ITS Mission Statement

We are here to assist the students, faculty, and staff at Cal Poly Humboldt (Humboldt) with their learning, teaching, research/creative activities, service and operational computing needs. Our goal is to provide consistent and high-quality service that enhances the effectiveness of the campus community in carrying out Humboldt’s mission while controlling costs.

• Who We Support
• What We Support
• Services We Provide
• Support
• Exceptions

Who We Support

We support all students and paid employees of general fund, self-support and auxiliary units with any computing needs related to their university work. Unless an alternative means for ongoing support is identified and approved in advance, this document also applies to grant-funded personnel and computing resources.

We provide support, with some limitations, to other constituencies including invited visitors, emeritus faculty, and volunteers in support of their research and educational activities. Support for these constituencies is secondary to our support of university-supported activities.

All users of university IT resources must comply with CSU and Humboldt policies and guidelines, including:

• Responsible Use Policy
• Wireless Access Configuration and Requirements
• Information Security Policies and Guidelines

What We Support

Computer Hardware

ITS supports standard university-owned computing equipment and software in offices, labs, classrooms, and public spaces.

State ethics rules don’t allow us to support personally-owned equipment or software even if you are using it for work, although we may be able to provide advice (as in, we’ll walk you through it or point you to community businesses that can help). You can’t take your car to Facilities Management for repairs, and you can’t ask Facilities to paint your house —the same principle applies to our computing services.

Personally owned computers may not be connected to our wired network jacks, including via a network dongle.

While our primary scope of responsibility lies in supporting and maintaining campus-owned equipment, we will make a reasonable effort to walk you through configuring your personally owned mobile devices to connect to the campus services available to you via the Humboldt wireless network.

Ownership

Departments and offices own their inventory of computer equipment (computers, monitors, printers, scanners, etc.), and are responsible for funding the decisions they make about the size and age mix of their inventory.

Acquisition

• All technology purchases, repairs, and contracts should be routed through your departmental purchasing procedures, which should include appropriate ITS consultation.

• All desktop, laptop, printer and mobile device purchases must conform to the university list of standardized models that are selected for performance, reliability, and cost.
• Purchases must be made through our established vendor channels (i.e., as of 2017, premier.dell.com and ecommerce.apple.com - channels may change over time). The list of vendor channels and standard models can be found here.
• Please submit a Technology Help Desk ticket if you need assistance with determining which models meet your needs and/or with the ordering process.
• Please remember that we are responsible for supporting equipment and software for its entire lifecycle. This involves many considerations that don’t come into play for personal purchases, and involve costs beyond the initial purchase price. For example, you may be able to find a less expensive computer, but we take warranty, service, and manageability into consideration when making recommendations.

We promise that we will work with you to purchase technology that meets your needs, but we’re also responsible for meeting various system and university policies. Please do not make an end-run around us - we’ll be as flexible as we can. Because these standards are so important to providing the best possible university-wide student, faculty, and staff experience, you should expect to be asked to return non-approved equipment.

Desktop computers must be connected to the network via hard-wired network jacks. Desktops may not be connected to Humboldt wireless networks. If you need to regularly use a computing device to connect to the Humboldt network in a space that doesn’t have a network jack, please buy a laptop, notebook, or tablet. Or request a network jack!

Servers are a special breed, and you need to consult with ITS before you purchase. We will work with you to make sure services are not duplicated, and that what you want to do will work in our environment.

Office and Computer Lab Software

New computers are configured with a baseline standard set of software, including one contemporary operating system (multiple operating systems, including virtual OS’s, are not supported), office productivity applications, antivirus/anti-spyware software, and remote administration tools. User Support personnel will also install driver software for peripherals such as printers, scanners, external storage devices, and input devices.

Computers are configured to meet the requirements of the CSU Information Security Policy and enterprise management applications such as the Common Management System (CMS) and Oracle Business Intelligence (OBI). Operating systems must be current and actively supported by the vendor with security patches.

Users are configured as non-administrators on workstations to prevent unintentional changes that ‘break’ the way your computer works. Exceptions can be granted on a case-by-case basis, reviewed annually.

