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Annual Report 2004-2005

PrincetonUniversity

2004-2005 Annual Report Page 1

Office of Information Technology

Annual Report 2004-2005PrincetonUniversity


Produced by the staff of the Office of Information Technology.Office of Information Technology, 315 Nassau Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.Copyright © 2005, Office of Information Technology, Princeton University. All rights reserved.Printed by the Office of Printing and Mailing, Princeton University.


Table of Contents

Letter from the Vice President ................................................................................ 5

OIT Mission and Goals .......................................................................................... 7

FY05 OIT Timeline .................................................................................................. 8

OIT by the Numbers, FY05 .................................................................................... 12

OIT Organization .................................................................................................... 13

IT Decision-Making Process Map ........................................................................ 14

Senior Advisory Group on IT ................................................................................ 15

Administrative Systems Planning Group .............................................................. 16

Project Managers Team ......................................................................................... 17

Committee on Academic Technology .................................................................... 18

Research Computing Advisory Group .................................................................. 20

Desktop Systems Council ...................................................................................... 22

Ambassador Program ............................................................................................. 24

Academic Services ................................................................................................. 26

Administrative Information Services .................................................................... 32

Enterprise Infrastructure Services ........................................................................ 38

Finance, Administration and Planning .................................................................. 43

Support Services .................................................................................................... 47

OIT in the News ..................................................................................................... 55


Letter from the Vice President

This annual report for FY04-05 chronicles OIT’s continuing efforts to enrich theeducational process and enhance productivity by making information technologya way of life for students, faculty and staff at Princeton. With our increasinglycomplex technology environment, OIT’s goal is to make technology accessibleto our entire university community and to strive to be “simply the best” atdelivering service to our users.

Over the past year, OIT worked with research faculty across the institution toplan for the evolution of Princeton’s IT infrastructure. These efforts culminatedin the acquisition of a Blue Gene/L high performance computing system fromIBM. This computer is among the world’s top 100 most powerfulsupercomputers. Acquisition of the Blue Gene/L, known as “Orangena,”supports OIT’s goal of providing information technology that enables innovationin teaching, research and scholarship. Moving forward, it is our hope thatOrangena will help faculty advance their research more quickly and providenew avenues for collaboration among researchers.

In the administrative area, OIT worked on completing the implementation ofthe University’s core administrative IT systems. This effort concluded with thesuccessful implementation of the PeopleSoft undergraduate student records andadmissions modules in August of 2005. Implementing this system supportsOIT’s goal of delivering administrative information technology systems thatmeet the needs of the University.

In the area of IT infrastructure, OIT responded to the growing demand fromundergraduates for expanded wireless coverage on campus by deploying aubiquitous wireless infrastructure throughout the dormitories and residentialcolleges. Implementation of the wireless network supports OIT’s goal ofproviding a robust, reliable and secure information technology infrastructure thatserves the needs of the University community.

Looking forward, there are several key IT issues facing the University at large.In the area of IT infrastructure, we will focus our efforts on disaster recoveryand business continuity planning, so that we are best prepared to address smallscale disruptions of service, as well as large scale disasters that mightcompletely disable our systems. In addition, in the face of increasing ITvulnerabilities, we will continue our efforts to maintain a secure campuscomputing environment.

In the area of IT services, we will begin working with the library to develop acomprehensive strategy for the production, management, preservation andsharing of digital content. In addition, in response to requests from faculty and


students, we will look for ways to develop 24/7 IT support. Also in responseto requests from the community, we will look to expand the University’swireless network to the entire campus.

We in OIT are grateful for the opportunity to serve the University. We willcontinue to look for ways to enhance the visibility, accessibility and availabilityof IT services and are thankful for the continued support of the students,faculty, and staff we serve.

Betty LeydonVice President for Information Technologyand Chief Information Officer


OIT Mission and Goals

The mission of OIT is to enable the effective use of information technology insupport of the University. In pursuit of this mission, OIT’s goals are to

• Deliver information technology products and services that meet the needs ofthe University community and achieve the highest levels of customersatisfaction;

• Support the use and development of information technology to enableinnovation in teaching, learning, research, and scholarship;

• Provide leadership in planning for the effective use of technology;

• Provide a robust, reliable, and secure information technology infrastructure;

• Attract, develop, and retain quality information technology professionals;

• Enable communication and collaboration among information technologyprofessionals and users of information technology at the University.


FY05 OIT Timeline

July 2004

In preparation for the FY05 academicyear, OIT upgrades 46 Dell PCs andinstalls eight new printers in campuscomputer clusters. OIT also replacesthe Sun workstations in the FriendCenter and Jadwin Hall with high-end OS X Macintosh computers thatsupport both Macintosh and Unixenvironments.

OIT offers a full schedule ofhands-on training classes duringthe summer on a variety of desktopand adminis-trative softwareapplications and tools. A newoffering is Upgrading to WindowsXP and Office.

OIT completes a redundant fiberring that can be used in the eventof a failure of the primary fiberinfrastructure or to restorecomputing services quickly tocampus buildings designated as“most critical.”

OIT assists the Facilities PlanningOffice during the renovation andnew construction of 1901/Laughlin,Pyne, Henry, 1903, Lockhart, HolderHamilton, the Boiler House, AaronBurr, Clio, the Lawrence apartmentadditions, and the EngineeringQuadrangle. The effort involvesremoving and later upgrading datacabling, network equipment, andcomputer clusters. In most sites,OIT designs and installs hardwiredand wireless cabling systems.

In the COFHE survey of Princetonseniors, information technologyonce again rates highly, placingthird among all University services.

The University’s TSM Backup andRestore Service backs up nearly 100Terabytes of data a year, ten timesthe amount of data stored in theprint collection of the Library ofCongress.

August 2004

Telecommunications Servicespurchases and installs a newAutomatic Call Distributor (ACD)system for the Help Desk operationsin OIT and Human Resources. Thenew ACD service will permit the twodepartments to provide increasedlevels of customer service. Later inthe year, the Admissions Office alsoadopts the ACD system.

OIT’s “Doing More with Less” TaskForce identifies more than 50 savingsopportunities, ways that OIT canoperate more efficiently to savemoney. Many of the recommenda-tions are implemented during the year.

Working with the Office of HumanResources and General Counsel, OIToffers a Voluntary Transition Program(VTP) open to those eligible to retire.

Working with the Ombuds Office, anOIT task force identifies core valuesto improve how we work with eachother and how we serve ourcustomers. During the year, OITfocuses on making the core valuesa reality within our daily work.

In a continuing effort to keep thecampus network safe, OIT installsan intrusion prevention system,McAfee’s IntruShield 2600, betweenthe University’s network and theInternet. The new system providesan additional layer of protection forUniversity systems against attacksoriginating off-campus and willproactively detect compromisedcomputing systems within thePrinceton.edu domain.

OIT enhances the “Beowulf” clusterthat continues to provide high-performance computing services tofaculty in a number of departments.Machine-room facilities are nowavailable for researchers who needa place to house and run their ownequipment.

At the All-OIT Presentation onAugust 30, Betty Leydon presentsthe first CIO award to Lee Varian andDon Albury. Betty reviews thehighlights from FY04, the goals forFY05, and the challenges ahead.

September 2004

Open to all University students, theStudent Computer Initiative offers forsale aggressively priced, and highlycapable, computers customized foracademic work at Princeton.

A special edition of it mattersintroduces students to the full range ofrelevant OIT services, from registeringcomputers and virus protectionthrough publishing web pages and useof the wireless network.

