Office of Technology Administration XULA Newsletter JUNE 1, 2021

The Office of Technology Administration Xavier University of Louisiana Issue: 3 / Volume 2 / June 2021 INTEGRATING INFRASTRUCTURE With Online Day-to-Day Technology Access Inside this issue:  Vice President’s Message 2  External XULA Website 2  Internal XULA Website / Portal 3  Changes to Email (Faculty/Staff) 4  ADOBE e-Forms and e-Signatures 5  New Drop Form 6  New Technology Employee 7  Technology Promotions 8 - 9  Congratulations Class of 2021 10 -11 1

From The Vice President: As we move forward in updating infrastructure in a more secure environment, we share technology innovations that will occur over the next several quarters that will improve day-to-day technology access for students, faculty, and staff. This Office of Technology Administration newsletter shares information on the migration to a new and improved external website; an updated and secure internal web portal; the migration to Office 365 for faculty and staff email with built-in data security and compliance; and migrating important student areas to e-forms and electronic work-flows with electronic signatures in a paperless environment. Theses upgrades will be portable between platforms for devices (cell phones, APPS, tablets, and laptops) that will offer more anytime anywhere secure access. Dr. Mable Moore Vice President/CIO New (Updated) External Website at XULA (July 2021) External XULA Website Over the past several months, the Office of Technology Administration (OTA) and Marketing and Communications departments have been working in partnership to create a more secure, robust environment for XULA’s external website with new templates, an updated hosted infrastructure maintained by Xavier’s OTA department, and lots of new features. The look, feel, and navigation will be very similar to the current external website. The new website will have a combined university calendar that includes the academic calendar, holidays, and Xavier campus events that can be easily referenced by faculty, staff, students and external stakeholders. Additional features include:  A new targeted News and Announcement environment that will work seamlessly across the entire website.  A new Directory feature for faculty & staff that will allow for more complete information for all faculty and staff.  A new targeted Calendar and Event environment that will work seamlessly across the entire website. The Marketing and Communications department and the President’s Office will monitor the common calendar on the external website for updates and content posted. The website will be hosted in the cloud and content will be managed using CASCADE software. Additional features of the new External XULA Website will be announced prior to the release. 2

New (Updated) Internal Website/Portal (myXULA) & Single-Sign-On (SSO) (Nov 2021 – Dec 2021) The Office of Technology Administration (OTA) developers have been working on a new updated internal website that will align with more user applications and continue to expand the usage of single-sign-on for ease of use. The internal myXULA Portal will have new templates, but the basic landing page and navigation will remain the same. The new portal will also be integrated with XULA’s Mobile APP and cell phones. A few of the new Internal Website features are listed below:  Tools section that gives students, faculty and staff personalized access to the systems and tools most relevant that can be customized by users to include what they use most often – and remove extra clutter  Groups feature that can connect everyone with relevant people, content, announcements, events, files and conversations. We can create groups for any office, department, organization, club, or group on campus  Pages feature that will give us the ability to create informational pages for internal use, news, events or any community wide message that needs to be sent, at any given time  Notification feature, whether an important announcement, a new event, a service alert, or a coursework update, the new portal pulls notifications into one place and pushes them out via preferred channels to each user  Social features that will allow for user profiles, connections, messages, labels, and discover features that provide the social fabric designed to connect everyone  Much improved searching of internal information inside the portal We anticipate that the new portal will be used a lot more by the entire XULA community. If you have questions about the internal web portal project, please contact the Helpdesk. 3

Changes to XULA Email (Faculty & Staff only) Migration from G-Suite to Microsoft-365 (Outlook) (July – August 2021) Faculty and staff email accounts will be migrated from Google G-Suite to Microsoft Office 365 this summer. Some of the benefits to using Microsoft-365 include:  Flexible working – work anywhere, anytime from any device  Documents are secure  Instant upgrades and access to new features  Larger mailbox storage with secure OneDrive for remote access from any device  Built-in data security and compliance The Office 365 system is designed to work natively with the Microsoft Office applications, which users are already familiar with, like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In addition, Office 365 has greater capabilities for working on documents while in offline mode allowing users to work on the go. The planned migration will move faculty and staff users' mailboxes, calendars, contacts, and files from Google Drive to the Office 365 environment. Most of the data migration will happen in the background to minimize any service interruption to users. The project is scheduled to take about 8 weeks to complete beginning in May 2021. More information will be provided about this migration in the near future. 4

