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Welcome: A Message from Timothy O'Rourke, Vice President of Computer and Information Services

March 28, 2006

Now that we’re back in the swing of things after the spring recess, I would like to take a moment to bring everyone up to date on the latest Computer Services developments.

The TECH Center
Since its opening in January, the TECH Center has proven to be a big hit with students on campus. So far, over 200,000 students have visited the student computer lab, with average weekday usage at 5,000 students per day. On March 1st, the Center broke previous attendance records with 6,510 visitors.

Students report that they enjoy using the TECH Center to work in the company of others, especially late at night. Students are also taking advantage of the resources to work collaboratively. This is evident by the heavy usage of the breakout rooms, which can accommodate eight people and are normally occupied until about 3:00 am each day.

The Software Development Lab, geared primarily for students majoring in Computer Science and Information Systems, is also now open. The lab offers both a variety of development tools in both Windows and Linux environments. The lab is located on the 2nd floor.

Finally, we have installed a Diamond Dollars cash machine at the 2nd floor consulting desk. The machine enables students, faculty, and staff to quickly deposit small cash amounts to their Diamond Dollars accounts. Note that everyone with a Temple University OWLnet card automatically has a Diamond Dollars account. The deposited cash can be used for printing or for making any Diamond Dollars purchase throughout the University.

For more information on the TECH Center, please visit the newly-expanded Web site at http://techcenter.temple.edu.

Music Downloading
I am very pleased to report that Temple now provides a secure and legal method for downloading music. Temple has partnered with Cdigix to provide a music subscription service, called Ctrax. Ctrax offers a catalog of over two million tracks and includes the top artists from every music genre at a nominal cost of just $3.49 a month for students and $5.99 a month for faculty and staff.

Over 5,000 Temple students, faculty, and staff signed up for the initial 30-day free trial period that ended on March 1st. If you have not already checked out this service, sign up by going to http://cs.temple.edu/ctrax.

TUportal Update
Temple’s new and improved TUportal, which debuted this semester has handled over a million login sessions since it went live in January. On average, there are approximately 30,000 login sessions per day and between 50 and 60 login sessions per minute.

In addition to providing a variety of resources for students, TUportal also enables employees to view current Leave Balances and Organizational Hierarchy information, as well as access administrative systems, such as the Performance Development System, Time Collection System, Section Information Management System, and Workflow (for use with the newly implemented online purchase requisitioning system).

We continue to receive favorable feedback about the portal and are planning to add more functionality to the site. One pilot project of note involves the creation of the Course and Teaching Evaluations (CATE) portlet. In the past, Temple’s Measurement and Resource Center (MARC) tabulated these evaluations and sent printed summary results to faculty. With the new pilot system, the summary results will instead be posted to the appropriate faculty member’s portal session, thereby reducing turnaround time and eliminating printing costs. Another enhancement we are investigating is the possibility of offering network television programming through the portal using the high-speed Internet2 network.

In closing, this is just a brief snapshot of the latest developments in the Computer Services Department. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the Temple University community, and I would like to urge everyone to take full advantage of the vast array of our technology resources.

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