The Wesleyan Connection

Wesleyan has launched its new online look with a completely redesigned homepage.

The new, image-rich homepage, http://www.wesleyan.edu/, offers rotating photographs of campus life, university factoids and departmental highlights that change when the page is reloaded. The most noticeable change to the new homepage is the open layout that emphasizes information, facilitates navigation, and refocuses content for Wesleyan’s primary target audiences, including prospective students, their parents and external users.

Under the images are recent headlines, upcoming events and title selections from a new, open access Community Blog. All members of the Wesleyan community can author a post, and anyone can comment on a post.

“Everyone at Wesleyan is invited to join in the conversation on the Community Blog,” says Web Redesign Team member Mark Bailey, director of strategic communications. “Many provided great ideas and expressed the hope that we all will use it to bring faculty, student and alumni news to the attention of homepage readers. Only your participation can make the Blog a distinctive online space that reflects Wesleyan life and achievements.”

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Jennifer Platt, printing specialist for Information Technology Services, shows samples of posters she printed in the Cardinal Print and Copy shop located in Usdan University Center. (Photo by Olivia Bartlett Drake)

Q: Jen, when did the ITS Print Shop move to the Usdan University Center and what were the benefits of this move?

A: The ITS Print Shop closed on July 16 and opened on July 17 with a new name. We are now Cardinal Print and Copy. We have enjoyed a very loyal following with many of the departments across campus but new customers always seemed surprised to discover who we were and what we could do. Our new location solves that problem and is more convenient for most members of the Wes community.

Q: What are your thoughts on the new space? Was it difficult to leave the fifth floor of ITS?

A: The Usdan Campus Center is entirely different from the fifth floor. I now share the service window with Wes Station and feel like I really am in the center of campus. It was hard to leave the 5th floor, especially my officemate Jerry Maguda but everyone at the Usdan Center has been so warm and welcoming I can hardly complain.

Samples of Cardinal Print and Copy publications.

Q: Are printing services available to the entire Wesleyan Community? Do you prefer people stop by the Cardinal Print and Copy window or e-mail you jobs? Also, when is the shop open?

A: We are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. We print for faculty, staff, students and non profit organizations. I am currently a one person show and still do need to attend meetings so the best way to contact me is by email printing@wesleyan.edu or phone x2132. I would hate to have someone walk over to discuss a potential project and find that I am not here.

Q: What types of printing, and printing services does Cardinal Print and Copy offer?

A: We print posters, postcards and flyers in full color. We have high speed (85 ppm) black and white printing with the ability to print (more…)

Henk Meij, senior consultant and manager of Unix Systems Group, stands by two racks of blades, which were donated by Blue Sky Studios.

Next fall, Wesleyan students and faculty will perform research activities on the same state-of-the-art animation computers that produced Ice Age the Meltdown, a $652 million worldwide box office hit.

The computer hardware was donated July 2 by Greenwich, Conn.-based Blue Sky Studios, the creator of a number of award-winning digital animation features, including the Ice Age series and Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, which took in nearly $300 million worldwide.

In 2008, Blue Sky Studios refreshed their technology for their latest movie, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and bought racks of new computers.

“The old computer racks still had a lot of life left in them, so we went looking for large colleges and universities in Connecticut that might be able to make use of this kind of computing infrastructure, and to which we might donate these computers,” explains Andrew Siegel, head of systems at Blue Sky Studios. “Wesleyan seemed like a good candidate.”

Blue Sky arranged for the racks to be delivered to the Exley Science Center loading dock. They are now housed on the fifth floor of Information Technology Services.

“We requested two, but they graciously gave us four,” Ganesan “Ravi” Ravishanker, associate vice president for Information Technology Services.

Each rack holds 52 Angstrom Microsystem-brand “blades,” with a memory footprint of 12 or 24 gigabytes each. Combined, Blue Sky donated about 3.7 terabytes of total memory.