To request software, please go to the ITS software page, where you will find information for requesting office and computer laboratory software. A minimum one-week lead time is required when requesting computer lab software (more time is better). We understand that on occasion you may have immediate critical needs, but please understand in turn that we have many customers lined up needing our time. To provide the best service for students and your instructional needs, and to allow time for testing (with your help), requesting software the semester before you need it is encouraged. Software in office and computer laboratories work differently - please help us by testing computer laboratory software in the location in which it will be used before relying on it for instruction.

Vendors typically only provide patches and updates for current versions of their products. If a software version reaches “end of life” (the vendor is no longer releasing security patches), you must update your software to a newer, supported version. This can occasionally mean that software you have requested will not work on contemporary operating systems; if so, we will use our best effort to work with you to find a solution that meets your needs. If this is not possible for some reason, you must work with us to find another way to mitigate the security risk and additional time investment.

Some software, such as our enterprise management applications, must be installed on all university-owned computers. And some software, such as an antivirus package, must be installed on every computer that connects to the university network, including personally-owned computers connecting to the wireless network.

Acquisition

• All desktop software installed on university computers must be purchased and properly licensed for university use as required by the vendor. This means you will not be able to install personally purchased software, or software licensed for only personal use, on your campus computer. We won’t break the law or help anyone skirt it.
• Only software that is being actively updated or patched by the vendor can be installed.
• As with hardware, please submit a Technology Help Desk ticket if you need assistance with determining which software meets your needs and/or with the ordering process.
• We will pursue volume discounts, shared licensing, and other avenues to keep licensing costs as affordable as possible. We may also suggest and support open source or free alternatives for desktop software packages.
• All software purchasers must adhere to current software purchasing procedures. While university procedures allow you to buy software with a ProCard, we recommend using purchase orders. Software vendors occasionally audit us, and purchase orders provide the documentation we need to prove we legally own what is installed. We’re happy to point you towards approved software vendors.
• When registering any software purchased by a department or college, it should be linked to a shared departmental or college account rather than an individual’s account.
• In addition to the baseline set of software, a variety of software titles may be self-installed on Humboldt-managed computers for both Windows-based and Macintosh computers via the Software Center self-service application.
• Where a campus standard for productivity software exists (such as Microsoft Office), we will focus on maintaining that suite. If you use an alternative, we may not be able to support it.
• Select software is available for Humboldt staff, faculty, and students to download onto their personally-owned devices.

Server Support

ITS hosts hundreds of servers in the Van Matre Data Center. Our Data Center provides an industry-standard environment for servers, including cooling, conditioned power, physical and network security controls, and high performance networking. Our server technology standards are listed in this document. If a service or system you need requires a server to support it, we will consult with you to understand your requirements and goals in order to present you with options. If you are interested in locating your server in our Data Center, please submit a Help Desk ticket.

Enterprise Software

Please engage us in advance when you seek to select and implement an enterprise application to meet your needs (software that resides on servers, either ours or the vendors’, and is expressly designed to make a business process of the university more efficient/effective). The purchasing and contracting process can be tricky; we’ll help you navigate these. We’ll also make sure what you select fits in with campus enterprise architecture standards. We’re happy to manage the ongoing contract for you if permanent funding and ongoing maintenance increases are transferred to ITS to coordinate with your point person.

Telephones

The backbone of the campus phone system is a Mitel MXOne digital telephone switch. Staff and faculty are allocated a telephone and extension number when they become associated with Humboldt; some part-time employees share a phone. We are responsible for the additions, moves, and changes requested by departments for telephones and voicemail services.

Consultation and Training

We are happy to assist with planning and recommendations for technology solutions, including assessing your needs and finding appropriate technology solutions or training resources. In fact, the earlier you bring us in, the better we can assist you! Sometimes adding technology is the answer to a problem, but sometimes the answer is making better use of our existing technology.

Services We Provide

The services listed below are “standard,” meaning that—within reason—these services are provided at no additional cost to departments.

Services not listed here may still be provided, but they may be provided on a recharge or contract basis. We’ll certainly let you know before undertaking any work that would incur costs.

We want to maintain high availability for the services we provide. To minimize surprise outages, we follow the ITS Enterprise Change Control process.

If we had virtually unlimited time and resources, like Amazon or Google or Microsoft, we could accomplish anything you’d like. But we have limits to our time and resources and, realistically, not everything will be feasible. Large (time-consuming) requests should be referred to our ITS Project Prioritization Process.