As part of the back-to-school effort,OIT presents an IT overview at theNew Student brunch, participates atthe first-year-student and the GraduateStudent sign-in events, and extendsthe office hours at the SolutionsCenter.

As in past years, a significant numberof campus computers, notablyDormnet machines, are infected byviruses. OIT staff devote considerabletime to detect, document, block, fix,and restore network access to theseinfected machines.

The University’s Blackboard CourseManagement System continues toprovide course web sites for allundergraduate courses. This fall, thesystem offers faculty a range ofpowerful new features. Most notableis a new content system that permitsfaculty to load documents to a centralfile storage location. For the first time,students can search the documents inany course web site or across all oftheir classes simultaneously.

Responding to departmentalrequests for OIT to run specialized,departmental web-based applications,OIT begins to offer a new web hostingservice. OIT will now work with adepartment’s IT support staff to createand host professionally developedweb sites.

The Wednesday Lunch ’n Learnseminars return with “SPAM: Everyonetalks about it, but OIT is doingsomething about it,” “Blackboardcontent system and new BB features,”and “Create and edit your own videoextravaganzas.”


October 2004

The entire Undergraduate admissionsapplication is made available via theWeb for the first time. The customizedPrinceton Online Application collectsappropriate information aboutprospects long before the applicationprocess begins.

Telecommunications Services enablesCaller ID and Caller Originated Traceon every campus telephone line. Thegroup also offers a new service forvictims of threatening or harassingtelephone calls. The new feature,Customer Originated Trace, instructsthe telephone system to retain thedetails of the call for analysis by lawenforcement agencies.

OIT upgrades the core connections inseveral campus buildings to gigabitEthernet and the internal networks tosupport 100Mbs desktopconnections. In support of disasterrecovery, the group moves the point-of-entry for the campus’s AT&Tinternet connection from theComputing Center to New South.

In conjunction with the strategicplanning effort announced by theSchool of Engineering and AppliedScience (SEAS) and in order to meetthe changing Information Technologyinfrastructure needs of theUniversity’s research and teachingcommunity, OIT initiates a strategicplanning process for infrastructuralsupport for University researchers.The plan will assist OIT in deter-mining the resources needed to matchthe IT infrastructure with the needsand priorities of the researchcommunity.

The Lunch ’n Learn seminarscontinue with “ Blogs, Weblogs,powerful web journals,” “A computerdeconstructed,” “Better than Google:Finding articles and more at theLibrary,” and “Electronic ElectionSystems.”

The September/October edition of itmatters highlights “New Features inBlackboard” and “updating PersonalInformation in the UniversityDirectory.”

November 2004

Upon request, OIT sends graduatestudent consultants to faculty officesto provide instruction in the use ofthe Blackboard course managementsystem and related teachingtechnology. The service is availableto faculty and their teachingassistants. Based on the success ofthe program, the group expands theservice to cover Windows, Word,PowerPoint, and Almagest, OIT’smultimedia database system.

OIT’s Telecommunications Servicesoffers a new service to cell phoneusers who need to call internationallocations. A prepaid service supportscalls to more than 80% of allinternational locations for $0.07 perminute.

In response to the University’sHealth and Well-being survey, OITpartners with the Department ofAthletics and the Office of the Deanof Student Life to add three additionalinformation kiosks in the lobby ofDillon Gym.

OIT consolidates Windows and Unixfile servers into a single device withmore than 4 trillion bytes of storage,a ten-fold increase for the University,and increases personal storage quotafrom 20 MB to 250 MB. Members ofthe community can gain now accessto their data in this large personalstorage space from any networkedlocation.

The newest addition to the OIT staffdevelopment program is the OITTeam Learning Forum. The goal ofthis program is to enhanceprofessional and personal growth ofOIT staff. Twenty OIT staff membersare selected to participate in the firstOIT Team Learning Forum. The firstsession, held during the spring,focuses on leadership, with PresidentTilghman as the first outside speaker.

The Lunch ’n Learn seminars inNovember feature “Technology inLanguage Teaching,” and “ARTstor:A Digital Library for the Humanities.”

December 2004

To accommodate the growing needsof University members who runcomputationally intensive jobs usingcommercial software like Matlab,SAS, and Mathematica, OITestablished a new Unix computingservice on both the Sun Solaris andLinux platforms. At the same time,members of the community who relyon Unix for general-purpose worksuch as e-mail and file editing aregiven access to a separate group ofmachines dedicated to such tasks.Separation of the intensive andgeneral uses improves service for all.

OIT rolls out the second phase ofthe Princeton Software Repository(PSR) by opening the PSR web store.The web store provides a single,convenient, and secure location forgetting information about, andpurchasing all University licensedsoftware both institutional andpersonal purchases.

OIT creates the OIT Interdepart-mental Project Portfolio (IPP) toimprove communication andcollaboration across the organizationon key projects. The IPP listsinformation essential for cross-department communication on morethan 100 projects that involveresources outside a single OITdepartment and are more than twoweeks in duration.

In addition to annual staff progressreports, 360 evaluations, anddepartment/workgroup goal-setting,OIT implements a Staff DevelopmentProgram (SDP) to identify and trackstaff development opportunitiesacross OIT. To address the mostcommon needs in the SDP, OITpublishes the first edition of an OITStaff Development Curriculum thatintroduces and coordinates severalplanned learning opportunities forstaff.

The Lunch ’n Learn seminar forDecember is on “Our New WebContent Management System.”

The December/January issue of itmatters reports on OIT efforts tocombat Spam, spyware, adware, and‘phishing.’


January 2005

In response to feedback from theUniversity community, OIT beginsto offer temporary wireless internetaccess (TVWNA) to campus visitorswho have wireless devices. Theservice is available to alumni,trustees, and other visitors tocampus. Graduate students who liveoff campus are also able to gainnetwork access when theyoccasionally bring their computers tocampus. Visitors can now get accesswithout first having to register theirdevices.

Owing to interest by otherinstitutions of higher education, OITreleases Almagest, the University’smulti-media data repository anddisplay tool, to the general public asan open source product. By year’send, Almagest is in use at threeinstitutions. The initial release ofAlmagest includes all source code.Subsequent releases will includecopyright-cleared images.

In response to departmental inquiries,OIT offers server hosting services inthe 87 Prospect Avenue ComputingCenter. The new service providesserver administration and patching,backup and recovery, andperformance monitoring services inthe climate-controlled and securefacility.

To support the Data Warehouse, theUniversity selects ReportNet, a web-based, front-end reporting tool as theUniversity’s standard enterprisereport writing product. ReportNetsupports predefined and customizedreports on almost any kind of data. Inaddition, using ReportNet, users canestablish schedules for the deliveryof personalized e-mail reports. Theinitial rollout of ReportNet containsdata collections for HumanResources, the Committee onCommittees, ID Card, Undergraduateand Graduate Housing, and Facilities.

The final Lunch ’n Learn seminars ofthe fall semester are “The new DataWarehouse,” “Intellectual Propertyissues in technology,” “Open SourceSoftware: The good, the bad, and thecostly,” and “From Supercomputersto the OIT Beowulf Cluster.”

February 2005

OIT creates Almagest Exchange, ashared repository of art images thatcan be freely used in academiccontexts.

OIT enhances the precept tool thatpermits faculty members to assignstudents to precept sections. A newcomponent allows students toindicate their precept preferences.The tool can now automaticallyassign students to precepts and othersections, including labs, based onthese preferences and the student’scurrent schedule.

