The Office ofTechnology and Network Services (TNS) plays an essential part in the SouthernUniversity technology system.
The TNSdepartment is responsible for two primary components: supporttelecommunications infrastructure and academic computing.
It is dividedinto five primary areas: Campus Network Management, Training and SupportService, Web Services, Enterprise Support Services and Security.
The CNM manages,maintains and supports the Southern University-Baton Rouge campus network.Their primary role and responsibility is telecommunications, such as Internetaccess, cable television in the resident halls and for the surveillance systemdesign that is provided on campus.
SouthernUniversity is also one of five universities that is an Internet II school,which is a non-commercial Internet that is dedicated for research ineducation.
The campus usesa router, our connection to the outside world, which currently supports a totalof 36MB on Internet bandwidth, 24MB of bandwidth for Internet I and 12MB forInternet II.
“We areexploiting the technology that we have available,” said Huey Lawson, TNSDirector.
There are alsofree workshops that are posted for students, faculty and staff to aid them withWindows and virus updates for their computers.
The TSS groupfocuses on training for students, faculty, staff, researchers andadministrators at Southern University.
Trainingincludes instructor-led and online courses for becoming a proficient user inMicrosoft Office Suite applications. These courses are offered each semesterand can be found on the TNS website.
The TSS alsooffers National Education Training Group Inc., an online training program thatoffers over 1,100 technology-based courses that are available to Southernstudents, faculty and staff.
“If students areusing it, we would like to encourage them to use it now, even if just for abasic Microsoft application like Word, it would give you an expert levelproficiency in them, which in turn would make our students much more marketablefor those summer internships than their counterparts,” Lawson said.
NETg can be accessed at www.netg.subr.edu.
TSS also offersBlackboard, a learning management system that supplements classroom educationas a platform for distance learning programs.
Blackboard helpsteachers who need assistance by allowing their class assignments to be placedon the Internet for students to access.
“It’s helpful tobe able to turn in your work on Blackboard without having to go to class,” saidParris Chavis, a sophomore computer science major from Lake Charles.
“All generalbiology classes will have courses on Blackboard and later, the advance classesbecause there are a lot of students who are required to take it,” said Dr.Willis Jacob, Chair of Biology.
TSS providesuser access to campus e-mail and supports two multi-purpose computer labs. The two labs are located in T.T. Allainand the Smith-Brown Memorial Student Union. These labs are to be updated everythree years.
“I use thecomputer lab to print. (It) is helpful to getting on the Internet; that’s mostimportant to me,” said Vanessa Carmouche, a junior biology major fromCrowley.
TSS has recentlydemonstrated the use of televideo conferencing, making Southern the firsthistorically black college or university to initiate this program.
The departmenthosted a one-hour international video teleconference where 16 Midshipmen inSouthern’s Naval ROTC Unit were able to speak directly to 12 junior officers,who were assigned to the Nuclear Engineering Department onboard an operationalNavy Aircraft Carrier, USS JOHN C STENNIS that was deployed in the WesternPacific.
New projectsimplemented by televideo conferencing are supporting a multimedia setup campuswide starting with displaying big screens in the student union.
They were activewith the design of the training room within the College of Business andmulticasting (conferencing) unit (MCU) that host a bridge conferencing, typicalwhere one site talks to another site.
This is aproject in works for the Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs, where they are ina program with the University of New England.
There is also ahelp desk to support universities that consists of customer relations, forstudents who live on campus and faculty to call when they are having problemswith accessing the Internet or other problems that may occur and technicalservices.
Another divisionof TNS is Web Services, which is responsible for the development, expansion,maintenance, and accuracy of the web site for the Southern University-BatonRouge campus, www.subr.edu.
It is updateddaily to provide information about the University, its events, its resourcesand its accomplishments.
They have alsoworked with other departments to help them maintain Web sites for theirdepartment.
There is aninternal document management system called DocuShare, which controls access andstore individual files in a work environment that can be managed over theweb.
There is anexpected migrate from DocuShare to SharePoint, a Microsoft product that willhelp keep consistency. The serviceis also responsible for the Jag News Channel (channel 74).
”It helps; it lets students know whatand when events are occurring on campus,” said Damon Wells, a senior criminaljustice major from Baton Rouge.
A fourth area ofTNS is the Enterprise Support Group, which handles the LAN/AD structure.
They areresponsible for account management (email); exchange accounts; a campus-wideimaging system, that was initiated last year; and police ticketing system thatcurrently uses handheld wireless ticket units.
This group hasbeen active in organizing department of management tools, which remotely doesupdates (and antivirus updates) to non-student computers that access thenetwork; server farm (data center) that has a count of 70 servers; softwaresite licensing for management tools, imaging application and servers; SANS(storage area network system) where students who do not have computers woulduse a thin client (a keyboard, mouse, and monitor connected to the network) andwould be able to store information.
This group alsodoes special implementation for special projects.
The newest area,introduced in October of 2003, is security. The focus here is on policy/education, prevention andinvestigation.
Current and newprojects that are being planned by TNS are implementation of a campus wirelessconfiguration for telecommunications.
They arestarting with the use of electronic “tablets” with wireless projectors forinstructors and it is being currently used in the Biology and Chemistrydepartments.
“We are justgetting setup,” said Dr. Willis Jacob, Chair of Biological Sciences. “Our plan is to use it throughoutthe department; we have a number of instructors who want to use PowerPoint,because we have two buildings to use it would give the instructor moreflexibility. We will have it inoperation in January.”
A new projectthat is coming soon for student access is Netilla. This new technology uses a virtual private network (VPN)that allows remote access to campus licensing applications from any computer.
There will be additionaltraining labs and a video conferencing room/axis grid, a teaching lab fordepartments who would like to use computers during class that currently do nothave computer classrooms and also used for audio/video conferencing for theSouthern University system.
The latestevents on Jag News Channel, the website, the marquee, the computer labs andBlackboard are provided by the TNS department to give the students, faculty andstaff of Southern University the advancement in technology.
The TNS departmentis helping Southern University improve their ability to work throughtechnology.
“We are stillextending what we have to offer to the students, without them having to payadditional money for it, “Lawson said.
