Student Senate held another business meeting on Nov. 29 at 5:30 p.m. The meeting included guest speakers Jayne Blodgett, the Assistant Dean of Libraries, and Bret Naber the Chief Information Officer of Information Management and Technology.
According to Blodgett, Michener Library is right on track to open the “Late Night Study Space” in the lower level in January. The study spaces will be open Sunday through Thursday, midnight to 3 a.m.
“We are hoping to open in January. We haven’t officially confirmed that because some things can slip, but we’re planning on opening as early in January as possible, after classes start,” Blodgett said.
Blodgett said they are in the process of working with campus police in order to hire security for the “late night study spaces.”
Naber also discussed some of the reasons IT comes to campus, as well as the different programs and committees offered through IT.
According to Naber, IT comes to campus to help with wifi, poor cell phone reception, and dead spots around campus.
They said they are planning to eventually convert the Arlington Apartments to the same wireless as the rest of campus, but there is no set timeline.
According to Naber and the Chief Information Security Officer Matthew Langford, IT has been working on restricting security for students across campus online, modernizing registration in the spring, and having each student change their passwords more frequently.
Student Senate and IT brainstormed ways to get the information out about changing student’s passwords for their accounts, without having to worry about hackers.
Student Trustee Michael Kelly, a senior with a double major in communications and sociology, suggested having faculty write in their syllabus that each student will need to change their password a few times in order to continue to receive notifications from them on Canvas.
IT also discussed the Lecture Capture Tool, which allows faculty to record all audio and presentations from their computer, and post it straight to Canvas. The Lecture Capture Tool uses voice recognition, where a student can type in a few words, and it will take them straight to that part in the lecture.
The Lecture Capture Tool has not been programmed into every computer across campus, but IT is working on new programs and updates and deciding which computers on campus to start with first.
According to Naber, IT would love any feedback about technology issues across campus and says they are there to help.
Student Senate will hold another business meeting on Jan. 8 at 5:30 p.m.