OIT takes over supervision of allLibrary copiers as well as the copycard system used in all the machines.OIT now oversees the purchase/leaseand general administration ofapproximately 200 copiers and thepurchase/sale of approximately 5,000copy cards.

A special column on academicfeatures is added in the OITnewsletter, it matters, then expandedinto an online newsletter called IT’sAcademic. The first edition is sent toAcademic Managers, SCADs, GAITs,OIT staff, and select faculty. The firstissue contains a spotlight onMolecular Biology Professor LeeSilver.

To assist in improving customercommunications, OIT forms anEditorial Review Board that providesan editorial service for all OITcommunications.

OIT publishs “$avings Tips” toremind OIT staff of best practices inoffice management, hosting meetings,and planning travel.

The spring Lunch ’n Learn seminarbegin with “Eleven Cool Things youcan do with PHP”.

The February/March issue of itmatters highlights the Faculty OfficeVisit Programs and TVWNA, the newwireless internet service for campusvisitors.

March 2005

OIT develops a program for thePsychology Department thatpermits students to conduct ImplicitAssociation Testing (IAT) over theWeb. The program was then modifiedto support specialized psychologicalsurveys for Professor DanielKahneman.

OIT eliminates its last vulnerablepassword management system, thussignificantly reducing the use ofnetwork applications that transmiteasily readable passwords across thenetwork.

OIT upgrades the firewalls thatprotect our centrally managedadministrative systems. More robustmodels will better cordon offsensitive systems. OIT also begins toprovide a firewall consulting serviceto assist academic and administrativedepartments in protecting their owncomputing environments.

In conjunction with the Office ofHuman Resources and GeneralCounsel, OIT offers a VoluntarySeparation Program (VSP) to all OITemployees.

Lunch ’n Learn seminars in Marchfeature “A Quick Tour of GeographicInformation Systems,” “Redefiningthe Photograph in the Digital Age,”and “An Introduction to the TabletPC.”


April 2005

OIT begins a new lecture seriesbased on a proposal by EngineeringSchool Dean Maria Klawe and KatiLovasz. The series “/@rts,” bringsa number of distinguishedcontemporary artists to Princeton todiscuss the interface between Artand IT. The April presentations inthe new /@rts series are “How toWind a World Election: Gender,Power & Leadership among YoungPeople On-line” and “The NewInteractive Web Site at thePrinceton Art Museum.”

OIT sponsors its second “Take YourChildren to Work Day” on April 28.

To speed up both backups andrestores and to take advantage ofinexpensive disk technology, OITconverts the TSM backup system touse a large array of low-cost disksrather than magnetic tapes. As aresult, backups run faster, are morereliable, and require much lessattention from the TSMadministrator.

OIT’s Printing and Mailing adds aPresstek Dimension 400 Computer-to-Plate System. The new systemeliminates the need for film-basedworkflow, traditional plate making,and chemicals, because the platesare processed with plain water andthe unit fits into the existing digitalworkflow already in use. The newsystem also replaces thedepartment’s film processor, plateprocessor, all manual stripping offilm, and two ultraviolet plateburners, leading to significant newsavings and efficiencies.

Lunch ’n Learn seminars in Aprilfeature “Discovering Data withCPANDA,” “What’s New on Macs,”and “Chess: Modern Tools for theRoyal Game.”

May 2005

OIT coordinates EndNote training forstudents. The sessions prove to bevery popular – bringing 75-100students together at each “bowl-room”session.

OIT implements the second phase ofthe University’s defense against SPAMe-mail. Using Proofpoint technology,another 30% of the mail that arrives isnow tagged as possible SPAM andkept in quarantine. Members of theUniversity community can inspect thesuspect e-mail, request that the senderbe added to a “safe” or “blocked” list,or simply let it expire. As a result, theUniversity’s e-mail infrastructure nolonger processes or stores much of theunsolicited e-mail sent to the campus,and users no longer have to deal with itin their inboxes.

OIT installs a central file server toconsolidate more than a dozenindividual file servers, reducingadministrative and hardware coststhrough economies of scale. Theservice supports both Windows andUnix users, and provides a “snapshot”feature that permits users to recoverfiles they have accidentally deleted.

The final stage of system testing forthe PeopleSoft Student AdministrationSystem takes place. The new systemwill go into production in early August.By replacing the last of the legacysystems, this new system will enablethe University to retire the IBMmainframe, and provides enhancedfunctionality to the Registrar’s Office,the Office of the Dean of the College,and the Admissions Office.

The new Labor Accounting Systemincorporates several new featuresincluding improvements to existingLabor Accounting functions,automation of previously manualprocesses, and the ability to payacademic year support for the monthsof May and June in advance.

OIT’s hardware support group isestablished as an authorized HewlettPackard warranty service center,making repair of HP equipment fasterand easier for faculty, staff andstudents.

June 2005

By the end of the fiscal year, theSCI program sells a total of 1,333computers: 998 Dell (75%) and 335Apple (25%).

The Graduates Associates inInstructional Technology [GAIT]program provides IT training to asmall group of graduate students whothen serve as IT mentors within theirdepartments. Funded jointly by OITand the Graduate School in fall 2004,the program has a successful firstyear.

Responding to the growing demandfrom undergraduate students forexpanded wireless coverage oncampus, OIT begins deploying aubiquitous wireless infrastructurethroughout the dormitories andresidential colleges. Additionalwireless installations are completed at120 Alexander Road, Von NeumannHall, Helm Hall, Bobst Hall, and theGraduate College.

OIT begins to offer “Early Bird”classes to accommodate theUniversity community. Starting at7:30 a.m., these classes are designedfor staff members who work a night ormorning shift, or for those who wantto get an early start on the day. TheEarly Bird sessions fill quickly.

To deal specifically with the coolingneeds of the “Beowulf” highperformance computing clustersthat researchers are housing in 87Prospect, a specialized airconditioning unit and additionalchilled water are added to themachine room.

A new Time Collection component isadded to the Data Warehouse makingaccess to this information faster andeasier.

Access to the IBM mainframe isdisabled on June 30 for all who do notdirectly use or support the remainingstudent systems (undergraduateadmissions and student records) oraccount provisioning systems. Newsystems will be launched in Augustand the mainframe will be fullydecommissioned on November 1.


OIT by the Numbers, FY04

100,000,000,000,000 Bytes of data backed up by the University’s Tivoli Storage Manager service250,000,000 Bytes of central storage for all faculty, students, and staff210,000,000 E-mail messages processed by the University’s mail servers19,785,600 Total telephone calls with a system reliability of 99.9993% uptime16,000,000 Copies made at the OIT Copier Center7,700,000 Copies printed on the University’s Xerox Docutech6,900,000 Pages printed on the computer clusters printers1,600,000 Records for 58,000 students loaded into the new student system

616,828 Logins to OIT Cluster machines493,653 CPU hours used on the Beowulf high-performance computing cluster294,252 Records back to 1985 converted into the new undergraduate admissions system286,000 Impressions per month on the University’s Xerox iGen color digital press168,863 Financial vouchers processed through the University’s Financial System153,035 Checks printed through the Human Resources System75,000 SPAM e-mails quarantined every day by the new Proofpoint firewall system46,201 Phone inquiries responded to by the OIT Help Desk24,889 E-mail inquiries responded to by the OIT Help Desk24,400 Computers and other devices connected to the campus network12,500 Voice mailboxes in service

