/News

Oracle Calendar Migration

Patricia Goodman — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:13:51 GMT

Oracle Calendar Migration To Begin Friday night, July 10

The migration of Oracle Calendar data into Zimbra will begin at 10:00 p.m. Friday, July 10 and continue over the weekend. By Monday the migration will be complete and access into Oracle Calendar will be disabled. From that point on you will access your calendar by logging into https://mail.goshen.edu and clicking on the Calendar tab. Please go to http://www.goshen.edu/zimbra for more information.

Zimbra Migration

Patricia Goodman — Wed, 1 Jul 2009 20:28:32 GMT

Zimbra Email Migration

ITS will be migrating the existing email server over to a new email server. The migration process will begin at 11:00 p.m., Thursday, July 2nd and will continue throughout the weekend. For information about the migration and how it will effect you, please visit http://www.goshen.edu/zimbra

iLight2 Coming in March

Michael Sherer — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:07:57 GMT

After years of groundwork, iLight2 is coming to Goshen College. On March 5, 9 a.m. iLight engineers will cut over GC's internet connection from a 45 Mb DS3 to a 1,000 Mb iLight2 fiber optic connection. How fast is that? Consider that the average home cable internet connection is about 5 Mb, so iLight would be about 200 times faster. Fast enough to deliver high resolution video and large research datasets. The upgrade puts GC at the peer level with research universities across the globe, and creates research opportunities limited only by our imagination. Cool stuff.

Welcome Back Everyone!

Michael Sherer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:49:50 GMT

We hope you had a great summer. We've been working hard to spiff the place up and give you the technology environment you deserve for the fall. Notable projects include:
1) New dual-core PC's in UN002, Ad 21, NC 12 and the Connector
2) A new dual-boot iMac lab in UN004 and the phase-out of UN001
3) 60+ office PC upgrades. Lots of memory upgrades.
4) The transition from PowerPC to Intel Macs running OS X Leopard and Office 2008
5) Completion of Office 2007 upgrades
6) The migration from Blackboard to Moodle for course management.
7) Renovated classrooms in Ad 20, Ad 28, Ad 36 and Wyse 318
8) Placement of 13 new 3500 lumen projectors in classrooms
9) A new SMS-based emergency notification system.
10) ASL Video workflow improvements.
11) Lots of other minor improvements.

We wish you all a great fall of learning and hope that these improvements make your lives just a little bit better.

More iLight News...

Michael Sherer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:56:06 GMT

iLight representatives were on campus August 18th with a group of telecom representatives bidding to provide GC's connection to the iLight statewide fiber optic network. Bids are due in September and awarded in October, with the actual switchover tentatively scheduled for early next semester. Why are we excited? 20-fold increase in Internet2 bandwidth compared to our current DS3 (45 Mbit) circuit at no extra cost. We think that has the potential to make a great GC education even better.

Goodbye Mac Lab, Hello Mac/PC Lab

Michael Sherer — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 20:27:46 GMT

For the last 10 years, Goshen College has had a 15 seat Mac lab in UN 001 dedicated to the teaching of graphic design and video production classes. This fall, that's going to change--for the better. UN 004 will sport 24 20" iMacs that run both Mac OS X Leopard and Windows. That means that classes that used to be limited to 15 students because of the limited number of Macs in UN 001, can now be offered to 24 students. UN 001 will be closed for Fall 2008. Congratulations go to Dan Stutzman, Paul Ortman and Kevin Gross for their work to make this innovative upgrade feasible!

iLight Funding Approved

Michael Sherer — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 20:04:40 GMT

It's official! Goshen College is going to be on the statewide iLight academic network. The Indiana State Budget Agency recently approved funding for phase 2 of the iLight network last mile build-out. Goshen College, because of our long-standing commitment to statewide networking efforts, is in the phase 2 cohort of schools connecting to iLight. Other schools getting connected in phase 2 include: St. Josephs College, St. Mary of the Woods, St. Mary’s College, Holy Cross College, Butler University, Marian College, University of Indianapolis.

The obvious benefit to campus computer users is insanely fast (1 Gbps) access to Internet 2 and other iLight schools. An increasing number of schools and major Internet sites are on Internet 2, so students can expect to see real world benefits. ITS will keep the campus apprised as connection dates are finalized.