Technical Assistance

We are here to assist with your technology questions. Whether your computer won’t boot, your software has presented an unhelpful error message, or you can’t find/access an IT resource you need, we’ll work with you to find the problem and correct it. You can contact us via web, email, phone, or swing by the Technology Help Desk on the main floor of the Library. See How to Get Support below for details

Here are the main types of technical assistance we provide for the equipment and software we support:

• Troubleshooting: finding the cause of a problem, and providing a workaround or solutions that allow you to get back to work

• Hardware Support: diagnosing hardware problems, providing loaner mice and keyboards, upgrading memory, etc. (If you use optional peripherals, it’s smart to have a backup or a workaround. For example, if you switch to a battery-powered wireless mouse, keep the original wired mouse around.)

• Application Support: diagnosing software problems, patching and updating, assisting with using applications, etc.

• Telecommunication and Network Support: diagnosing network and phone problems, assisting with network reconfigurations, assisting with remote access, providing training on phone programming, etc.

Our goal is to get you back to work as quickly as possible. That sometimes means we will first provide a workaround or short-term fix, then try to find a longer-term fix. Sometimes workarounds aren’t ideal, and sometimes there is no workaround. Please be patient with us, and please understand that sometimes the solution may require a change to the way you do things.

Sometimes we need you to be present to assist us with diagnosis and repairs. We respect the value of your time, and we ask you to do the same for ours by keeping the appointments we arrange with you.

In the course of technical support, we sometimes need limited access to your email or files. We have a policy-mandated responsibility to maintain confidentiality, and we take this responsibility very seriously. It’s important to note that there are some kinds of content that we are legally obligated to report to the Information Security Office.

We have a small staff supporting a large number of computers. When possible, please use the self-support tools that we make available (see How to Get Help).

Lifecycle Management for Equipment and Software

We take care of the entire lifecycle of computers, peripherals, software, and telephones - from planning for the initial purchase through sustainably disposing of equipment and all of the processes in between. This includes:

• Inventory Management: working with unit leaders to understand the age mix and capabilities of the IT equipment in their area to ensure that its computer, printer, and telephone inventory meets departmental needs

• Refresh Planning: working with unit leaders to plan a schedule of refreshing older equipment to ensure that equipment does not exceed five and one half years of age (the age by which vendors typically stop providing patches and updates). In order to control university costs, refreshed computers should not be re-deployed in new locations, as this effectively increases the university inventory of computers. At most, equipment can be redeployed once (and must be less than four years old) to replace older equipment in existing locations; reassignment of a computer to another location will require a re-image of the computer to ensure no confidential data is unintentionally passed from one user to another.

• Pre-purchase Planning: helping you decide what and how to purchase, working with vendors to obtain quotes

• Purchasing: working with vendors and business offices to help you to complete the purchase and contracts

• License Management: tracking software license usage and compliance for university-wide site licensed software; we do not track software licenses purchased by departments for internal use – departments should actively track those licenses

• Deployment: getting purchased items set up in your offices and labs, installing and managing software

• Routine Maintenance: checking on the “health” of equipment and software, taking any corrective actions needed

• Repair: ITS does not have the tools or facilities to provide component-level hardware repair, but we can work with you to locate a reputable vendor to provide IT equipment repairs

• Warranty Support: For parts that can be replaced under warranty, we will handle that process for you, and we can often provide loaner parts in the interim. For upgrades or parts that can’t be replaced under warranty, purchase or repair costs are the department’s responsibility.

• Disposal: removal and disposal of old equipment and applications, following campus sustainability standards and secure media disposal processes

We do not purchase or install expendable office supplies such as batteries, battery operated devices, printer paper, toner and ink, or blank DVDs as part of our standard services, although we are happy to make recommendations.

Performing maintenance means that we will occasionally need access to the offices, labs and other locations where equipment is located. For any non-emergency purposes, we will let you know in advance when we plan to access locations assigned to you.

If you have received authorization to use Humboldt-owned equipment off campus, you will be periodically asked to bring that equipment to campus for maintenance or inventory.

Patches and Updates

Vendors release patches (fixes to existing products) and updates (typically new versions) for software and hardware to add functionality, fix known problems, and fix security vulnerabilities.