8,018 Customers assisted in the OIT Solutions Center8,000 Wireless devices registered on the wireless network8,000 Systems protected by the Tivoli Storage Manager backup system7,995 Jobs run on AdrOIT, the new high-performance research computing cluster5,185 Films borrowed at the Language Resource Center4,809 Applications entered into the undergraduate admissions web application4,100 Jobs scheduled weekly on 32 Unix and Windows hosts3,954 Changes to telephone service or equipment2,653 Total jobs performed by Media Services2,264 Visitors to the New Media Center1,934 Participants in 258 training classes1,344 Faxes processed each month on the Central Fax Server1,656 Problems resolved by the Residential College Consultants (RCCs)1,333 Computers sold through the Student Computer Initiative (998 Dell, 335 Apple)1,000 Knowledgebase solutions updated in OIT’s online help database

500 Employees in four departments using the new electronic time clock220 Classes accessing online films using the OIT video server213 Unix systems proactively monitored for systems failures and network outages200 New knowledgebase solutions created in OIT’s online help database140 University databases managed by OIT120 University staff members attending OIT project methodology workshops110 Users receiving support for wireless Blackberry devices100 Windows-based servers supporting academic applications

46 Savings opportunities identified by the OIT “Doing More with Less” Task Force40 Servers hosting the University’s administrative databases36 OIT projects using the Princeton Project Management Methodology24 Web-based surveys built using the online survey system20 Staff participating in OIT’s first Team Learning Forum15 OIT employees receiving peer-nominated and peer-elected achievement awards8 Foreign language channels offered on the Dish Network1 Telephone number to call (258-HELP) for OIT support


Betty LeydonVice President for Information

Technology & CIO

Nancy CostaAssociate CIO & Director,

Finance, Admin. & Planning

Daniel OberstDirector, Enterprise

Infrastructure Services

Colin CurrieDirector,

Administrative Information Services

Steven SatherAssociate CIO & Director,

Support Services

Serge GoldsteinDirector,

Academic Services

Curt HillegasComputational Science & Engineering Support

David HopkinsNew Media Center

Mike MillsMedia Services

Marianne CrusiusLanguage

Resource Center

Janet TemosEducational

Technologies Center

David HerringtonDesktop Application

Services

Ted BrossData Warehousing

and Integration

Patty GertzCustom

Software Solutions

Russell WellsPackaged

Software Solutions

Janice GuarnieriTraining

Laura StricklerProcess Improvement

Hetty BaizProject Office

Andy RosenauHuman Resources &

Administration

Chuck AugustineSystems & Data Mgmt. Services

Lee VarianIT Architecture

Donna TatroComputing Services

Frank FerraraTelecommunications

Leila ShahbenderStudent Computing

Services

Rebecca GoodmanSoftware Services

Rita SaltzIT Policy

Peter OlenickNetworking

Jen WhitingCustomer Service

Evelyne RoachDistributed Computing

Support

Dave MorrealeDesktop Support

Leah TargonExecutive Assistant


Revised 11/30/2005

Lorene LavoraEducation &

Outreach Services

Andy RosenauAssistant to the Vice President

for Special Projects

Shane FarrellBudget & Finance

Anthony ScaturroSecurity Officer

2004-2005 CIO Award Recipients

For outstanding service to OIT and Princeton University

Don AlburyLee Varian

2004-2005 Achievement AwardRecipients

For contributing significantly to their departments andOIT in one or more of the following categories:

Creativity & InnovationCustomer Service & OutreachTeamwork & CollaborationTechnical ExcellenceDemonstrating Core Values

Kathleen BozowskiSergey GubermanWilliam GuthePhil ImmordinoChris LongoGail MartinettiDennis McRitchieGreg Meszaros

Daniel MolaKevin PerryDonna TatroMichelle TemplonIrwin TillmanDave WalterVelvet White


IT Governance Model

Academic ManagersGroup(AMG)

AdministrativeDepartments

DeSc

Senior AdvisoryGroup for IT

(SAGIT)

Project ManagersTeam(PMT)

Committee onAcademic Technology

(CAT)

Administrative SystemsPlanning Group

(ASPG)

Faculty Committeeon the Library & Computing

(FCLC)

Research ComputingAdvisory Group

(RCAG)

Provost


Senior Advisory Group on IT

In operation since FY04, the Senior Advisory Group on IT (SAGIT) advises theProvost on those administrative systems projects that have been endorsed by theAdministrative Systems Planning Group (ASPG) and considers budgetary mattersrelated to those projects. During FY04, to support the IT decision-making process,the Provost broadened the purview of SAGIT and ASPG to include academicsystems and IT infrastructural initiatives. The specific charge of the group is to:

• Evaluate administrative systems project proposals and review theproposed funding mechanisms for capital and operating expendituresrequired for such systems;

• Assess steady state costs of maintaining current administrative systems;• Identify administrative systems opportunities that should be evaluated;• Ensure projects are fiscally responsible and assess whether proposed

funding mechanisms are satisfactory;• Advise the Provost with regard to budgetary or other issues posed by

projects.

During FY05, members of SAGIT were:

Chris Eisgruber, Provost (Chair)Mark Burstein, Senior Vice President for AdministrationDavid Dobkin, Dean of the FacultyBetty Leydon, Vice President for Information Technology, Chief Information OfficerJed Marsh, Vice Provost for Institutional Research (Executive Secretary)Christopher McCrudden, Treasurer

Highlights

During the past year, SAGIT:

• Approved the implementation of University Health Services new medicalmanagement system, Medicat;

• Approved the implementation of wireless networking in theundergraduate and graduate dormitories;

• Requested a business case analysis to assess the use of electronic formstechnology.


Administrative Systems Planning Group

The Administrative Systems Planning Group (ASPG) critically assesses alladministrative systems efforts, determines existing needs, and identifies keyopportunities to build on our administrative systems investments. The specificcharge of this group is to:

• Evaluate the University’s current administrative systems to identify gaps,needs, and opportunities;

• Recommend the appropriate distribution of resources for new,maintenance, upgrades, and development efforts that will enhance theUniversity’s administrative systems;

• Ensure that the University’s administrative systems meet the needs offaculty, staff, and students;

• Endorse project proposals that need to be passed to the Senior AdvisoryGroup on IT (SAGIT) for further review.

The ASPG has been in operation since FY02. The current members are:

Greg Bressler for Mike McKay, Vice President for FacilitiesJanet Dickerson, Vice President for Campus LifeJoseph Greenberg, RegistrarStephanie Greene, for the Academic Managers GroupBen Hammond for Mark Burstein, Senior Vice President for AdministrationKaren Jezierny for Robert Durkee, Vice President for Public AffairsBetty Leydon, Vice President for Information Technology, Chief Information OfficerNancy Malkiel, Dean of the CollegeJed Marsh, Vice Provost for Institutional ResearchSandra Mawhinney for William Russel, Dean of the Graduate SchoolKris Miller for David Dobkin, Dean of the FacultyChristopher McCrudden, TreasurerJulie Shadle for Brian McDonald, Vice President for DevelopmentKarin Trainer, University Librarian

Ex Officio:Nancy Costa, Director, Finance, Administration and Planning, OITColin Currie, Director, Administrative Information Services, OIT

Highlights

During the past year, the ASPG:

• Discussed the new Oracle-Peoplesoft relationship and the strategy forfuture PeopleSoft upgrades;

• Endorsed a new Room Draw web application for Housing;• Discussed the administrative systems impact of the new graduate student

status, Dissertation Completion Enrollment (DCE);• Endorsed a standard process to be followed when selecting new software;• Reviewed and endorsed the FY06 administrative systems project slate.


