Information Technology Services Projects
Bookmark this page to keep abreast of the latest large-scale projects being coordinated by campus technology teams.
Plan Ahead, Way Ahead
Industry supply-chain disruptions and product availability are two worldwide problems that continue to impact our ability to procure technology equipment. It’s a reality that all campus planners need to consider.
Estimated shipment lead times for equipment vary, but the wait could be up to 14 months in some cases. Our ITS teams continue to work with our manufacturers and distribution suppliers to keep a pulse on global supply chain projections.
The overall distribution problem has created significant challenges in the following key areas:
- Budget planning and account management — shipment lead times can cross over fiscal years.
- Extended and unpredictable shipment lead times.
- Sustainability planning and equipment replacements for IT equipment across campus.
- Most importantly — our ability to respond to short planning cycles for campus projects, initiatives, and even equipment failures.
How You Can Help
If you are planning a project in the near future or have something planned for the summer of 2023, please submit an ITS project request on our ITS Portal.
We will review your IT service needs. This engagement allows us to assess your project for IT needs and evaluate options to address supply chain lead times.
Recent News & Projects
- New ITS Portal
Our new ITS Portal is your one-stop shop for access to technology services.
The portal provides the fastest way to get answers to technology questions, make requests for help, find our services, and connect with our team of experts.
It’s part of a broader initiative to improve technology-service delivery to the campus community.
- Goodbye Moodle, Hello Brightspace
For Fall 2022, we begin preparing faculty and staff for migration to the D2L Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS), replacing Moodle. We expect to complete full migration in time for the Summer 2023 term. Campus ITS teams are confident that we are on schedule.
Why are we moving to Brightspace?
As part of a mandatory SUNY-wide LMS consolidation, SUNY Plattsburgh will be leaving Moodle in 2023 and migrating to Brightspace. A small contingent of faculty presently teaching in the online accounting program through SUNY Online were the first to migrate; this pilot group saw training in the summer of 2022, with courses going live in Brightspace in Fall 2022.
The balance of the college’s faculty will receive extensive training through the winter and Spring 2023 semesters, with the target of having all courses delivered via Brightspace beginning in Summer 2023.
Transition Timeline
After a successful launch of our online accounting program in the SUNY-hosted Brightspace LMS for Fall 2022, ITS is now working on the next phases of our campus-wide transition into the new LMS platform.
We will be providing a detailed webpage with project specifics. In the meantime, we would like to take this opportunity to update you on a phased approach that will take place over the next 10–12 months.
- Phase 1 (this fall): We will have a form available by October 17, 2022 for each faculty member. It will show the last three years of currently available Moodle courses/pages. Faculty will use this form to indicate which sites they want to migrate. We encourage faculty to use this requirement as an opportunity to “clean out closets,” and only select the most essential sites that are needed to be converted. We will also offer workshops and asynchronous instructions that show faculty how to “clean up” their existing Moodle pages so they will convert properly.
- Phase 2 (winter break): ITS will run the automated conversion process for all the courses faculty have chosen for migration. Those courses will be placed in a development area in Brightspace, where faculty will have access to their own content. When faculty get access to the new Brightspace LMS system (early in 2023) they’ll have development sites and converted content waiting for them.
- Phase 3 (spring semester and summer sessions): We will offer two different sets of workshops:
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- One set will help faculty to make the final adjustments to their converted courses.
- The second set will help faculty who are most familiar with Moodle learn how to develop course content from scratch (TEL), and teach within Brightspace (CTE). The training will be tailored to speak directly to SUNY Plattsburgh's Brightspace setup and tools.
Summer 2023 and Beyond
- All online, hybrid, and web-enhanced course content will be delivered via Brightspace. Moodle will no longer be available as a learning management platform.
- All non-academic group sites will also need to be moved and delivered via Brightspace.
- TEL/CTE workshops will be focused on Brightspace.
- Look for updated information soon on the ITS portal and the new ITS projects area on the campus website.
- New Print Management Initiative
Achieving a Higher Level of Environmental Awareness
Our Plattsburgh Next plan embraces environmental sustainability as a core component of SUNY Plattsburgh’s Vision. In service of that goal, campus tech teams work constantly toward developing sustainable practices and green initiatives that lower our carbon footprint and reduce energy usage.
Among our current efforts is implementation of SUNY’s Managed Print Initiative. We recently spent the summer working with departments to begin right-sizing the entire campus copier/printer fleet.