Except in cases of imminent threat, we will schedule patches and upgrades for convenient times, and we will publish those schedules on our website.

It is critical to install patches and updates that address security concerns as soon as possible. A single infected computer can, in turn, infect computers across the entire university network. As much as possible, we will use our management tools to deliver those patches over the network and verify that they have been installed. In some cases, you will need to initiate the install process or take other actions to apply the patch. In rare cases, you will need to make equipment available to us or bring it in. Please do your part to keep the university computing environment protected by following through in these cases. We are all responsible to each other for protecting our computing resources and the data (some of it about us!) stored on them.

Computers that don’t regularly connect to the network to receive patches and updates will eventually become “stale.” Our network doesn’t allow stale computers to connect. Be sure to power on all your computing devices and connect them to the network regularly (we recommend monthly) so they receive all their patches and updates. This applies in particular to laptops that sit in closets for much of the semester or equipment that is located off-campus. Plug those into the network and power on once a month so that you can be sure they will work when you need them.

Computer Lab Management

Many departments and programs have set up computer labs specifically for their own teaching, research, and student use needs, and maintaining those labs is part of our standard service. For specialized lab needs, please contact us to discuss details.

• Departments are responsible for the cost of purchasing computer hardware, software licenses, network connections, teaching podiums and the equipment in those podiums, furniture, etc.
• Departments are responsible for physical access control for these labs (e.g., key systems).
• ITS is responsible for managing the standard hardware and software in the computer labs, including the operating system, and for managing who has access to log in to those computers.
• For specialized or research labs, departments or instructors are responsible for custom software and hardware, although we are happy to assist.

File Services

We provide space to store files on networked servers. Storing files on the network allows you to access them from many locations, and we back up any data stored on our file servers. We strongly recommend storing all of your work files on our shared file servers, as we do not back up your local hard drive (although we are happy to work with you to find good backup solutions or provide appropriate network storage for your data).

Campus Level One data can only be stored on approved campus file servers unless you have written permission from the President to store it on your workstation; if so, we will need to work with you to ensure that your workstation is safely encrypted.

While we provide sufficient storage space for most purposes, some research applications (and even some business uses, like media production) require a lot of storage space. For those cases, please contact us to discuss options.

While university computers may occasionally be used for incidental personal use, please understand that any data on university systems is treated as if it is university data, is potentially subject to legal discovery, and could be read by other people performing work on your desktop/laptop/tablet.

Network storage and backup is expensive; please don’t use our services to store your personal music, video or photo collections.

Backups

We provide disaster-recovery backups of files stored on our file servers. That means that we take periodic (usually daily) snapshots of the stored files and store those securely so that we can replace them in the event of a serious server failure. We do keep those snapshots for a period of time, but we do not provide archival backups. That means that we can probably restore a file that was accidentally deleted last week, but we won’t be able to retrieve a file from last year. If you have a need for archival backups, please contact us to discuss options.

Note that Outlook email files are, by default, located on your local hard drive and are therefore not backed up, creating an email retention problem. If you are using any email client other than the recommended Gmail web client, we will happily help you configure it to store your mail in the cloud.

Printing

Standard support for printers is specifically for networked, multi-user devices of an enterprise class. Standard support does not include non-networked, single-user printers.

Printers must be connected to the network via hard-wired network jacks. Printers may not be connected to Humboldt wireless networks, although in some cases they may be accessed via the wireless network.

Departments are responsible for all printing supply costs (toner, ink, paper, etc.) and maintenance. We recommend a service contract, and we can refer you to reputable printer technicians.

The troubleshooting we can provide is limited to user-serviceable troubleshooting and diagnosis (basically, the blue tabs on the equipment that allow users to un-jam paper, adjust paper trays, etc). Where there are no further user-serviceable options, contact your service contract vendor for assistance. If you don’t have a service contract, we can refer servicing to qualified service personnel. All repairs will be supplied by third-party vendors. Recommendations to replace the printer may be made based on history or cost of repair.

We can assist departments with monitoring and controlling the use of shared network printers. Please contact us to discuss options for this service.

Think before you print: reducing printing is the low-hanging fruit of sustainable computing.

Remote Access Services

Accessing your office computer from home, accessing your data from a different continent, or accessing Library resources from off campus are examples of remote access services.

