@PimaNews

June 17, 2009

Contents

• College Updates
  • Computer Systems Unavailable
  • Coming Soon: Adjunct Faculty Contract Work Flow
  • Caller ID Begins June 24
  • PCC to Offer Remote Access to Y Drives Soon
  • MyDegreePlan Begins July 1
• Benefits: Confirm 2009-10 by June 19
• College Plan
• Inside Story: PCC and UA Art Collaboration
• Upcoming Events

College Updates

Computer Systems Unavailable
      Beginning: Friday, June 19 at 10 p.m.
      Until: Saturday, June 20 at 6 a.m.

Due to a required systems upgrade the following will be unavailable during the above times:

• Faculty and Staff email
• Student email
• MyPima
• TracDat
• Campus Web Servers
• Pima Reports
• Users Home Folders (“Y” drive)

Banner will be available during this downtime; however, access to Banner services through MyPima will not be possible. Blackboard Vista will be available during this downtime. However, students and faculty will need to access online courses through a special web page that will be provided in place of the usual MyPima login. Telephone registration and payment will remain available.

We will be upgrading the firmware on our Network Attached Storage (NAS) to improve functionality and to enable remote access to personal file shares (Y-drive) for Macintosh computers. 

We regret the inconvenience. This maintenance is part of ongoing activity to continue improving the stability and reliability of services. College staff will be working as quickly as possible to perform the needed updates.

Coming Soon: Adjunct Faculty Contract Work Flow
On July 1, 2009, Pima Community College will replace the current paper-based adjunct faculty contract approval process with an automated approval process called “Adjunct Faculty Contract Work Flow.”

The new contract process will expedite notifications and approvals, provide better tracking and eliminate the use of paper forms. Adjuncts offered fall 2009 teaching assignments after June 30 will be notified via e-mail and provided with instructions for approving the electronic version of their contracts within their MyPima accounts. Summer Adjunct contracts (and fall contracts offered prior to June 30) will be handled through the current paper-based process. 

Caller ID Begins June 24
All College incoming and outgoing phone lines will be able to display Caller ID information starting June 24, 2009. 

Beginning June 24, your phone number will display when you call anyone inside or outside of the College, including Long Distance calls. All calls into the College will display the calling party’s phone number unless they have selected to block the information.

This was made possible by the implementation of the Avaya telephone system earlier this year.

The new Caller ID will be implemented between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. on June 24, 2009. Anyone calling into or out of the College during that time could encounter momentary problems.

Please refer all questions to 206-2718 or telephone@pima.edu.

PCC to Offer Remote Access to Y Drives Soon
District IT is pleased to announce that faculty and staff will be able to access their Y drive from off-campus. Access is limited to files stored on an employee’s Y drive and does not include files stored on College desktop hard drives, or group file shares. This service, although not as fast as direct access, will provide access to your files from any location at any time.

Access is available now for Windows XP and Windows Vista and will be available for Macintosh computers beginning Saturday, June 20th, 8 a.m. after a firmware upgrade on the Network Attached Storage. Instructions to set up access to your Y drive from off-campus computers are linked from the IT web page.

MyDegreePlan Begins July 1
MyDegreePlan – the College’s new online degree audit and planning tool – goes live July 1. Initially, the program will be available only to advisors, counselors and degree checkers who have completed training. Those staff will be notified of training opportunities by e-mail. Training will be available to other employees later in the year.

Students will gain access to the program, which will help them track their degree progress and plan their class schedules accordingly, after the appropriate staff members are trained.

For more information, contact the Curriculum Office at 206-4903.

Benefits: Confirm 2009-10 by June 19

You have until Friday, June 19 to confirm your 2009-10 benefits elections. Log in to MyPima, click on the @Work tab, select “My Benefits Statement,” click on the pull-down menu and use the July 1, 2009, date.

Errors must be reported by June 19 in order for corrections to be made. To make corrections, contact the Employee Services Center, pccbenefits@pima.edu or 206-4945. If you find no errors in your benefits, there is no need to take any further action.

College Plan

PCC has a number of initiatives underway to fulfill the goals of the 2008-2011 College Plan. Strategy 4.3 in the Plan calls for the College to expand and enliven outreach activities to established service areas and to remote locations that aren’t adequately served. Among the many initiatives that fall under this strategy, PCC is actively developing short programs specifically for retraining the newly unemployed, displaced workers and youth in need of jobs. The programs must be short in nature because they are supported by economic stimulus funds. There’s an urgent need to quickly retrain those workers and to make use of stimulus funds while they remain available.

Inside Story: PCC and UA Art Collaboration

Mike Stack, PCC art faculty, and Barbara Penn, UA painting and drawing faculty, are exploring ways to create a more direct recruiting link between Pima and the UA. PCC is the largest community college contributor of undergraduates to UA’s School of Art.

Stack and his Drawing I and Drawing II students attended one of Penn’s Contemporary Drawing classes, where Penn had asked Stack to lecture. In his talk, Stack showed some of his work and explained his evolution as an artist.

After Stack’s lecture, Penn presented works by New York-based performance and street artist Nick Georgiou, who has an exhibit at UA’s Union Gallery. Penn and Stack then merged their students into teams to create sculptures to inspire each team’s large-scale drawing, which the students later finished in separate classes.

Penn and Stack anticipate bringing together their students more often in the future.

Upcoming Events

• June 15-19: Confirm 2009-10 Benefits by selecting “My Benefits Statement” in the @Work tab of MyPima. Contact the Employee Services Center at pccbenefits@pima.edu or 206-4945 for questions or to make corrections
• June 19-20: Computer Downtime (MyPima, TracDat, Campus Web Servers, Pima Reports, Users Home Folders) from June 19 at 10 p.m. to June 20 at 6 a.m.
• June 26: Summer Graduation deadline
• June 29: Summer Session A classes end
• July 1: Financial Aid Application processing deadline
• July 3: Independence Day Observed (College closed)
• July 6: Summer Session B classes begin
• August 20: Faculty Accountability begins
• August 21: All College Day
• August 26: Fall Semester begins
• September 7: Labor Day Holiday (College closed)

@PimaNews is an electronic newsletter for employees of Pima Community College. It is published by the Pima Community College Public Information Office. @PimaNews is published weekly during the semester and bi-weekly during the summer. Back issues are available at www.pima.edu/pimanews. Please send announcements and news items to pimanews@pima.edu.