“This is just phenomenal,” says Henk Meij, senior consultant and manager of Unix Systems Group. “Once it’s in full operation, it’s going to be much appreciated by the researchers. (more…)

Dan Schnaidt, academic computing manager for the arts and humanities, teaches Wesleyan employees about iGoogle, a personal, customizable web gadget, during Information Technology Service's Tech Tea program March 26 in Woodhead Lounge. Tech Tea demonstrations are held three times a semester to teach the Wesleyan community about new technologies. This session focused on Google applications.

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Wesleyan has launched a web redesign blog to solicit input from the Wesleyan community.

The web at Wesleyan is undergoing major design and functionality changes, and the Website Design Team is seeking input from the Wesleyan community.

“This team has been charged with preparing a new website design strategy for the university,” says Melissa Datre, director of the Information Technology Service’s New Media Lab. “Through their request for feedback, peer school interviews, and faculty and student input, they will, over the next several weeks, propose to a new design concept for Wesleyan’s website presence.”

In early March, the team launched a web redesign blog to give every member of the campus community the opportunity to participate, contribute thoughts, (more…)

Wesleyan sports fans can view play-by-play action of their favorite events through Wesscores, a new service hosted on Twitter.

Twitter is a popular social networking and “microblogging” service used to communicate timely information as well as exchange quick, frequent messages with others. The short Twitter messages, referred to as the “tweets,” can be viewed on a web browser or cell phone as text messages.

The Athletics Department at Wesleyan has created a Twitter account called wescores to send updated sports information and is inviting all the Cardinals fans to follow this account on twitter by visiting the URL http://twitter.com/wescores and clicking on the follow button.

“This is a great way to quickly circulate sports scores to sports fans who cannot be at the game live, or are not near a computer,” says Brian Katten, Wesleyan’s sports information director.

The service debuted for the men’s lacrosse (more…)

Jolee West

Jolee West, director of academic computing services, director of digital projects, was chosen to participate in the 2009 Frye Leadership Institute for library and information professionals. The intensive summer program takes place at Emory University from May 31 to June 11. Following the two week session at Emory, each participant works on a year-long practicum at their institution, and the classes remain in contact through e-mail groups and subsequent conferences.

Ganesan “Ravi” Ravishanker, associate vice president for Information Technology Services, nominated West for the Leadership Institute. The nationally competitive application process selects around 45 participants from an average of 200-250 applicants. West received Mellon Foundation Scholarship to cover tuition, room and board expenses.

The Frye Institute seeks to develop Higher Education leadership talent from participants working in Library and Information Technology. Each Frye class is constructed carefully to ensure representation from different fields and types of institutions. The program is not specifically about libraries or information technology, but about leadership, policy and effecting change and transformation in Higher Education.

Scott Vanek, academic computing manager for the Natural Sciences and Mathematics, teaches Wesleyan faculty, staff and graduate students how technology can best be used in their classes.

Q: Scott, when did you begin your Wesleyan career in Information Technology Services?

A: I arrived in mid-September 2008.

Q: You’re currently the academic computing manager for the Natural Sciences and Mathematics area. Do you generally support faculty?

A: Supporting faculty takes up most of my time. However, because grad-students work closely with faculty, I have also been supporting grad-students in certain situations. For example, a grad student may need assistance with Wesfiles or Blackboard and I would assist him or her. Additionally, I may also conduct specific training for a class of undergrads.

Q: Is supporting NSM any different than supporting say, the Arts and Humanities? Is there any science and match-specific software or hardware that you need to be familiar with?

A: Each discipline has its own specific (more…)

Ganesan "Ravi" Ravishanker, associate vice president for Information Technology Services, welcomes Dena Matthews, publication production manager, to the "Backstage at Information Technology Services" open house Nov. 12. Matthews was learning about ITS's New Media Lab from Melissa Datre, director of the New Media Lab, pictured at right.

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