There are many tools available to provide remote access to computers; we select among those tools to find ones that are secure and reliable. A misconfigured or misused remote access tool can compromise the security of our entire network, so we ask that you work with our recommended tools. Some tools that are known to be security risks will be blocked.

Even secure remote access tools can lead to security breaches when used incorrectly. It’s your responsibility to use the tools wisely. Be sensible, and don’t access the nuclear secrets on your office computer from an internet café computer or from a public wireless network in an airport.

Messaging, Communications, and Collaboration Services

Email, instant messaging, internet-based voice/video communications, shared calendaring, and other technology-enabled communication and collaboration tools are as essential to working together as conference rooms and inter-office mail.

Humboldt uses Google Apps for Education for email, instant messaging, and calendaring. We use Zoom for web conferencing.

Because of the social nature of messaging and communications tools, they are the most common vector for internet evildoers to do their evil. Spam, spim (spam instant messaging), phishing, social engineering, Trojans and remote exploits abound in this category of tools. Please do your part in protecting our campus network by using tools that have been vetted and tested in our environment, and by being responsible (safe) with your online activities.

Websites

As part of our standard service, we support department, program, and project websites built on our standard content management system (Drupal) using Humboldt-provided Drupal templates. Our goal is to support websites that are easy for people to edit and which can be kept up-to-date to prevent security problems.

You can find guidelines for Humboldt public websites here. Some elements of the guidelines are required, others are optional.  We will help you set up your website “shell” and can assist you in making basic layout changes in the campus supported content management system, but departments or projects are responsible for contracting any significant design work. Departments, projects or individuals are responsible for providing and maintaining website content.

We will work to find solutions for whatever you want your website to do, but please understand that the tools and technologies used must be a good fit for our standard infrastructure.

Websites requiring custom programming, graphics design or significant infrastructure are not part of the standard service. Please contact us to discuss your website needs. Any custom design work must be approved in advance by the Web Office in Marketing and Communications.

For personal websites, we provide space and instructions on uploading files. We do not create or provide templates for personal websites.

Application Services

ITS works in conjunction with departments to select online applications that meet the needs of the campus. These large applications are typically for shared use, supporting many customers and can be hosted either on our campus or in a vendor facility (“in the cloud”). For project, lab, or individual application services, please contact us to discuss options.

We focus on a core set of standard application technologies (databases, programming languages, etc) for which we have expertise and existing infrastructure. We will work to find solutions for whatever you need to solve your business problem, but please understand that the tools and technologies used must be a good fit for our infrastructure.

In general, we are responsible for any automated data transfers and coordinating patches and updates; departments or subject matter experts are responsible for configuring and specifying how the application in question should work. We will coordinate with application service providers to get support, but ultimately the service providers are responsible for the applications they provide.

Report Services (Data Warehouse)

ITS provides operational reporting using finance, human resources, and student data (including DARS) via OBI. We work with customers across campus to respond to report requests and provide training to support others in developing their abilities to produce reports on their own.

Network Services

Network services are the most fundamental services we provide; these services include everything that’s required to enable your computer equipment to connect to university information resources as well as the internet.

The campus network and the internet are shared resources, and the actions of any one node (or user) on the network can adversely impact others. We are responsible for mitigating risks to, and fixing problems on or caused by, the university network. As part of that responsibility, there are some services and applications, such as BitTorrent, that we must prohibit from the network because of their inherent insecurity and propensity to breach copyright laws.

We aim for 99% availability for all of the network service components that we maintain (outside of scheduled maintenance windows). To achieve that, we proactively monitor all service components. Since they often have the widest impact, repairs to these services will take precedence over other operational service requests.

We schedule regular maintenance windows for many network service components. The maintenance schedule is published on our website

Internet Access

We provide internet access from campus locations through both our wireless and wired networks. In neither case do we allow using applications like BitTorrent to distribute copyrighted content. The wired network provides largely unfiltered outbound access to the internet.

Most of our general information services (e.g., Gmail, myHumboldt, Student Center, Faculty Center) are available from any location via the public internet. Access to restricted enterprise services (e.g, Nolij, OBI, campus file shares, and non-production servers) from off-campus locations is only possible through our campus VPN services. We restrict authentication to any campus technology services from anonymizing VPN services, as those are often used for phishing and other fraudulent services.

