If you would like help or an answer back please include your email address in the Anonymous IT Suggestion Box email or use one of the other options listed below. If you do not, we can not communicate back to you but we will try and post a response below.
IT Suggestion Box(from your email) HelpDesk email email the CIO
Anonymous IT Suggestion Box (can only be answered below)
Responses to Anonymous
Sent Feb 1, 2008 - Blackboard
I think it is a little crazy that we can not access facebook using the schools internet on our laptops. Even my friends at BYU, a church owned school can access facebook. It is simply a site to connect and talk with friends. I strongly feel that this should be reevaluated. After all most of us here are adults and we should feel free to look at things as simple as facebook.
Response: You can access facebook from the school Internet as long as you access the wireless network appropriately. There are two wireless networks, a guest and a student account that you must login to using CISCO CleanAccess and your UV ID. If you access the guest account a standard filter is applied that is applied all K-12 schools and public libraries in accordance with the Internet Child Protection Act since the guest network is available to anyone including those under 18. If you login to the right network you will find that there are no filters or blocks.
Sent Jan 8, 2008 - Blackboard
I was wondering if there is a setting on blackboard somewhere so that I can have it show ONLY classes that I am currently registered for? It is showing classes from last semester, as well as classes that I am not registered for.
Response: If you have some courses from last semester still showing up, you can get rid of them or hide them. From the course listing in "My Blackboard" look for the little pencil icon and click on it. You can hide classes and change the order in which they appear.
Sent Jan 8, 2008 - Blackboard
Blackboard shows classes that I am not enrolled in & still shows classes from previous semesters. Will those ever go away? Or is there a setting where I can make it show only my current classes? Also, there are classes that I am enrolled in that aren't showing on Blackboard.
Response: If you have some courses from last semester still showing up, you can get rid of them or hide them. From the course listing in "My Blackboard" look for the little pencil icon and click on it. You can hide classes and change the order in which they appear. Courses that you are enrolled in that are not showing up should be corrected within a day or two. Those courses that you have dropped will stay there to retain any work in case it exists. You may hide them. If they are not, please call the HelpDesk and they can correct the situation.
Sent Jan 2, 2008 - Too many user?
Dont you think with the price of admissions that you could afford to allocate enough bandwidth to keep up with the demand of students? Not being able to log in to UVLink is a joke...
Response: We apologize for this problem and frustrations with UVLink. The problem with UVLink has been repaired. It was not a bandwidth problem but a problem with the software that we were able to work with the software vendor to resolve. If you have further problems please contact us. PS. UVSC has the lowest cost per student of all state of Utah universities
Sent Jan 3, 2008 - Blackboard Vista?
Easy simple thing to add to UVSC's website: A link to blackboard right next to the UVlink icon (the small yellow circle). Saves everyone a little bit of time logging into blackboard :) simple to do also. Thanks!
Response: Thanks. Good idea. We will look into this. It may not be possible due to space issues on the web page but will look into possible ways to do it. Normally UVLink would be a single sign-on to Blackboard but due to some technical difficulties, this is not currently available. We are working with the companies involved on correcting this.
Sent Dec 30, 2007 - Hey, Friend, I have a couple of concerns.
Firstly, I JUST upgraded my mac to Firefox 2.0 (and I consider myself behind the times, seeing as how 3.0 beta just came out), yet I have to use my deadly slow Explorer to access this site, or I can't even login to UVlink. Don't you think maybe it's time to update systems a little?
Secondly, everywhere I request information or results, the person or page I'm with says that it will be sent to my UVSC account e-mail (the one that starts out with my UVID#), but I don't think it's working. Case in point: I had to reapply to admissions and they said I'd get an e-mail to the UV account verifying that I was accepted, so that I could then proceed with registration. I never received said e-mail verification. It took me a while before I checked registration status and found I could continue, so I must be accepted?? Anyway, this doesn't do anything for my confidence in my UV e-mail account, and I have many more important pieces of information, like results of my Financial Aid application, that are supposed to be coming through... any day now, hopefully before January 1st, since that's when it's required by the school. Hopefully it's some error on my part, but I can't figure out what it could be. Any insight would be helpful!
