September 17, 1999

Information Technology rolls out new student services around campus

The first of three planned information center kiosks for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the Loyola main and Broadway campuses has been placed in the lobby of Monroe Hall over the summer. Two additional kiosks will be located on the Loyola campus during the coming year. The second center will be located in the Danna Center during the fall semester. A third kiosk will be placed in the School of Law during the spring semester.

These information center kiosks will allow students to check and send their e-mail "on the fly" without having to wait to return home or visit one of the computer labs on campus. In addition, all three kiosks will feature full world wide web access.

The information centers feature specialized browser software developed by Information Technology. They are customized to assist all members of the university community as well as visitors and potential students in accessing or finding most any event, individual, or location at Loyola. Each kiosk browser automatically alternates between the Loyola homepage and the official university calendar of events. "Shortcuts" at the top of the screen make access to the university homepage, location maps, events, and directory listings of students, faculty, and staff as easy as a mouse click away.

Distributed among both Loyola campuses, the information centers will help free up more computers in the public computer labs for more complex requirements such as research, word processing, and spreadsheet applications. Now, students will be able to check and send their mail in between classes, or if in a rush, without having to make their way to one of the computer labs on campus.

Other services for students also were developed over the summer. Information Technology located a floppy disk repair station and an e-mail verification station on the fifth floor of Monroe Hall in the client services area. The floppy disk repair station allows repair or partial retrieval of data from a damaged floppy disk without assistance from IT staff. A disk recovery utility allows users to perform this task after hours or on weekends and holidays when IT staff may not be available. The e-mail verification station enables the user to find his e-mail account name or that of any other person in the Loyola community.

An Information Technology student "technical resident" position has also been created for the fall semester. Residing on campus, this new IT position is being piloted to provide improved service and technical assistance to residence hall students. The IT technical resident staff person will respond to calls placed by residence hall students to the Information Technology help desk.

Jay Bertucci, Director of Telecommunications