While most Simmons students were away from campus enjoying the winter break, the Buildings & Grounds team was hard at work preparing our campus for the spring semester. While many of us never see this work being done, we all reap the results.

Among the campus improvements completed during the break were:

• Installation of hydration stations across both campuses
• Replacement of heating and cooling infrastructure in buildings on the Residence Campus
• Installation of 150 energy saving LED light fixtures on the Residence Campus
• Repairs to infrastructure under the Academic Campus quad
• Improvements to the Sports Center locker rooms and refinishing of the gym floor
• Completion of cleaning projects in almost every building on campus

We’d like to thank the Buildings & Grounds staff for their year-round work and dedication to keeping our campus running smoothly.

Downloading and installing software can be a time-intensive and expensive proposition. And finding a computer on campus that has specific technical or creative applications is not much fun either.

What if you could solve this problem by logging into a computer on campus and then choosing the set of tools you need? This is, in essence, what Simmons Technology has worked with the Department of Computer Science to do for their faculty and students.

In room 214 in Palace Road, every computer has been virtualized. Virtualization is a process that shifts all of the software and actual computing power to a centralized computer called a server.

The computers in P214 allow instructors to set up virtual environments and share them with students, who can download and run the environments while in class and access them from any location on their personal computers. Students can then work within the virtual environment to write, install, and test new applications.

Virtualization also provides flexibility in the classroom. When P214 is used for other SLIS classes, students and instructors can log into a separate virtual environment tailored to their needs.

This informal partnership with Computer Science faculty and students provides Simmons Technology with a valuable source of knowledgeable feedback on virtual environments at the College.

As virtualization becomes an increasingly important tool in STEM fields and for students who come to Simmons via online courses, it is vital that we know what is working well and what areas can be improved.

Virtualization is a new and powerful way to help us provide computing resources that meet the needs of the Simmons community, whether you’re on campus, across the country, or halfway around the world.

Single-use plastic water bottles are yesterday’s news. They’re expensive, they produce tons of plastic waste that ends up in landfills, and the manufacture and distribution of all those bottles produces huge carbon emissions. It’s also not really safe to reuse them.

At Simmons, we just made filling up your reusable bottle even easier. Across campus, you’ll find new sensor-activated hydration stations. Just open your bottle, line it up, and fill it with safe, local tap water that’s been named the best tasting in the country.

You’ll find hydration stations in:

• MCB (1st floor, East and West)
• Lefavour (Meyers Café)
• Library (1st and 2nd floors)
• Park Science Center (near S183)
• School of Management (2nd floor)
• Palace Road (2nd floor)
• Sports Center (locker rooms, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors, and pool deck)
• Dix Hall (1st floor)

Not only will the hydration stations reduce waste on campus and save you money, they’ll also allow us to monitor the success of this effort. We’re working on a feature atgreen.simmons.edu that will track how many single-use bottles we’ve saved and our contribution to reducing emissions.

If you have questions or comments about this, or any other sustainability initiative, please contact Sara Smith ([email protected]) in Buildings & Grounds at 617-521-2244.