Working with Campus and External Service Providers

Nearly all of our services rely on a combination of components provided by us (e.g., the phone and data network), the CSU system (e.g., CSYou, CMS, InfoReady), and external service providers (e.g., Dell, Apple, Google). For the core services described in this document, we monitor both Humboldt components and those from external service providers.

We can act as the intermediary with service providers. We take care of contacting Dell, Apple and other manufacturers to get computers and other equipment fixed. We also post public system status reports when we are aware of important service changes.

In addition, we can provide project management services for projects undertaken by external service providers, which is often more cost effective than asking us to do the work directly. If a project or individual request will require significant project management or integration time from us, please contact us to discuss options before you commit to the project.

Other Services We Can Provide

If you have need of services not mentioned in this agreement, please contact us to discuss options before you commit to the service.

Wherever it says “if you need to do X, please contact us to discuss options” in this document, it usually means that (you guessed it) there may be a cost associated with the service, although our consultation is free. Our rule of thumb is that the standard services described herein, which are required for university work, are covered by ITS, but individual-, project- or grant-specific services may require separate agreements and have costs associated with them.

If you’re submitting a grant or proposing a project that will require specialized hardware and/or services, please contact us early in the planning process to ensure that you are including all of the associated costs in the grant application or project proposal, including refresh of equipment and ongoing support and licensing costs. Please provide us with adequate time to research and recommend special grant/project-funded hardware and software.

We are committed to working with you to find solutions that will work for your needs. We will continually look for opportunities for resource sharing (e.g., a project that is not covered for an individual may be covered when shared across multiple projects or departments). When we ask you to contact us, we ask it in the spirit of providing you with the best support possible.

Security, Access Control and Compliance

We are responsible for information, computer, and network security for the university, including managing accounts (who can connect to our information systems), access controls (what you can do once you’re connected), and compliance (configuring our information systems and processes to meet the requirements of laws and policies).

There are a lot of laws, regulations and policies at many levels of government that relate to how we use technology. As the service provider, we’re accountable for putting controls in place to meet the minimum requirements for compliance and for verifying that the controls are working.

We will strive to keep controls to the minimum required for compliance. We ask that you work with us by using IT resources responsibly and not creating a need for us to impose controls that are more stringent. Please don’t attempt to circumvent the controls we put in place or prevent us from verifying that the controls are working. If you ask us to do something illegal, we’ll have to say no.

Account Management

Account management means establishing who someone is, then giving them a unique set of credentials which they can use to access systems. Our goal is to keep the number of separate credentials issued to you as low as possible. We tie IT services back to your Humboldt User Name and Password whenever possible.

Since we use Humboldt-specific credentials to enable access to Humboldt information systems, users need an Humboldt-issued account. For students and employees, this is automatic. For visitors and guests, accounts can be created in Account Settings by an existing Humboldt employee.

Don’t share your credentials. Yes, sometimes it’s more convenient to “just log someone in” on your account, but that both circumvents security controls and puts you and your account at risk. You are responsible for the actions that take place through your account.

If you believe your credentials have been stolen or accidentally shared with others, reset your password immediately.

Access Controls

Access control means managing what someone is able to do with a set of credentials, such as which systems they can access and what they can do with those systems. Whenever possible, we automate access control based on information from campus systems (e.g., graduate students in a department may be automatically granted access to the department’s computing lab).

The Data Management Policy defines how we provide access to enterprise-level systems. Departments are responsible for setting clear policies on who should be granted access to their departmental systems. We are responsible for following departmental policies when providing support.

Access controls also include technologies like firewalls, anti-virus software, and spam filtering software that block access based on rules rather than on credentials. We try to be flexible and responsive when applying these controls so as not to prevent legitimate access, but sometimes these types of access controls can mistakenly filter out the good with the bad. If you think something important isn’t getting through, we’ll work with you to remedy this.

If you learn or believe that someone is abusing their access, you are responsible for letting us know immediately. We are responsible for following up on such reports quickly and revoking access when appropriate.

Compliance

Minimum security compliance and reporting requirements are defined and documented in the Identity Access Management and CSU System Wide Information Security policies.