Project Managers Team

In operation since FY1997, the Project Managers Team (PMT) provides leadershipand guidance on the delivery of administrative products and services, and continuesto support the application and data management principles established underPartnership 2000. The PMT acts as the “working group” in support of the efforts ofthe Administrative Systems Planning Group (ASPG). The specific charge of thegroup is to:

• Identify, assess, and prioritize mandatory maintenance (regulatory updates,software upgrades, service packs) and enhancements (to fill gaps in currentfunctionality and/or deliver new functionality) to administrative systems;

• Coordinate administrative requirements across offices and departments;• Facilitate activities that foster the improved use of administrative products

and services at the University;• Achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction in meeting the needs of

the University community.

During FY05, the members of the PMT were:

Marvin Bielawski, Deputy University LibrarianMaria Bizzarri, Bursar and Director, Loans and ReceivablesTed Bross, Manager, Data Warehousing and Integration, OITMichelle Christy, Director, Research and Project AdministrationNancy Costa, Director, Finance, Administration and Planning, OITKristie Collins, Director, Development Information SystemsColin Currie, Director, Administrative Information Services, OITDavid Etherton, Manager, Academic Department SystemsPatty Gertz, Manager, Custom Software Solutions, OITChris Hatt, Program Director, Human ResourcesKim Hoeritz, Project Manager, Student Systems, OITKris Miller, Senior Systems Manager, Office of the Dean of the FacultyCraig Richmond, Director, University Financial SystemsLee Varian, Director, IT Architecture, OITRussell Wells, Manager, Packaged Software Solutions, OITMike Williamson, IT Manager, Facilities

Highlights

During the past year, the PMT:

• Added several ex officio members covering all OIT support areas to ensureall resources required are involved in the planning of the projects;

• Reviewed and updated monthly the status of the projects in the OIT ProjectPortfolio. Most importantly, interdependencies across projects werediscussed;

• Formed an OIT Advisory Committee to support the implementation ofUniversity Health Services’ new medical management system, Medicat;

• Formed a PMT sub-team to research and assess the use of electronic formstechnology;

• In collaboration with all administrative offices and academic departments,assembled a comprehensive list of project proposals for ASPG review.


Committee on Academic Technology

The Committee on Academic Information Technology (CAT) facilitates communicationand collaboration between IT providers and the University offices most directlyresponsible for the curriculum. The specific charge of the committee is to:

• Serve as an informational clearinghouse so that those responsible fortechnology and those responsible for the curriculum are well-informed ofeach other’s initiatives;

• Develop new initiatives that may enhance the curriculum throughinformation technology;

• Help evaluate IT initiatives that affect the curriculum and prioritize thedistribution of resources;

• Take leadership to assure that the use of academic technologies in thecurriculum receives appropriate assessment, both evaluative and formative.

During FY05, members of CAT were:

Hank Dobin, Associate Dean, Office of the Dean of the College (Chair)Jane Bryan, Associate University Librarian for Public Services and Collection

Development, LibraryLin Ferrand, Associate Dean, Office of the Dean of the FacultySerge Goldstein, Director, Academic Services, OITLinda Hodges, Associate Director, McGraw Center for Teaching and LearningClayton Marsh, University Counsel and Assistant Secretary, Office of General

CounselJed Marsh, Vice Provost for Institutional ResearchDavid Redman, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate School

CAT met four times in 2004-2005 (October, November, February, May).


Highlights

Course Management ToolsAfter a presentation on and review of open-sourcealternatives to Blackboard (e.g., Sakai), the group agreedthat Princeton should follow these developments, butdefer any decision about long-term plans for theUniversity’s course management system software until thealternatives mature.

The group also reviewed several new Blackboard featuresincluding the content system, the journaling tool, thevoice recording tool, and the ePortfolio capability. Thecommittee found the latter capability especially interestingbut the feature remains relatively undeveloped and hasseen only limited use at the University.

The Committee heard a presentation from the EducationalTechnologies Center about the precept enrollment toolbeing built within Blackboard. The committee also heard apresentation about the new Office Hours Scheduling tool,which helps faculty to schedule their office hours on theweb.

AlmagestThe group discussed OIT’s plans to release Almagest asan open-source product, as well as OIT’s efforts to createa collection of images that can be freely used for teaching.

University ChannelThe Committee reviewed Donna Liu’s effort to develop avideo channel for University lectures. Princeton isparticipating by providing video material, equipment, andtechnical support.

Infrastructural IssuesThe committee heard a presentation on Tablet PCs and thegrowing use of wireless on campus. The committee notedthat the Classroom Committee decided that former ProvostOstriker’s mandate to have wiring and power to alldesktops in new and renovated construction no longermade sense as a mandate. It was agreed that therequirements and use of each new or renovated buildingshould be studied and a decision made as to whether eachspace required wired or wireless capability. The committeestudied usage statistics that showed that 95% of facultydid not use networking in any of the classes they teach.The group emphasized that wireless can always beinstalled into classroom space if later needed. Withwireless, however, you cannot do high-bandwidthactivities. A class needing high-bandwidth (video, film)would need to be scheduled into a classroom that haswiring to each individual desktop.

Graduate Assistants in Instructional Technology[GAIT]The committee reviewed the accomplishments of the firstyear of the GAIT program. CAT decided to continue theprogram under reduced funding. GAIT will be recast as ateaching-grants-based effort. Faculty will be able to applyfor a GAIT in support of a specific teaching objective.

PlagiarismThe Committee reviewed various technology tools toassist faculty in detecting plagiarism. The committeeconcluded that use of Safe Assignment, a tool thatintegrates with Blackboard, would be high among thefaculty. However, OIT does not have the funds to pay theyearly license fee. The purchase would need to be aninstitutional decision funded outside OIT. Moreover, theDiscipline Committee would have to develop a set ofprotocols and training to help faculty evaluate the SafeAssignment plagiarism reports. The full version of theprogram should be available for review in the fall.


Research Computing Advisory Group

The Research Computing Advisory Group [RCAG] advises and collaborates withOIT on matters related to research computing at the University. The specific chargeof this group is to:

• Advise OIT on the research computing needs of academic departments;• Collaborate with OIT on various projects related to research computing;• Advise OIT on the software needs for research computing.

During FY05, members of the RCAG were:

Chair: Curt Hillegas, Manager, Academic Applications, OITMary Lynn Baeck, Senior Technical Staff Member, Civil and Environmental

EngineeringRobert Barnett, Assistant Director, Physical PlanningRobert Calderbank, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Applied

and Computational Mathematics. Director, Program in Applied andComputational Mathematics

Roberto Car, Professor, Chemistry and Princeton InstituteEmily Carter, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Applied and

Computational MathematicsKara Dolinski, Senior Technical Staff Member, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative

GenomicsBruce Draine, Professor, Astrophysical SciencesHank Farber, Professor, EconomicsSal Fattoross, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology staffChris Floudas, Infrastructure Operations Analyst, Chemical EngineeringSerge Goldstein, Director, Academic Services, OITScott Karlin, Research Associate, Computer ScienceDaniel Marlow, Professor, Physics. Chair, Department of PhysicsPino Martin, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringJohn Matese, Senior Technical Staff Member, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative

GenomicsRobert Ortego, Environmental Compliance Officer, Engineering and ConstructionJosko Plazonic, Infrastructure Operations Analyst, MathematicsJames Stone, Professor, Astrophysical Sciences and Applied and Computational

MathematicsDaniel Trueman, Assistant Professor, MusicChris Tully, Assistant Professor, PhysicsDoug Welsh, Senior Technical Staff Member, Molecular BiologyBill Wichser, Infrastructure Operations Analyst, Princeton Materials Institute


Highlights

Presentations to facultyDuring FY05, RCAG gave two presentations to a broadaudience of science and engineering faculty about OIT’ssupport for research computing.

