make this type of material available to students online - our recommendation is to start moving your course materials to Blackboard.

Don't know what Blackboard is or how to put your course materials there? Contact Instructional Technology Services at (206) 281-2212 or email onlinelearning@spu.edu.

New SPU-Microsoft Campus License Agreement
Wow! Get ready for the news of the summer! Want to upgrade to the latest version of the Windows operating system? How about a new copy of Office XP?

CIS is pleased to announce that we have signed a Microsoft Campus Agreement for the licensing of certain Microsoft software products across campus. The products covered under this agreement include Microsoft Windows Upgrades, Microsoft Office (Windows and Macintosh editions), Microsoft Visual Studio for Windows and Microsoft FrontPage for Windows. Current SPU faculty, staff and students are now licensed to use the latest versions of these Microsoft products on their office and home computers!

Most SPU owned computers in faculty or staff offices already have Office 2000 Professional. Office XP Professional is the latest upgrade (released in May 2001), but is not considered a mandatory upgrade for campus computers. If you have a desire to upgrade to Office XP on the SPU owned computer in your office, please contact your CIS Micro Systems support representative to coordinate the installation.

The Microsoft Campus Agreement also includes Work at Home rights for current SPU faculty and staff. The agreement grants "faculty and staff the right to run the software covered under the agreement for school-related activities on a computer they own." This means that you can upgrade or install these products on your home system if you use that system for SPU related work. In September 2001, CDs for Microsoft Office XP for Windows, Microsoft Office 2001 for the Mac and Microsoft FrontPage 2002 for Windows will be available for purchase in CIS at a mere $10 per set! If you want to run these products on your home computer, CIS recommends that you purchase the CDs so that you will have them available for upgrades and maintenance.

Additionally, Microsoft Windows (ME or 2000) and Microsoft Visual Studio Professional (6.0) are covered under the license agreement but the CDs will only be available for checkout through the Library for installation on your home computer. Limited copies of Office and FrontPage will also be available for checkout, but CIS strongly recommends that your purchase the CDs for these products. The CDs will be available for checkout in the Library by the start of fall quarter.

Classroom/Computer Lab Software Upgrades for Fall Quarter
During the summer, staff who support the student computer labs, along with CIS staff, review the software applications that are installed on the computers in the classroom podiums and in the computer labs. In most cases the software installed in these locations is identical.

Over the next few weeks, we are finalizing the software items that will be installed in classrooms and labs across campus for the start of fall quarter. If you are aware of items that need to be upgraded or new items to be added, we need your input NOW! Two items that will be included in the new software build are Office XP Professional and the latest version of SPSS (version 10.1). Please contact Eric Deister in CIS (206) 281-2433, edeister@spu.edu who is helping coordinate these system rebuilds if you have questions.

If you have SPSS software installed on the SPU provided computer in your office, you should plan on upgrading to the current version (to match what is installed in the classrooms and labs) and also get the license codes that will allow the product to continue working past August 31, 2001. Contact your CIS Micro Systems representative to coordinate this work.

Announcing "NetStore" Personal Network Storage Space
CIS is pleased to announce another new resource for SPU students, faculty and staff. NetStore is a new network-storage area where you can transfer files for back-up and remote access. Details about your personal NetStore are available in the Computer Resources Menu (MARS) of your Banner account. Follow this link to the CIS Help Pages that describe the new NetStore resource.