If you’re holed up in your apartment or at a café studying for finals, or if you have a trip planned for the semester break, it’s easy to stay connected and get tech support from Simmons while you’re away from campus.

Service Desk Support

Open for phone support Monday-Friday from 7:30am – 5:30pm at 617-521-2222.

If you need help during the evening or on the weekend, or if you’d rather not pick up the phone, you’ll find answers to many common questions on the Service Desk website.

Services Available Anywhere

You can access your email, calendar, Google docs, Moodle, AARC, Workday, and more from almost any device using mobile sites and apps.

If you need access to technology services that are only available from the on-campus network, you can tap into them remotely using VPN. Simmons VPN is accessible on most computers and mobile devices.

There’s been a surprising amount of talk lately about cyber security. This important but often overlooked topic even made an appearance in a presidential debate as “the security aspect of cyber.” We’re not 100% sure what that means, but we do know that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), and we want to help you understand the threats to your computers, mobile devices, and data.

Here are some resources to help you learn more and stay safe online:

• Simmons College Information Security
• NCSAM at StaySafeOnline.org
• Antivirus software download
• Google’s Safety Center
• Built-in Security from Microsoft
• McAfee’s Guide to Secure Online Shopping (PDF)

If you have any questions about cyber security, keeping your devices and data safe, or working with sensitive data at Simmons, the Service Desk is always available to help.

In September, Simmons College welcomed Marjorie “Honey” Pike as our new Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police. To help the campus community learn more about Honey’s background and plans for her work at Simmons, we sat down to ask her some questions about her approach to policing, community engagement, and more.

Read the full interview here.

This session will explore strategies for providing feedback in the Online Classroom. Students need much more support and feedback in the online environment than they may need in a traditional course. Using effective feedback strategies will enable the instructor to identify and meet individual student needs as well as encourage students to participate and continue to participate at a high quality level.

This session is open to ALL faculty—whether you teach online or on-campus. Visit the Faculty Fellows Hub to get complete details on all the sessions being offered.

Interested in signing up for this session? RSVP today!

During September and October, the Technology team has continued planning for the FY17 computer replacement program.

We’ve developed a tentative timeline for working with departments to schedule computer replacements. This timeline is based on several factors, including the average age of computers currently used in each department and the total estimated replacement cost.

Our next steps will be to start interviewing department administrators in November and then begin a pilot rollout of new computers to a subset of five departments. Following the pilot period, we will expand the program quickly to other areas of the College during the 3rd and 4th quarters of the fiscal year.

As the project continues, we’ll share up-to-date information oncomputerupgrades.simmons.edu. If you have specific questions about computer replacements, please contact theService Desk.

One of the most exciting projects at Simmons this summer was the completion of work on Daly Field, a new public-private partnership that provides space for several of the College’s sports teams and a vital outdoor resource for the Allston-Brighton community.

Simmons Technology recently wrapped up our efforts to ensure that Daly Field is a connected space, with the infrastructure necessary for security, digital scoring, and Internet-connected audio-visual equipment.

Best of all, Simmons Athletics is now live streaming games from Daly Field! Whether you’re in the stands, across town, or across the country, visit athletics.simmons.edu to cheer the Sharks on to victory.

Photo courtesy of simmons.edu

On September 1, 2016, Simmons welcomed Marjorie “Honey” Pike, our new Chief of Public Safety.

Marjorie brings almost 40 years of experience in law enforcement to the College. Before coming to Simmons, she served as Assistant Chief of Police at Vanderbilt University. Prior to Vanderbilt, she spent 33 years with the Nashville Police Department, rising through the ranks to Deputy Chief.

As Chief, Marjorie will provide leadership and a focus on engagement and communication with the entire Simmons community. She has a long history of promoting campus safety and she will use that experience to partner with students and Student Life to foster an ongoing dialogue about safety on campus.

We also want to thank our Interim Police Chief, Mel Batten-Mickens, for her service during the yearlong search for a new chief. Her work and leadership during this time have made our campus safer for all.

Please join us in thanking Mel and welcoming Marjorie to Simmons, as she takes on this important role at the College.

These sessions are open to ALL faculty – whether you teach online or on-ground. Visit the Faculty Fellows Hub to get complete details on the sessions being offered and to RSVP for any session.

Whether on our computers, tablets, or phones, most of us have plugins and extensions that make our web browsers more useful. From video player plugins like Adobe Flash, to ad-blocking extensions and tools that help you spell check and edit as you type, there are countless ways to tailor your browser.

When working with financial and student-related data, these tools can present additional security challenges as well. Add-ons can create points of entry to viruses and malware, potentially exposing sensitive information when we use web-based applications for our work (including Google Apps for Education and AARC).

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to stay safe.

Only install necessary add-ons
If a plugin or extension does not serve a business or academic purpose, it should not be used during your work at Simmons.
To disable or remove add-ons:

• Chrome: Type “about:plugins” or “about:extensions” into the address bar
• Firefox: Go to Tools > Add-ons in the menu
• Safari: Go to Preferences in the menu, and look for plug-ins under the Security tab and other add-ons under the Extensions tab

Take advantage of built-in security options
Most browsers can block—or warn you of—insecure plugins and extensions. You can also enable “click-to-play” support in Chrome. This stops plugins from running automatically and gives you the choice of when to run them and on which websites.

Keep your browser and add-ons updated
Installing updates increases the likelihood that you have the most up-to-date security features available.