Grant ProposalRCAG submitted a grant proposal to the NFS CISE CRIprogram requesting a 256 processor high-performancecomputing cluster. The grant involved faculty fromAstrophysical Sciences, Ecology and EnvironmentalBiology, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,Molecular Biology, Physics, and Psychology. Theproposal was not accepted, but the collaboration betweenOIT and the faculty established a positive framework forfuture endeavors.

High-performance computing infrastructureRCAG refined the model and procedures for housingindividual faculty and department owned high-performance computing resources in the 87 Prospectmachine room. During the development of the newapproaches, the group evaluated the 87 Prospect machineroom to determine the short term and long terminfrastructure needs.


Desktop Systems Council

The Provost formed the Desktop Systems Council (DeSC) to standardize theUniversity’s administrative desktop computer environment. By choosing onehardware model and a standard software suite, the University is positioned tonegotiate better pricing and maintenance fees, and computing support staff arebetter able to provide the best possible assistance to DeSC customers. Launchedoriginally as the Princeton Desktop Initiative in 1996, the program was an essentialpart of the success of the new administrative computing applications then underdevelopment. The goals of the Council are to:

• Streamline the costs associated with application development, softwareinstallation, computing support, system administration, and softwarelicensing;

• Ensure that the standard administrative computing environment issustained;

• Enhance regularly the delivery of key administrative systems andproductivity tools.

During FY05, members of DeSC were:

Steven Sather, Director, Support Services, OIT (Chair)Charlayne Beavers, Technology Integration Specialist, OIT (DeSC Coordinator)Marvin Bielawski, Deputy University LibrarianNancy Costa, Director, Finance, Administration and Planning, OITKathy DiMeglio, Program Manager, Visual Arts, Creative Writing, and Theatre and

DanceEllen Kemp, Director, Computing Services, Woodrow Wilson School (DeSC

Hardware Leader)Dave Morreale, Manager, Desktop Computing Support, OITSteven Niedzwiecki, Manager, PC Systems, OITJay Plett, Manager, Application Delivery, Electrical EngineeringVikki Ridge, Senior Human Resource Manager, FacilitiesLeila Shahbender, Manager, Student Computing Services, OIT


Highlights

During FY05, DeSC recommended the migration of theminimum operating system environment from Windows2000 to Windows XP Service Pack 2. A new system wasdeveloped to manage DeSC local administrator passwordsincluding quarterly password changes. A Security Policyand Procedures document for the DeSC environment wasproduced and disseminated.

New SoftwareTo increase security and efficiency, OIT Software Supportset up a continuously running SMS software distributionthat deploys weekly Advance/Stripe business applicationupdates to targeted DeSC machines for the Developmentoffice. During the year, DeSC purchased Dreamweaver andPhotoshop concurrent licenses and maintenance.

Software developed, tested, and distributed to all DeSCmachines during FY05 included:

• Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2• Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 2.• Microsoft Office 2003• Avery Wizard for Word 2003• Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9• Sassafras Key Server Client 6.0.2.8• SSH Secure Shell 3.2.9• Tivoli TSM 5.2.2• Adobe Photoshop CS• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004• Oracle client 9


Ambassador Program

OIT initiated the OIT Ambassador Program in January 2003 to improvecommunication and customer service with the University community. The program’smission is to:

• Provide an ambassador for every non-OIT department;• To ensure excellent communication between the Ambassador and the

department while maintaining a high level of service and satisfaction;• Increase communication between OIT and non-OIT departments;• Represent OIT to our customers, notably by disseminating information

about OIT services;• Represent customer needs and issues to OIT by listening and gathering

information from customers.

The OIT Ambassador program is open to academic departments as well as certainundergraduate and graduate student groups. A total number of 71 Departments andprograms are served by the program and enrollment growth is steady.Approximately 90 departments and programs do not currently have an Ambassador.

Highlights

During FY2005, the Ambassadors worked with their departments and OIT to resolve350 problems and questions and assisted many undocumented matters. Mostconcerns regarded upgrades, training opportunities, and conversion to newsoftware applications.

Ambassadors typically meet with their departments once every month. The increasein frequency of meeting owes mostly to the recognition that the ambassador anddepartment both value the relationship. The program has assembled a list ofexpectations for Ambassadors. Ambassadors are required to attend meetings, tohave at least quarterly contact with their departments, and to publish their meetingminutes.



Division Reports 2004-2005PrincetonUniversity


Academic Services

Academic Services supports the University community in the use of informationtechnology in teaching, learning, and research. Academic Services brings togetherwithin a single OIT department those units and staff members who are primarilyinvolved with support of Academic Computing.

Within Academic Services, the Educational Technologies Center supports the use ofinstructional technology to create learning modules and other computer-basedteaching resources, including course web pages and learning modules for use inUniversity courses. Media Services supports the use of instructional technology(audio, video, overheads, slides, and computer-based presentations) in theclassroom. The Language Resource Center supports use of instructional technologyin language courses, and manages the University’s video collection and its digitizedvideo server. The New Media Center runs a laboratory that makes sophisticatedinstructional technology hardware and software available for student and facultyuse. Research and Academic Applications Support provides support for the use ofinformation technology in science and engineering research, including the operationof a Beowulf computing cluster. Humanities Computing Research Support1 providedsupport for the use of information technology in humanities and social scienceresearch. Desktop Application Support builds desktop applications for Universitydepartments and works to develop, support, and document the tools it uses for thispurpose. Education and Outreach Services supports efforts to inform the Universitycommunity about Academic Services initiatives and services and provides trainingand instruction in the use of Academic Technology.

Highlights

Precept Scheduling ToolLast year, at the request of the Registrar, OIT’s Educational Technology Center(ETC) implemented a web-based tool that permitted faculty members to assignstudents to precept sections. The tool was used by a small number of courses forthe spring 2005 semester. During FY05, OIT enhanced the tool with a newcomponent that permits students to indicate their precept preferences. The tool cannow automatically assign students to precepts and other sections, including labs,based on these preferences and the student’s current schedule. The tool was morewidely used by departments during the fall semester. The Registrar expects the toolto become the primary mechanism by which precept assignments are made.

Apart from the technical challenges of designing and implementing the tool in away that makes it easy for faculty, staff, and students to use, a key hurdle will beto communicate effectively the availability of the tool to the University community.OIT is working closely with the Registrar’s office to insure a successful roll-out.

Meeting the high performance computing needs of the researchcommunityIn FY04, OIT implemented a “Beowulf” cluster that continues to provide high-performance computing services to faculty in a number of departments. In FY05,OIT enhanced this central, shared Beowulf capability and made machine-roomfacilities available for researchers needing a place to house and run their ownequipment. OIT also worked with faculty to explore grant-funding opportunities toenhance the University’s current research computing services. These efforts helpedto foster greater collaboration between OIT and Princeton’s research faculty.

1 In September, 2005, this group was incorporated back into the Educational Technologies Center.


Towards a top-500 (http://www.top500.org/)High-Performance Computing [HPC] facility atPrinceton

A key AS goal for FY05 was to develop a plan forsupporting HPC computing at Princeton. The mainelements of the plan were to establish a strategicpartnership with an HPC vendor and to work with thatvendor to identify and implement an HPC facility thatwould meet the broadest possible faculty needs, andwould establish Princeton as a significant HPC site (e.g.,among the top 500 HPC facilities in the world).