~~Perplexed in Provo
P.S.--in Explorer, at the top of this page, it reads "Access Denied". Just another little pitch to upgrade the system for Firefox 2.0 users! :)
Response: Unfortunately, UVLink runs on a third-party software called Luminis by SunGardHE. You can visit their site and forward your complaint to them at www.sungardhe.com. Unfortunately, most commercial software is written to web standards and when new versions of browsers come out with new features, they often do not follow old standards and thus breaking the software for that browser. You might also consider contacting Mozilla and asking them the same question about Firefox and why is doesn't work with specific software like Luminis. We expect patches to come out (either for Firefox or for Luminis) that will fix the problem. These patches are usually released every three to four months and are based on priorities set by SunGardHE with input from clients. (Is it possible that you are going to the old ULink that doesn't have the latest patches?)
2nd - EMAIL issue - Three things are possible. One, you may have gone to your old email account in the old UVLink (uvlink.uvsc.edu instead of uvlink.uvu.edu) or you may have your email forwarded to an external email account (which deletes the message after it is forwarded.) It is also possible that with the Admissions office closed during the holidays that the process of sending the email was not completed. IF YOU WILL CONTACT US WITH MORE INFORMATION, WE CAN PROBABLY FIND OUT WHAT THE PROBLEM IS AND MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS WORKING OK FOR YOU. WITH ANONYMOUS EMAIL, WE HAVE NO INFORMATION ON YOU TO LOOK INTO THIS PROBLEM OR TO CONTACT YOU OTHER THAN THIS POSTING. Regarding your P.S., which page reads "Access Denied"? Is it the email page, anonymous web page, or another page?
Sent Dec 17, 2007 - Why so long???
I'm just wondering why it takes this school so long to submit grades. I have friends going to school all over the state and they all receive their grades within one to two days of finals, some of them within hours. This is very frustrating to those of us trying to schedule for the next semester.
Response: The grading deadline is Tuesday Dec 18th at midnight. After the grading deadline, the grades are rolled into the system and will be available on Wednesday Dec 19th. We will pass on your frustration to academics encouraging their faculty to get grades in sooner and to records to encourage them to roll grades on a daily basis however one of the reasons why they do not roll the grades daily is faculty are often changing grades during this time and if they are rolled, then a wrong grade maybe posted inadvertantly causing more problems.
Sent Dec 15, 2007 - it's not working
the class schedules for sum2008 and fall2008 aren't working!
Response: The class schedules for summer and Fall of 2008 are not available until April.
Sent Dec 13, 2007 - Have less errors
Every time I log in, most of my little boxes just has an error report in it.
Response: This was a problem in UVLink. Thanks for reporting it. It should be fixed now.
Sent Dec 2, 2007 - Teacher Evaluations
Most of my teachers have required an evaluation assignment. Last semester I was required to bring in a paper that showed I had done the evaluation. But this semester it didn't give me and way to print off something to prove I did the evaluation with out printing my answers also. So if you could have some type of confirmation pop up so we can print that off. Also the text boxes at the end are too small. I can only read exactly what i'm typing and makes it difficult to edit and preview before I submit it, that would be nice to be able to see what i've typed better.
Response: Thanks for the suggestion! The old system would not work in the current environment and had to be replaced. Instructions for the confirmation are listed under the instructions for the system found in UVLink and on the IT website. The confirmation page could not be built in the time frame that we had. We will look at the text box issue and we will work at implementing these for next semester.
Sent Oct 16, 2007 - Customize Option
On the old UV Link you had customzie me option with lots of useful information. Now the only option is the word of the day. Are you going to add the other options back to the new UV Link?
Response: Yes, but all options are available by reading the instructions and adding the channels yourself (which is the purpose of showing you examples).
Sent Oct 16, 2007 - Print Credit Again
I have often accessed the print credit from the labs on campus and added to my accounts, but I would like to add credit from my computer at home, since my printer is malfunctioning and I have currently used all of the credits I have on campus. Is this possible? If not currently, could it be made possible? It would be easier for me to do this at home on occasion, then the credits are there on campus when I get there and need to print something. Please consider this suggestion!
Response: Thanks for writing. This is currently available in the labs but not from off-campus. However, we are working on this and it should be available at least by January 2008 (start of Spring semester)
Sent Oct 16, 2007 - Post Page
I would like to have some kind of page on the uvsc site that students can post things to, like jobs they know of, books for sale, contracts for sale, etc: things college students put on post-it boards.
Response: Thanks for the suggestion. We are currently planning this for the UVU website that is currently being developed.
Sent Oct 10, 2007 - BladeLogic
You should use BladeLogic to manage your server and application infrastructure!
