Guidelines and Procedures: Communicating with the Campus

User Support Services (USS), a division of the Information Technology team, communicates with the campus community in a variety of ways.

Written Communication

Email
A quarterly, topical update is sent via email. Tech Talk, which is written by the Help Desk staff, provides useful information for all faculty and staff.

As needed, USS / Information Technology will send campus wide email notifying the campus of appropriate activity such as: planned or unplanned network outages that may affect the campus computing environment. These emails will include a timeframe for the outage if available. If email is not an option, USS will work with telecommunications to notify the campus community of the problems and expected resolution time.

Web pages
Found at www.tcni.edu/~it, USS maintains web pages to provide information to the college community. These web pages include information regarding the different areas within USS. These areas are:

• Help Desk
• Computer Support Center (CSC - aka repair shop)
• Instructional Technology Services (ITS)
• Media & Technology Support Services (MTSS) — includes on-line system for video conferencing reservations and training requests. Additional services include on-line system for equipment reservations.
• Technology Support Specialist
• Computer Lab Operations with hours listed

A detailed explanation of Information Technology’s Budget process is also available. For more information about the IT budget, including processes and timelines, go to www.tcni.edu/~it and click on Budget.

Other Communication

Individual Meetings
The director for USS will meet individually on a monthly basis with the dean for each of the schools. During this meeting, current and future projects will be discussed and reviewed.

The support specialist and/or a representative from Instructional Technology will attend department meetings as requested. These meetings will be used to facilitate understanding and communication of Information Technology’s role and responsibility for faculty support.

Other Support
USS works to streamline the process for all faculty and staff to report computer or equipment service requests. Centralized support is provided by the Help Desk staff at X2660 or email at helpdesk@tcnj.edu. The Help Desk staff will talk with the client to gather as much information regarding the service request and record this information in our automated service request system.

If the Help Desk staff can resolve the service request, they will document the resolution and close the call in our tracking system. If support is needed from another area of Information Technology, the Help Desk staff will document the service request description and forward to the appropriate support person.