ADOBE Sign & Moving e-Forms, e-Signatures and Workflows to Paperless (Fall 2021) The Office of Technology Administration is excited about our recent launch of Adobe Sign. Adobe Sign is our new enterprise solution for e-Forms and Digital Signatures. Adobe Sign is a cloud-based e-signature service that allows the user to send, sign, track, and manage signature processes using a browser or mobile device. It is part of the Adobe Document Cloud suite of services and is a self-service tool. Xavier’s departments can convert documents, PDFs, worksheets, presentations, images and more into electronic forms that can also support some workflow and can be routed with digital signatures whenever necessary. Proxy signatures can also be assigned. In order for our Faculty and Staff to use Adobe Sign, a new enterprise account must be assigned by the OTA. Virtual Adobe training has been offered and taken by over eighty faculty and staff members at Xavier and will continue as we migrate to using this new and powerful resource for electronic signature, workflow, and improving our processes for remote access. The Office of the Registrar is an early adopter of Adobe Sign using the tool for its’ Course Drop Form. Adobe Sign will make the course drop process more seamless and easier to manage for all parties involved in the completion and approval of course drops for Faculty/Students and the Registrar's Staff. Using Adobe Sign Course Drops will become a completely electronic paperless process. The Office of Disability Services (ODS) is another early adopter as the e-forms will be used for accommodations and disabilities services. Dynamic Forms will soon convert to Adobe Sign which will allow Faculty/Students/ODS staff end user ease when accessing and processing forms electronically. 5

Electronic Course Drop Form One of the first tasks utilizing the new tool and an early adopter of Adobe Sign, is the Office of the Registrar's with its Course Drop Form. We are gearing up for an improvement that will make the drop process more seamless and easier to manage for all parties involved in the completion and approval of course drops -- Faculty/Students/Registrar's Staff. Using Adobe Sign to accomplish this will definitely allow us to get the forms completed and signed more efficiently and keep us safe with all social distancing guidelines since it will be completely electronic. 6

New Technology Employee Gregory Jones Information Security Officer Hello to my new Xavier family! My name is Greg Jones, Jr. and I was born and raised in Lake Providence, Louisiana. I attended Grambling State University, where I was a member of the World Famed Tiger Marching Band and received my Bachelor degree in Sociology. After college, I joined the United States Air Force and served in the specialty of Cyber Systems Operations. While serving active duty overseas I completed my MSC in Cybersecurity Technology at the University of Maryland Global College. One of my favorite hobbies is maintaining my saltwater aquarium. A fun fact about me is that when I was younger, I had a pet Atlantic octopus named Brutus. I am a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. We wouldn't know….. 1. If you had to eat one meal, every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? Pancakes, grits, sausage, and mangos. Easily! 2. What is the best book you have ever read? \"Rich Dad Poor Dad\" is one of my favorite books because it encourages bravery and not being afraid to fail. 3. Three words to best describe you: Idealistic, Ambitious, Adventurous 4. If you could do another job for just one day, what would it be? A Band Director. 5. Finish this sentence. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me...on the lake watching the pelicans and seagulls hover. 7

Technology Departmental Promotions Dwayne McLain System Administrator / Network Specialist We are pleased to announce the promotion of Mr. Dwayne McLain to System Administrator/ Network Specialist. Dwayne has been with Xavier since 2009 and previously held the position of Network Specialist. With more than 17 years of experience, a college background and multiple Technology certifications, he is committed to the ever evolving and expanding educational technologies. Dwayne’s responsibilities include maintaining computer networks including, but not limited to, installing and configuring switches and Wireless access points, monitoring computer networks and systems to identify performance and how performance can be improved to optimize services provided. “I love the fact that I can assist the students, staff, and faculty in many different ways. It brings me satisfaction when I can resolve their issues”.— Dwayne McLain Tidbits you would not know: 1. What would you do even if you didn’t get paid to do it? Read about different aspects of new tech daily. 2. Finish this sentence. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me...Sleeping or getting my grill ready. 3. My favorite word in the English language is: Zealous 8

Technology Departmental Promotions Ronald Murdock Technical Support Specialist II We are pleased to announce the promotion of long-time team member Mr. Ronald Murdock to the position of Technical Support Specialist II. Ronald has worked in the Office of Technology Administration for over 6 years, as a valued member of the Helpdesk support team. With over 15 years of experience, Ronald’s technical skills include investigating, problem solving, diagnosing and resolving complex computer software, solving password problems, sorting through hardware issues while managing stocks of equipment, consumables and other supplies. “What I like most about my job is helping faculty, staff and students with resolving technology issues”. - Ronald Murdock Tidbits you would not know: 1. What would you do even if you didn’t get paid to do it? Coach little league sports. 2. Finish this sentence. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me…Watching Sports. 3. My favorite word in the English language is: Balance 9

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Support the next generation of eXcellence Click Here XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA About Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana, founded in 1925 by Saint Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, is the only Catholic and historically Black higher education institution in North America. The ultimate purpose of the University is to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume roles of leadership and service in a global society. Xavier ranks first nationally in the number of African-American undergraduates continuing to complete medical school and is leading the nation in bachelor’s degrees granted to African Americans in the biological and biomedical sciences, the physical sciences, and physics, and in graduation of African- Americans who go on to earn doctorates in the sciences and engineering. OFFICE OF TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION [OTA] Xavier University of Louisiana 1 Drexel Drive New Orleans, Louisiana 70125 12