Response: This is inappropriate use of anonymous account. If someone wants to sell us a product or propose a product be use please contact us personally.
Sent Feb 26, 2007 7:57pm - Subject Planned Outages Page
The planned outages page is out of date; it has many items from January, etc. It also has a few spelling errors (resourse?) and is very difficult to read. Can't you make it more visually appealing? Bullet points, Dates shown first, something?
Response: Thanks for the suggestions. We are getting ready to re-build the site and hopefully it will be more visually appealing then. Hopefully the readability will improve also. The past items are under a heading of "Past Outages". We try and keep them on the site for a couple of months. Sorry about the spelling errors. They should be corrected now.
Sent Nov 11, 2006 12:53pm - Subject FTP access and limits
This year is different at UVSC. Somebody has locked down so many things it hinders my ability to be able to access and transfer information and assignments. In the labs we as students cannot access FTP Servers outside the uvsc.edu domain. This is a problem, because if you have a big file of home work you are working on and you upload it to your own FTP server you cannot get it while at school. Many would say "Why don't you use the FTP server that we have for students at UVSC?" The problem there is the space is so limited it is unreal. I think it is 5MB. I understand it is important to have our network secure, but lets be real. There are a varitey of ways to manage different levels of security. FTP is a standard protocol. Many use it regularly, because the work from many locations on many computers. I would like to see this option availiable soon. The solution is open up access to external FTP servers or give us more space on the student FTP servers. Lets be real how much does a few terabyte ftp servers cost.
Response: We do not block FTP access to servers outside the uvsc.edu domain. We would be interested in investigating your specific problem further. We are not sure of what you are referring to by "locked down" because there is very little that we have locked down at all. Please let us know which lab you are using. Perhaps there is something specific to that lab.
The space limit on the "FTP server" is currently 30MB per student. This can be increased but funding is not currently available. Cost for the high quality SAN based storage is currently about $2800 for 100 GB and for 24,000 students that is $672,000 per GB of increase. It really adds up quickly. We hope you will respond back to discuss solutions to your problems.
Sent Nov 2, 2006 10:24pm - Subject Print Credits
I have emailed the help desk to try and find out how to buy more print credit, and have recieved no response. I cannot find anything about how to buy more anywhere on uvsc websites. My grades are now going to suffer because of the incompetance and laziness of the IT staff. There is no reason why me email should not have been answered, and there should be a way to purchase print credit through UVSC websites, or at least a description of how it can be done. This kind of idiocy in a school is enough to make me want to transfer to BYU. Maybe they are right when they say UVSC is a good "starter school".
Response: We apologize for any mix up that their might be with the HelpDesk email. Please call them at 801-863-8888 if you do not get a response. The HelpDesk is open from 7:00am until 9:00pm. Any lab technician can help you with getting credit on your account. There should be in all labs where you can print, an Icon in the system tray for this (looks like a dollar sign). Please report it to the lab manager or to it@uvsc.edu if your lab does not have the Icon.
Sent Oct 25, 2006 - Subject Free Wireless & Clean Access
I think we should have free wireless like BYU. If not, we should agree to the "Clean Access" agreement once and then not have to do it again until the next time we subscribe to UVSC internet.
Response: We agree and have submitted budget proposals for funding the past three years. It looks like that this now has enough momentum that it might be funded this year. Please talk to the student body government regarding your support of this funding.
We are looking into the Clean Access agreement issue (Great Idea) to see if we can find a way to implement it.
Sent Oct 15,2006 - Subject Open Study Areas after hours
like other colleges i've attended, we should have part of the building open for us to study. I have too many distractions at home and really need a place to come and study. By leaving the school open, this would allow students to study in an atmosphere that could be focused on school. thanks
Response: This is being planned into the new library referred to as the Digital Learning Center (DLC) which should open its doors Fall 2008. We have forwarded this request on to other appropriate groups for their discussion.
Sent Oct 15, 2006 - Subject Why is UV link down on weekends?
Could you help the students who want to get good grades to at least get access to the UV link so they can study effectively?
Response: UVLink must be periodically maintained with upgrades, repairs and maintenance requiring downtime. These downtimes are done at low usage times (usually the weekend). When downtime occurs, alternative links to all systems accessible through UVLink are provided on the login page of UVLink that will provide you access to WebCT, registration, email, etc. If you are having problems accessing the systems, please call the HelpDesk at 863-8888.