@PimaNews

September 17, 2009

Contents

• College Updates
  • Student Services Information Now in the Intranet
  • Reminder: Academic Progress Notifications
  • Flu shots
  • Board of Governors Recognition
  • Training: Fall Instructor-Led Professional Development Offerings
• Benefits
• College Plan
• Inside Story: Campus Virtualization
• Pima People
• Upcoming Events
• Ongoing Events

College Updates

Student Services Information Now in the Intranet
Content on College Publications, Admissions & Registration, Advising & Counseling, Assessment, Athletics, Career Services, Financial Aid, Orientation and Veterans is now available to all employees in the Intranet.

To access the Intranet, log in to MyPima and click on the Intranet Icon at the top of the page. The PCC Employee Intranet can be accessed on- or off-campus by all employees with active PCC computer accounts. It is only accessible when logged in to MyPima. If your MyPima session expires you will not be able to continue using the Intranet until you log in again.

The Student Services Intranet sections provide one or more “Overviews” intended for non-experts. Other procedures and training material are targeted toward departmental staff.

Reminder: Academic Progress Notifications
The College will begin notifying students who are not in good academic standing of their status later this month.

Students that have not maintained a 2.0 grade point average and/or met other academic standards after completing at least 20 semester credit hours will be informed by formal e-mail that they are being placed on academic probation or restriction.

Students on academic probation are blocked from further registration until they complete an Academic Probation Workshop and will have their academic progress monitored until they are back in good standing. Students under academic restriction are blocked from further registration, must meet with a college counselor and are restricted to no more than 12 credits in the next semester (once approved for registration). They will have their academic progress monitored and must raise their GPA to 2.0 and complete at least 67 percent of their courses in the next semester in order to continue.

Flu shots
Flu shot clinics are being planned for mid-October at each campus. See upcoming issues of @PimaNews for details.

Board of Governors Recognition
The Board of Governors Recognition will be held during the regular meeting on November 18. To be eligible for recognition, the achievement or award must have been received within the October 2008 to October 2009 timeframe.

Requirements and the nomination form can be found online. The deadline to submit nominations is October 16, 2009. Nominations should be sent to Angie Wesson. Letters will be sent to recipients on or before October 26.

Training: Fall Instructor-Led Professional Development Offerings
Register online in ED (log into MyPima, @Work Tab). Call 206-4706 for questions or registration help.

Benefits

The Employee Service Center staff encourages all Pima employees to consider the value of investing for retirement. IRS-approved pre-tax retirement savings plans 403b and 457 are available to all current employees through our approved vendors, Fidelity Investments www.fidelity.com, TIAA-CREF www.tiaa-cref.org, and VALIC www.valic.com.

As Pima employees we have many options and investment choices. First, establish an account with one of our vendors, then complete a Salary Reduction Agreement in ESC, Room C-117 at the District Office, or online. For more information, see the Web site or call 206-4945.

Accreditation Update: Self-Study Preliminary Draft

A preliminary draft of the Reaccreditation Self-Study is now available online. The Writing and Editing Team will continue to expand and refine the Self-Study throughout the next eight months with feedback from the Chancellor’s Cabinet and the Self-Study Steering Committee.

The draft will also be incorporated into the Accreditation Workshop III.

Inside Story: Campus Virtualization

The Campus Virtualization project, an effort to consolidate multiple servers, was completed in June. The project reduces heat generated, power and space requirements, and will result in infrastructure cost savings over time.

Under the Campus Virtualization project, 28 individual servers at the six campuses were replaced by 12 multi-processor/multi-core servers that provide ample processing power for campus needs now and in the future. Campus Virtualization began with the college-wide need to update, refresh or replace existing server hardware. In addition, the campuses needed to expand their service offerings, which resulted in additional complexity.

“It’s important to note that for many years, each campus had acquired varying hardware for their servers. So, there wasn’t uniformity within a campus or between campuses,” said Keith “Mac” McIntosh, director of Technical Services. “There are two main benefits to implementing virtualization. First, it brought a unified architecture across the campuses for approximately the same cost as simply replacing their existing servers. The campuses also gained benefits generally available only in our data center. Lastly, the new architecture provided increased storage, redundancy which improved availability, and provided far more virtual servers than could be delivered if they were physical assets.”

Pima People

• David Katz, Chemistry faculty at West Campus, was awarded the Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach at the 11th Annual ChemLuminary Awards, American Chemical Society 238th National Meeting in Washington D.C.
• Christina McNearney, Visual Arts faculty at West Campus, was selected to participate in the annual scoring of the College Board’s AP® Exams in a leadership position of Table Leader at the Examinations for Studio Art held in June in Cincinnati.
• Constance Strickland, Program Coordinator for East Campus Student Life, has been appointed to the National Advisory Committee for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE). One of her many duties will be to serve on the Marketing and Outreach Subcommittee, whose main objectives include increasing nationwide visibility and securing sponsorships for NCORE 2010 (to be held in Washington, DC).

Upcoming Events

• Sept. 18: Sculpture-On-Campus Informational Meeting, West Campus Art Building (L), room 108 at 10 a.m.
• Sept. 20: PCC Performing Arts department presents Ben McCartney in a faculty classical guitar recital, 3 p.m. at the CFA Recital Hall, West Campus. For information and tickets, call 206-6986
• Sept. 21-Oct. 30: Visual Student Art Gallery, Santa Rita Building, 2nd level (outside of Administration Office), featuring Louis Carlos Bernal Photography Scholarship Student Artists. A reception will be held on Sept. 22 from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. For information, call the Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery at 206-6942
• Sept. 23: Provost Let’s Chat, East Campus Cafeteria from noon to 1 p.m.
• Sept. 23-Oct. 4: PCC Theatre Arts presents Ramona Quimby, West Campus Proscenium Theatre. For information and tickets, call 206-6986
• Oct. 17: Sculpture-On-Campus Informational Meeting, West Campus Art Building (L), room 108 at 10 a.m.
• Nov. 4-15: PCC Theatre Arts presents See How They Run, West Campus Black Box Theatre. For information and tickets, call 206-6986

Ongoing Events

• Sept. 8 – Oct. 9: CFA Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery presents “Distilled Matter: Conte, Oil, Enamel, Thread” with Matthias Düwel, Charity Hall and Kay Lawrence. For more information, call 206-6942

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