In the spring semester, at a special meeting of theResearch Computing Advisory Group (RCAG) it wasagreed that OIT would work to identify a vendor withwhom Princeton might establish a strategic partnership.After preliminary meetings with a number of vendors, IBMwas identified as a possible strategic partner. Furthermeetings were held with representatives of IBM, Princetonfaculty, and OIT staff to discuss possible architecturesand modes of cooperation and partnership. Based onthese meetings, OIT, working with faculty, has puttogether a series of funding options for partnering withIBM. If the funding is rapidly identified, it should bepossible to have an HPC facility in place by this fall.

Web application facilityLast year, OIT made a strategic decision to discontinuedevelopment of DBToolbox, OIT’s home-grown webapplication development tool. Although DBToolbox hasserved the University well, it can no longer compete withcommercial and open-source web application developmentplatforms, and it is not in Princeton’s best interests toremain dependent on a home-grown solution, particularlyone that is routinely used to build critical businessapplications.

In FY05, OIT identified an alternative technology(DreamWeaver and PHP) and began the process ofassembling the replacement infrastructure. Theimplementation of a LAMP server permits members ofthe University community to create PHP-based webapplications. To communicate effectively with campusDBToolbox users, OIT formed a support group for webapplication development, offered free classes inDreamWeaver/PHP to DBToolbox users, andcommissioned the development of a tool that wouldautomate the process of converting existing DBToolboxapplications to PHP. OIT retained a consultant to build anapplication the will automate the conversion of DBToolboxapplications to PHP. The tool was completed early in theyear. To facilitate migration of application developmentfrom DBTollbox to PHP, OIT also offered a series ofcourses in PHP programming.

Educational Technologies Center

The Educational Technologies Center [ETC] helpsPrinceton faculty to build multimedia tools for theclassroom. ETC’s designers collaborate with faculty

members to share their scholarship with a wider audienceof students, alumni, and other members of the Universitycommunity, and ETC administers the campus Blackboardlearning management system and the Almagest multimediadatabase.

FY05 was a challenging year for the ETC. Despite thehandicap of two staff retirements and the discontinuationof the @princeton courseware effort, the ETC successfullyfocused its efforts on building, managing and maintainingscalable applications to support teaching and learning atPrinceton.

Highlights

Precept SchedulingThe development of a new tool (written using theprogramming interfaces in the Blackboard CMS) thatpermits faculty and staff to assign students to preceptsections using a web-based interface. Extended use of thenew tool is anticipated for the fall, 2005 semester, when thetool will be enhanced with a new feature that permitsstudents to indicate their precept assignment preferencesusing a web interface.

AlmagestDuring FY05, ETC released the Almagest image storage/presentation system as an open-source application. Byyear’s end, Almagest was in use at three institutions.Dramatic growth in use is expected in FY06.

During FY05, the ETC created Almagest Exchange, ashared repository of art images that can be freely used inacademic (teaching) contexts. Four collections were addedduring the year.

Academic Web SitesETC continued to assist departments to build academicweb sites. Notable additions included “Music in the Landof the Jaguar” and the “Wu Shrine rubbings” for theUniversity Art Museum. ETC also worked on thedevelopment of a web site that will be used to illustrate anon-going archeological dig in Syria.

During FY06, ETC will complete the implementation of theprecept enrollment tool (including the student preferencessection) and re-incorporate the Humanities computingsupport function within its support structures. ETC willbe hiring an instructional technologist and a humanitiescomputing specialist to assist these endeavors.

Language Resource Center

The Language Resource Center [LRC] supports the useof audio, video, and multimedia materials for specificassignments and for self-directed foreign language study.The LRC runs the central language support laboratory andmanages the University’s collections of DVD, CD, andtape as well as the central digitized video server.


Highlights

Enrollment numbers for language courses between 2001and 2005 shows slightly declining enrollment (an averageof 15% over the four years) in the European languages;Portuguese is the exception with a 61% increase over fiveyears. Enrollment in Chinese and Japanese grew by 29%and 28% respectively. By contrast, several of the lesscommonly spoken languages show a significant increasein enrollment: Hebrew 52%, Turkish 58%, and especiallyArabic 225% (from 51 students in 2001 to 166 in 2005). TheLRC now offers eight Foreign Language Channels via DishNetwork: Arabic, Chinese, French, Hebrew, Italian,Japanese, Russian, and Spanish, and will be offeringGerman in 2005-2006.

Some students come to the LRC simply to sign out films.There were 5,185 transactions during FY05. Many otherscome to use the viewing rooms or the stations to watchvideos or DVD’s. The LRC continues to be a very popularfacility and is often filled to capacity. According to trackingsoftware used to monitor the usage of the LRC computers,1,791 unique users logged on in fall 2004 (total logons were12,467 or 623 per week) and 1,938 in spring 2005 (totallogons were 13,792 or 862 per week). Not surprisingly webbrowsers were the most accessed programs. Real Playerwas the second most used program because many studentscome to the LRC to either listen to audio files or watchfilms. The high numbers reflect the fact that students usethe LRC for more than just language work.

The video collection continues to grow. During the last twoyears, the number of videos in the collection has increasedby 480 and DVD’s by 620 bringing the totals to 3,230 and1,085 respectively. DVD has become the preferred mediaamong faculty. The number of videos on reserve hasincreased by 148 titles, from 1,397 to 1,545. The use of theLRC’s Video on Demand [VoD] service is expanding to morecourses and more departments. The number of classesusing VoD increased by 61% since FY04 (from 136 to 220)and the number of titles assigned has increased by 66%from 546 to 908.

New Media Center

Located on the ground floor of 87 Prospect Avenue, theNew Media Center [NMC] offers a walk-in facility wherestudents, faculty, and staff can come to work withsophisticated computer and audio-visual equipment.NMC staff members assist customers in the use of thisequipment and the associated software. Major activitiesduring FY05 included the creation of multimedia webpages, the digitization of text, the production of shortvideo segments, and the creation of media-rich printedgraphics.

Highlights

Visits to the NMC sustained an active pace throughoutFY05. There were 2,264 visits (170 faculty, 1,601 students,and 487 staff) from 754 different people (70 faculty, 507students, and 176 staff). 1,537 visitors come to use theNMC’s sophisticated media equipment. 289 came forconsultation on varied projects. Major activities includedVideo Capture and Editing (613 visits), DVD Burning (192visits), use of graphics applications (187 visits), webdesign (173 visits), color printing (171 visits), scanningslides (166 visits), and audio capture and editing (72visits).

Video and audio production projectsThe NMC continued to serve as one of the University’sprime video production units. During FY05, the NMCproduced nine video projects.

NMC Staff shot and edited five instructional videos forFrist Campus Centers staff training program. The NMCmastered, designed and duplicated an audio CD for amusical performance held at Château de Balleroy forPrinceton University in 2004.

The NMC produced a video featuring interviews ofstudents, staff, and faculty who wished to thank BuildingServices personnel. The completed DVD was screened atthe Building Services “Thank You” luncheon.

The NMC interviewed and assembled footage of therecipients of the Hambrecht scholarship to create a“Thank You” DVD sent to Mr. and Mrs. Hambrecht. The NMC produced five videos highlighting courseofferings for the History department’s Fall 2005 semester.Advertisements for the videos were published in the DailyPrincetonian and on Blackboard.