Thus far, we have achieved the following results:
- A permanent elimination of 32 Kyocera copiers; this is projected to yield $224,000 in equipment-cost savings every five years
- A 35% reduction in B/W printing/copying
- A 40% reduction in Color printing/copying
- Increased sharing of copy/print equipment in many areas
It’s a strong start. We are also working to accomplish the following required tasks:
- Significantly reduce the number of campus laser printers
- Replace all remaining copiers with new SUNY-approved devices
- Centralize a budget for printing and paper
- Reduce color printing
A Centralized Printing Budget
In collaboration with administration and finance, we have developed a plan to centralize the print budget based on copy/print expenses from fiscal year 2019–2020 (the same benchmark data SUNY used). This action moves us away from departments paying for prints and paper at specific copiers.
The budget plan was approved by campus administration and will be implemented for the 2022–23 budget year. Implementation of the new centralized budget will involve a permanent transfer of funds from accounts using expense totals represented in the 2019–20 print-utilization report to a centralized “campus printing account” managed by ITS.
All copier print charges and paper expenses will then be paid for out of the centralized account.
Account managers can rejoice that they will no longer need to manage accounts for purchasing paper, consumables, and print usage costs. (We will follow-up with account managers directly to confirm account numbers and details associated with centralizing the print budget.)
We can expect our print/copy fleet to shrink as more departments share devices. Our overall campus print volume is down and will become lower. However, because per-page costs in the SUNY plan are higher than the rate we pay now to SymQuest, we will use the 2019–20 print-volume data for budgeting purposes.
No print quotas will be implemented at this time. While the campus has done a great job in printing less and we have already met most of SUNY’s thresholds, we still need to do a better job of reducing our color printing.
Going Forward
- Paper distribution will be handled using the “supplies to go” process already implemented in the warehouse. The warehouse currently stocks 40 cases of paper. They will reorder when they get down to 10. Departments may request no more than two cases at a time.
- We will default printer/copiers to B/W (color printing is sometimes executed in error and color print jobs are nearly 10 times the cost of B/W).
- We will evaluate print usage quarterly to check alignment with the SUNY targets and the remaining centralized funds used to pay for printing. If our campus print usage rises above thresholds, we may introduce quotas.
- Good change is good — but not always easy. We realize that transition can be challenging. But we are confident our campus community will embrace the changes as “the right thing to do.”
- Shifting to scanning and sharing documents electronically instead of printing and distributing paper is an ever-more common practice that provides benefits to the campus community and the planet.
- Everyone wins when we succeed in making our campus more environmentally sustainable, reducing waste, saving money for use in critical strategic areas, and aligning with SUNY’s policy.
We can do this. Together.
- New Google Storage Changes
Google Workspace for Education is a critical suite of tools our college uses for productivity and collaboration. It includes Gmail and cloud storage in Drive. As indicated in our May 2021 message to the campus community, Google has a new policy that discontinues unlimited data storage for campus accounts.
We will begin applying a new quota policy this fall. As a result:
- all faculty, staff, and students will receive 750GB of storage; and
- alumni accounts will be limited to 10GB of storage, and may still be kept indefinitely
Most users will remain unaffected. We have identified that the new storage capacity is well above the usage levels for 95% of faculty, staff, and students. If you are one of the five percent impacted, we will be following up directly with you for additional guidance.
What actions do I need to take right now?
Check your Drive account. Delete all files and folders you no longer need. Follow these steps:
- Use Google quota tool to check the amount of space you are using and identify large files.
- Select all files and folders you no longer need, then delete them.
What happens if I exceed my quota?
Should you exceed your quota, there is a 14-day grace period before your files are locked. After 14 days (or if you exceed your quota by more than 25%), you will still be able to sign-in and access your account. You will be able to view and download all of your files, and you will still be able to send and receive emails. The following restrictions will, however, take place immediately:
- New files cannot be uploaded to Google Drive.
- New files in apps like Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, or Forms cannot be created and any collaboration files shared by that user cannot be edited (they become view-only for other users who shared those collaborative documents).
- For users that have Google Classroom enabled, new assignments cannot be created with new files that haven't been yet uploaded or created.
- Google Classroom grades cannot be exported to Google Sheets.
- Students in a Google Classroom whose teacher account is over quota cannot submit assignments with file attachments.
- If a Google Classroom student storage is over quota, the student cannot access files in assignments that require making a copy.
Helpful Resources to Move or Copy Your Google Data
- How to download your Google data — steps showing you how to download files and the services supported for exporting data.
- Copy content from your school account to another account — steps to move your files to personal accounts.
Other Storage Options
- Use Microsoft Onedrive for long term storage of files that you need to keep but aren’t
frequently accessed. All active faculty/staff and students each have 1TB of storage.
- To access, login to Microsoft Online with campus credentials.