Software Available At Discount

pattygg — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 15:45:59 GMT

Currently enrolled students and currently employed faculty and staff can purchase Microsoft and Adobe software at a HUGE discount. Click here for more details.

Welcome New Students

Michael Sherer — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Welcome (and welcome back) to Goshen College. We're really glad you're here and hope you have a great year. The staff at ITS is committed to your success at Goshen College and dedicated to providing you with first rate tools and technologies that make your academic life at GC better, easier and more enjoyable. If you have ideas for how we can accomplish that goal better, drop us a line at and let us know.

Here a few important links to get you started:
Student Orientation to Campus Technology
Computing Code of Conduct
ResNet Info
What's New?

Banishing Paper

Michael Sherer — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:45:07 GMT

Paper is so last century! Yet the path to college is still littered with it. This spring, however, GC is taking a major step towards eliminating a lot of the paper work for incoming freshmen. What started as an online document tracking system developed into a full-fledged migration of paper forms to the web. Using Caravel's powerful form builder and e-commerce tools, ITS's Theo Budiardja was able to convert most of GC's forms for new students into electronic form in record time. The wins are obvious--less paper, less postage, less hassle for students and staff. Students can take care of most of their required steps in a single setting. Staff can see at a glance who still needs to finish what. We hope it makes coming to GC an even easier choice.

GC Offers Alumni Services

Michael Sherer — Thu, 7 Dec 2006 23:17:34 GMT

This fall Goshen College began offering web services to its alumni. The initial services are a secure online alumni directory, the ability to update your personal/family information, and NewsNotes from other alumni. The new services are available on the alumni website (http://www.goshen.edu/alumni/). To use the services, alumni will need to sign up for an alumni account. To get a password, you'll need to provide two of the following three items:

Your birthdate
Your GC student ID number
The last four numbers of your Social Security Number (SSN)

Check it out and let us know what you think at

GC IT News - September

Michael Sherer — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 01:55:40 GMT

In this issue
o Emailing from Comcast
o Scam Alert: Announcement from 1st Source Bank
o New to Campus?
o Copyright and the law
o Want a good job? Steer clear of the spammers
o Thursday's service outage
o ResNet Report
o Raise your Google IQ
o Wikipedia--no joking matter

Microsoft Software Now Available

Patty Goodman — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:50:25 GMT

Current students, faculty and staff can purchase Microsoft software at a significantly reduced price, saving over 85% off retail! Don't wait any longer to take advantage of this fabulous savings. Click here for more information and to place your order through our secure Goshen College Software Center, powered by E-Academy, our online partner for Microsoft products.

Calendar Server Upgrade

Michael Sherer — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:14:10 GMT

On August 14, ITS upgraded the Oracle Calendar Server to the latest version, 10g. This upgrade, among other things, gets us properly on daylight savings time and improves synchronization capabiliities with the latest generation of handheld devices. The nature of the upgrade made it impossible to automatically move over all historic data. We recognize that this will be a hardship for some individuals and departments and are making available staff to assist in migrating data. Contact the Help Desk for more information at x7700.

WiFi Network Expands

Michael Sherer — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 03:36:43 GMT

ITS installed GC's first wireless access point back in 1999. Since then, the GC WiFi network has grown steadily to the point where there is coverage in all academic buildings and most green spaces. One of this summer's project is to extend the WiFi network to all the dorm public lounges. This complements the full coverage placed in the new senior apartments and the Connector in recent years. So go ahead, get mobile!

Labs Go Widescreen

Michael Sherer — Thu, 8 Jun 2006 18:23:08 GMT

The video world is going widescreen and so is Goshen College. Thanks to falling LCD prices, ITS was able to place 20" widescreen monitors in Schertz Union 002 lab, and soon in the Good Library Lab. Students on campus this summer are already enjoying the increased screen real estate. Combined that with the new 64 bit lab computers we're placing this summer and you've got a computer lab experience that's hard to beat. It's all part of our commitment to put our best technology where the students are.