Humboldt’s Information Security Office is responsible for ensuring that our computing environment meets all applicable policy requirements and standards. While we are responsible for providing the systems and tools needed to meet requirements, we strive to do so by finding the least invasive and arduous approaches possible. Where meeting the requirements isn’t possible, we are responsible for finding and documenting alternatives or mitigations.

Please work with us to find solutions if the standards get in the way of your work. You are responsible for not circumventing security controls.

Support

When Support is Available

Our service hours are generally university hours, from 8AM - 5PM on weekdays, excluding university holidays, campus closures, and scheduled events. Any scheduled events or closures that will impact support availability will be published on our website. Additional support may also be available, so call us or visit http://www.humboldt.edu/tech-help.

Computer lab support is available when classes are scheduled in them.

How to Get Support

Our goal is to make it as simple as possible for you to reach us, and so we offer several avenues for obtaining support, as detailed below.

Whenever you contact us about a new request or issue, we will create a service ticket to track your request. We will keep notes about all the work we do and all communications regarding the issue as part of the service ticket.

Regardless of how you contact us, here are things you should include in your request to ensure that you get the fastest service:

• Your name, department, and phone number

• The equipment or service you’re calling about, as specifically as possible.
• The best way to reach you, and your availability

• The service ticket number of your request, if you’re calling regarding an existing issue

• A detailed description of the issue, including specific error messages or screenshots.

Over the Web

Our Support Request form is the best way to request support. Online service requests may be submitted at any time, and we’ll get back to you during business hours.

We post news and service status information on the System Status web page - you can check there to see if we already know about service issues.

Over the Phone

The Technology Help Desk phone number is (707) 826-4357, which will automatically route you to an available support person. In the rare cases that no support person is available, you can leave a voicemail message. During business hours, we will respond as quickly as possible.

Over Email

Email sent to our service desk will reach the entire User Support team. When you send email, you will receive an automated response indicating that your request has been placed in the queue and providing you with a ticket number to reference in future communications about your request.

In Person

During business hours (see above), our support personnel will be available at the Technology Help Desk in Library 101 for drop-in or by-appointment support.

We’re always happy to talk to you in person, but the clock doesn’t start until a service ticket has been created. When you make a request to one of our support analysts when they’re out and about, it’s likely that the ticket will not be created until the analyst returns to the office. If you don’t receive confirmation that a service ticket has been created, please follow up over the web, by phone or email, or at our drop-in location.

Before You Make a Request

We encourage you to check the System Status page before you submit a request. We often receive multiple requests for the same issue.

Support Expectations

ITS will use the following definitions in prioritizing requests.

HIGH: TIME SENSITIVE, requires immediate resolution. The loss of a service, including those impacting classroom activities, without a workaround available and where a degraded mode of operation is not available or acceptable.

• Classroom Examples: 1) Class can’t run. 2) Required instructional software will not launch. 3) Lab computer(s) inoperable. 4) Projector not displaying image properly. Work towards a solution will commence within 30 business minutes. These requests should be submitted by phone at (707) 826-3166
• Office Examples: 1) Portal will not launch. 2) Network shared folders not available campus-wide. Work towards a solution will commence within 30 business minutes. These requests should be submitted by phone at (707) 826-4357 or in person at Library 101.

MEDIUM: Service is necessary but an immediate resolution is not essential. Example: Microsoft Office will not load on my computer but there is another workstation available for my use. The first response confirming that the request was received will be sent within eight business hours, typically much sooner. The goal is a solution within three business days, also typically much sooner.

LOW: Low impact on end users' ability to work. Example: requests for software upgrades that are not necessary for immediate instructional or business process requirements. The first response confirming the request was received will be sent within 12 business hours, typically much sooner. The goal is a solution within 10 business days, also typically much sooner.

Still Not Happy?

If the service you receive from ITS is not adequate—and particularly if this is true across multiple service tickets - there are several avenues available to you:

• Contact the Help Desk Lead. Contact information is listed in About ITS.

• Contact your divisional liaison. The liaison can recommend corrective action for service problems to the CIO. 

Exceptions

While this Service Offerings document covers most of the operational needs of campus computing users, some situations will require exceptions. Requests for exceptions can be initiated by filling out the form linked here. Exceptions will be reviewed and subjected to a risk assessment and resource impact analysis before being forwarded to the CIO for final approval.