Mid-Summer Ramblings
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged. Where has the summer gone?
The end of the academic year always goes by quickly, and there are many deadlines to meet. Budget finalization, staff evaluations, and annual reports are all very necessary, yet time consuming. Read the 2007-08 Information Resources Annual Report to learn about this year’s highlights.
In mid-July I co-presented at the 2008 NACUBO Annual Meeting. Together with my colleagues in the Facilities and the Business Offices, we delivered a paper “Green is Not For Money: Innovative Efforts Towards Campus Sustainability.” I talked specifically about the energy savings we realize from our enterprise Blade Server environment, our use of energy saving features in desktops across campus, and our use of Crestron control systems to manage energy savings in the classrooms.
Our biggest campus-wide project this summer is the implementation of a campus portal. Using Sungard’s Luminis platform, we have integrated our Blackboard eLearning system with our enterprise student information system, Banner. Students and faculty will now have single sign-on and will have only one password to remember. The power of Luminis is the unified and personalized access to a full complement of information and services. It’s been a real team effort between Administrative Computing Services and the departments who deliver their services online through BannerWeb. In keeping with Cortland’s tradition, we’ve named the new Portal myRedDragon.
Not everything is about information and technology. I recently participated in the Collection Exchange, part of this summer’s Collexbibition in the SUNY Cortland Dowd Fine Art Gallery. Coordinated by Syracuse artist Joanna Spitzner, I was able to exchange a piece of art from my collection for a copy of a work in the Gallery Collection. So I brought in a print of a mid 1700’s Flemish engraving and exchanged it for a copy of an etching “Conte des Milles et Une Nuits” by Jules Pascin, one of my favorite expressionist artists. It’s an innovative gallery program for sure and I was glad to have to the opportunity to be involved.