Getting Ready For Summer

Michael Sherer — Fri, 12 May 2006 17:51:10 GMT

While many colleges were deciding which model Dell to buy for fall, GC's ITS department were debating the merits of dual-channel memory, PCI Express graphics, 64 bit and dual core chip architectures. We've made up our minds and we think you'll like the results.

Making Podcasting Easy....

Michael Sherer — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 01:03:52 GMT

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of podcasting and know it's one of the hottest new publishing phenomena. But you probably aren't doing it yourself. ITS has taken it upon ourselves to blaze the trail for you. Using an inexpensive Logitech 350 USB headset mic and Apple's Garageband, we've gotten quality audio and simplicity that we think are pretty exciting. Check out our first effort...an admission-related piece entitled Technology at GC

New Internet Connection: 6X Faster

Michael Sherer — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:58:54 GMT

On Feb. 13, ITS cut over to a new DS3 Internet connection. The new connection provides a six-fold increase in capacity at no additional cost over our previous connection (5 T1's). The upgrade is particularly significant for video-conferencing quality, but also holds the potential to make it more practical to use Internet resources in the classroom, and to collaborate with others in remote locations.

Think of the DS3 as a powerful pedagogical tool. I encourage you to spend some time thinking about how best to use it.

Happy New Year! What ITS Did Over Break

Michael Sherer — Wed, 4 Jan 2006 20:44:34 GMT

Welcome to 2006 at Goshen College! Students left campus December 8 making for an unusually long Christmas break--plenty of time for ITS to get some important work done. Among the highlights:

New domain controller: This is an invisible, yet foundational upgrade that paves the way for future upgrades to our storage infrastructure. It took lots of work to make it happen transparently, which by and large it did.
New CUPS print server: The labs and some offices are now working off a new, more modern print server. It's more reliable, easier to set up and fixes some nagging problems with print accounting.
Caravel 3. Goshen College's website is now running Caravel 3.0, the latest version. The new version offers much better templating and complex layout possibilities.
Project Tracking for the Employee Timecard. Physical Plant has been clamoring for this and it's now available. Contact theodorebgoshen.edu for more infomation.

Tightening up network security

Michael Sherer — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 14:20:08 GMT

Badness has gone virtual. So along with the convenience of Google, online shopping, Yahoo Maps and Wikipedia we have to contend with viruses, spam, spyware, identity theft, hackers and scammers. Everyone is having to raise their security game and Goshen College is no exception. We started last spring with the first phase of a password hardening initiative. Last week we began phase 2 of that initiative, also voluntary, and by the end of the year we plan to have full compliance--everyone's password will meet the new criteria. Other initiaves include:

Improved mail server security with SSL encryption and authenticated SMTP. Due in December.
Secure authentication for all services.
Encrypted laptop drives for mobile employees
Secure tunneling service for mobile employees

For more detailed information see the ITS Policy page

More Bandwidth: It's Coming

Michael Sherer — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 01:29:38 GMT

Congratulations! (A lot of) You Did It!

Michael Sherer — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 14:22:23 GMT

Each Fall is different, especially when it comes to technology. There are more computers, higher expectations and new challenges. It's not easy to get everyone's computer on the network--it's a group effort. The good news is that we--the student body, ITS and Res Hall staff--did the best ever this year. As of 6 p.m. Friday evening 8/26, there were 391 computers registered on the ResNet, that's almost 40 more than last year at this time! There were fewer systems at the installation fair, fewer stragglers for Kevin Gross to work on next week. I know it's hard work, but the end result is a ResNet that works better for everyone. Thanks for your efforts!

ITS Welcomes Students

Michael Sherer — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 19:55:16 GMT

Welcome to Goshen Class of 2009! Welcome everyone returning to campus for another year of intellectual stimulation, personal development and equipping for service in the Kingdom. I've been here eight years and can honestly say GC gets better every year. How, you might ask? Let me count the ways:

New senior apartments
New recording studios in WGCS
14 National Merit Finalists and the largest incoming freshman class in six years
100 more 64 bit computers
5 new digital cameras for checkout
Several new energetic faculty and staff members.
Diskspace on GC File doubled
200 new LCD monitors in offices saving energy
Latest version of Blackboard Course Management software
Lots of new software, including the latest Adobe Creative Suite, the latest Apple Professional Studio
The latest version of Caravel web content management software
New online services (Student Information Form, Vehicle Registration), with more to come.

I'm just the IT Director, so I've undoubtedly missed a lot of gems, but what I can say with authority is that a lot of people have lavished their creativity and hard work to make your experience at GC the best it can be. Have fun, learn lots, change the world!

Blackboard Course Server Upgraded

Michael Sherer — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:07:56 GMT

When students and faculty return to the classroom this fall they'll be using the latest in course management technology--Blackboard 6.3. Version 6.3 is a major upgrade to Blackboard and presented some significant technical challenges to overcome, but the new server successfully went live this Wednesday and things appear to be functioning smoothly. Chief among the new features include new assessment tools, internationalization capabilities, and something called adaptive release, that allows faculty to make available parts of the website to individual students based on predefined criteria such as quiz scores. GC is in the first cohort of schools to move to the new version, which is emblematic of our commitment to provide leading edge classroom technologies to the GC campus community.

Last Hurrah of Summer: Place 200 LCD Monitors

Michael Sherer — Fri, 5 Aug 2005 23:16:51 GMT

It's Christmas in August for Goshen College employees. ITS recently took delivery of 200 17" LCD monitors to replace aging CRT monitors on employee desktops and the race is on to get them all placed before the beginning of the fall semester. Project leader David Hodges set a goal of placing 20 monitors per day through mid-August to get the job done. Response from the campus community has been enthusiastic. In addition to the crisp, bright picture and small footprint, the monitors are expected to save up $3,000 per year in electricity and cooling costs.

ITS Involvement at Charlotte 2005

Michael Sherer — Mon, 4 Jul 2005 15:12:33 GMT

If it's an odd-numbered year, the ITS summer schedule includes supporting the Mennonite Church General Assembly, this year in Charlotte, North Carolina. This year Goshen College took leadership of the daily convention newspaper, mPress, a four-color tabloid-size paper with very high production values. ITS supplied 14 computers (8 PC's, 6 Macs) with flat screen monitors, a tabloid proofing printer, and requisite networking gear. Director Michael Sherer and ITS student employee Marcos Kuhns are on site at Charlotte 2005 doing tech support for mPress and Marcos is site editor for mPress Online. mPress Online will be published using Caravel, an open source web content management that is largely the creation of GC grads (at Mennonite.net) and GC employees.

Summer 2005 Upgrades Begin

Michael Sherer — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 20:10:53 GMT

It's an annual ritual: May term ends, the students leave, and ITS swings into high gear, upgrading the campus technology environment in preparation for the Fall semester. This summer's highlights include:

Phase 2 of our 64 bit computing migration, with Athlon64 systems going into faculty/staff offices (the labs are already 64 bit).
Project Green Screen, where aging CRT monitors are replaced with energy efficient flat panel displays. Last year, ITS & Library labs and Ad 21 went flat screen. This year it's all employees over O.5 FTE. Energy savings vs CRT's are expected to be between $2-3,000/year. Plus, LCD's have a longer lifespan, with less material to go into the landfill at the end of the lifecycle.
A new student webserver with Caravel content management system sites to facilitate building portfolios and personal websites.
New web-based services for parking registration, event sign-up, e-commerce and more.
Wired and wireless networking for the new senior apartments.
More wireless access points.
Mac OS X "Tiger" upgrades
Numerous software upgrades
Lots of invisible, under-the-hood improvements.

We're working hard to create the kind of IT environment that empowers students, profs and administrators to learn better, teach better, serve better.

ITS Welcomes Rittenhouse, Ortman to GC

Michael Sherer — Thu, 26 May 2005 07:06:12 GMT

ITS is pleased to welcome Ryan Rittenhouse (GC '03) and Paul Ortman (Bethel, KS '01) to the ITS staff. Ryan and Paul wilI fill positions being vacated by Tim Boshart and Velin Kounev (GC '03). Ryan began work Monday, May 23rd and Paul is scheduled to start in July after completing his Master's thesis defense and presenting at several conferences in June.

Boshart Accepts U of Oregon Post

Michael Sherer — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:56:53 GMT

After six years with Goshen College and ITS, Tim Boshart has accepted a call to become Blackboard administrator at the University of Oregon in Eugene, OR. Tim's work with course management software began in 1999 when he set up the college's first CourseInfo server, which later became Blackboard. Over the years Blackboard has played an increasingly important role in the campus curriculum and become a mission critical service. Tim also played a key role in the college's migration to Linux file and print services, along with administering email, calendar, listservs and the campus firewall. Tim, we'll miss you, but wish well in your new position.

ITS Announces Password Hardening Initiative

Michael Sherer — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 01:54:15 GMT

Odds are good that your password is too weak to withstand a determined attack. Weak passwords put everyone's private information at risk. So, we are asking everyone associated with GC to choose a password that is in line with accepted best practices.

The first step is voluntary. We have upgraded our password-changing utility to reflect newer higher standards. [Note: do not use your new GC password on web and shopping sites] To bring your password into compliance, just go to the password changing utility on GC Online.

Read more about the password policy

Security and Privacy Policy Posted

Michael Sherer — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 23:16:09 GMT

We recently posted new security and privacy policies to the ITS website. The policies were reviewed and approved by the Information Technology Committee (ITC) in Fall 2004 in preparation for the NCA visit. The policies are worth reviewing to understand how the security environment is changing and how ITS is working with the rest of the campus to balance concerns of security, privacy, academic freedom and campus culture. See the Policies tab for more information.

WWW Upgraded

Michael Sherer — Sat, 5 Mar 2005 22:52:35 GMT

On Saturday morning, March 5, 2005, ITS will be upgrading the main www server to OpenLDAP 2.2 and Berkeley DB 4.3. The upgrade should provide improved stability and performance on 64 bit hardware. Expected downtime is under 5 minutes. Update: Reuven Hodges reports that the upgrade went smoothly.

ITS Website Refreshed

Michael Sherer — Wed, 2 Mar 2005 22:56:03 GMT

Ready or not, here it comes. The ITS website is one of the bigger, more complex websites on www.goshen.edu, so porting it to Caravel, our new content management system was no small matter. In all honesty, what you see here is really just a start. Over the coming months we hope to leverage the browser-based editing and ease of updating to put significantly more content on the website than we were ever able to under the old publishing paradigm. So, pardon our dust; the best is yet to come.

Picasa 2--Quality Photo Editing for Free

Michael Sherer — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:02:43 GMT

A high-quality photo editor is just about mandatory in the age of digital photography, and now PC users have a new and compelling option available--and it's free. Google recently bought the Picasa 2 photo editor and are giving it away. Early testing in ITS indicate that it's worth checking out. Learn more at http://www.picasa.com/

Changes to Dial-up Service

Michael Sherer — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 23:00:35 GMT

In an effort to provide better service for current students and employees, ITS will be restricting access to the dial-up service to current students, employees and retirees. This will take place on March 2, 2005. The move is part of a larger effort to provision services off our directory server. Update: Old accounts have now been deactivated. Unless special arrangements have been made for extenuating circumstances, students and employees who have been away from Goshen College longer than six months will no longer be able to access dial-up, GC Online, e-mail or file services.

ITS Hires New Help Desk Manager

Michael Sherer — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 23:01:59 GMT

ITS started the new year right, welcoming Pamela Osborne as our new Help Desk Manager. Pam previously worked at the University of Notre Dame's Kellogg Center for International Studies as an IT Support professional.

Mail server gets 64 bit upgrade

Michael Sherer — Sun, 9 Jan 2005 23:01:24 GMT

When is it time to upgrade your busiest, most mission-critical service? No better tme than a Saturday in December after much of the campus has left for break. Early Saturday morning, December 18, Tim Boshart of ITS migrated mail from the old server to the new one--a dual-opteron, 64-bit speedster with over 400 GB of storage--and cut over. The new server uses the faster, more efficient maildir format, and is running a the latest version (4.0.1) of the IMP webmail client.

The upgrade went smoothly, but not totally without impact for end users. A few people had double messages and some Mac users had to change their configurations to get Sent Mail folders to function on the server. On the plus side, the new server is significantly faster, and better suited for IMAP. The new version of IMP has better support for HTML mail, PGP support, S/MIME support, an improved addressbook, and more.