The NMC also digitized and converted to DVD a total of26 archival 16mm films for the Stokes Library.

Video StreamingStreaming video has become an increasingly popular wayfor departments to share lectures and other activities onthe Web. During FY05, the NMC streamed more than 110lecturers onto the Web, an increase from 24 last year.


Web Design ProjectsNMC staff assisted eight departments and programs todesign and implement their web sites.

Major web projects included the 98 page UniversityHealth Services web site, the Conte Grant report web site,and the Art Museum “Land of the Jaguar” web site.

The NMC designed mock-ups for the Near Eastern Studiesweb site. The NMC created the web site for the PrincetonUniversity – Microsoft Intellectual Property conference,sponsored by Microsoft and held at the Woodrow WilsonSchool. The NMC staff also worked with theCommunications office on producing the OIT Frosh website using the new Roxen Content Management System.This site provided IT information to the Class of 2009.

In FY06, the NMC will work closely with the Office ofCommunications to implement departmental web sitesusing the Roxen content management system.

Education and Outreach Services

In its first full year, the Education and Outreach Servicesgroup began to consolidate and coordinate training andcommunications efforts for Academic Services. The groupis charged with ensuring that the University community isaware of the services offered by the department, and thatthese services are adequately documented and described.

Highlights

TrainingThe group consolidated AS training with OIT Training bystandardizing the listing of courses offered by AS withinthe central OIT Training database and by sharingresources and instructors, the group’s majoraccomplishments included:

Lunch ’n Learn programThe group increased the number of presentations, andbroadened the speaker base and range of topics. Thegroup also created and maintained a web site andadvertised this important series using dedicated mailingsand e-mails.

Office Visits ProgramUpon request, Academic Services sends graduate studentconsultants to faculty offices to provide instruction in theuse of the Blackboard course management system andrelated teaching technology. The service is available tofaculty and their teaching assistants. Based on thesuccess of the program, the group expanded the servicein FY05 to cover Almagest, Windows, Word, andPowerPoint.

GAITThe Graduates Associates in Instructional Technology[GAIT] provides IT training to a small group of graduate

students who then serve as IT mentors within theirdepartments. Funded jointly by OIT and the GraduateSchool in fall 2004, the program had a successful first year.

“IT’s Academic”The group developed a special column on academicfeatures for the OIT newsletter, “it matters,” and thenexpanded the idea into an online newsletter called “IT’sAcademic.” The first edition was delivered to AcademicManagers, SCADs, GAITs, OIT staff, and select faculty inthe beginning of the Spring semester.

/arts speaker seriesThe group developed a new lecture series based on aproposal by Dean Maria Klawe and Kati Lovasz. Theseries brought a number of distinguished contemporaryartists to Princeton to discuss the interface between Artand IT.

During FY06, the group will face a challenge indetermining how best to continue the GAIT program in theface of diminished funding, and how to improve outreachabout AS services to the University community.

Desktop Application Support

In its first full year, the Desktop Application Support[DAS] group is dedicated to the creation and support ofdepartmental applications. DAS addresses the need forprofessionally developed database applications thatcannot be implemented by University staff, yet which fallbelow the enterprise level systems deployed by OIT’s AISdepartment. DAS focuses on applications that havedepartmental rather than University scope, and which areintended to solve immediate information gathering anddissemination needs. Typically, these are small-scaleapplications that can be developed in days or weeks.

Highlights

The most significant project involved the conversion ofDBToolbox to PHP, described above. During FY05, DASalso hosted courses on building applications withDreamweaver, and on MySQL database creation andprogramming. DAS developed a total of 24 web-basedsurveys using OIT’s online survey system. DAS took oversupport of a critical application for the Ombuds office.The application is used by this office to track incidents,and required a high level of security and access control.

During FY05, the group helped 28 departments to buildweb sites and related web applications that were criticalto their ongoing work. Types of applications typicallyinclude departmental web sites employing data-drivencontent, Web forms that gather data and store it in adatabase, event registration systems, and Web-basedsurveys.

DAS built an application that permits Princeton-In-Africato capture information from a web form to a database.


Another DAS web application permitted Community andState Affairs to automate enrollment in a conference.

The major challenge in FY06 will be to make significantprogress in the ongoing migration from DBToolbox toPHP/Dreamweaver. Towards that goal, DAS willimplement a variety of new environments to supportPHP-based web applications and will convert all OITDBToolbox applications to PHP. The group will also aimto improve the online web-based survey facility. Amongnew applications, the most prominent for the new year is asystem for enrolling auditors in Princeton courses, aproject being undertaken for Community and State Affairs.

Research and AcademicApplications Support

Research and Academic Application Support [RAAS]assists the University’s research and academic activitiesfor High Performance Computing, programming, and third-party software. RAAS provides computational hardwareand software facilities for use by the research andacademic community. The group assists other Universitydepartments to install and support their own highperformance computing facilities. RAAS also providesprogramming assistance and training for those developingin-house research and academic applications.

Highlights

Princeton Software Repository (PSR)A year ago, RAAS introduced the Princeton SoftwareRepository (PSR). This new online facility makes availablethird-party software packages that have been configuredto work within the University’s computing environments.PSR also provides standard processes to register,distribute, update, and decommission software packages.

By year’s end, PSR provided the most up-to-date versionsof 67 free software packages. OIT sponsored these initialcore software packages. Individuals or departments maysponsor additional packages. Also this past year, a PSRAdvisory Committee was established with membershipfrom the University’s research community. The committeereviews policies, and approves requests for softwarepackage sponsorship.

During FY05, RAAS assisted in the development of thePSR Webstore, which went into production in January of2005. All software sales are now processed through theweb store. A new project will permit members of theUniversity community to purchase, and then download,software online.

Beowulf clusterDuring FY03, RAAS acquired a 32-node Beowulfcomputing cluster, adrOIT. During FY04, the cluster’sfirst full year of operation, 47 users from 15 departmentsregistered for access to the cluster. In FY04, the server ran

a total of 4,833 jobs utilizing 476,410 CPU hours or 72%CPU utilization. During FY05, 7,995 jobs were run onadrOIT by 31 users from 15 departments and 2undergraduate classes totaling 493,653 cpu hours or 88%cpu utilization, close to the theoretical maximum.

During FY05, OIT enhanced its central, shared Beowulfcapability and made machine-room facilities available forgroups that need a place to house and run their ownequipment.OIT also explored grant-funding opportunitiesto help expand the University’s high-performancecomputing services. In the spring semester, at a specialmeeting of the Research Computing Advisory Group(RCAG) it was agreed that OIT would work to identify avendor with whom Princeton might establish a strategicpartnership to create a top-500 high-performancecomputing facility at Princeton. After preliminarymeetings with a number of vendors, IBM was identified asa possible strategic partner. Further meetings were heldwith representatives of IBM, Princeton faculty, and OITstaff to discuss possible modes of cooperation andpartnership. Based on these meetings, OIT, working withfaculty, put together a series of options for partnering withIBM. Discussions of these options are currentlyunderway.

“Condor” projectDeveloped by the University of Wisconsin, the “Condor”software permits the use of spare machine cycles insupport of research activities. During FY05 staffupgraded Condor software and presented a Condorworkshop for PICASso.

Support for research applicationsRAAS has worked with a number of faculty to provideprogramming assistance, and to aid in the design andmaintenance of various computational/data analysisefforts. During FY04, RAAS completed two majorprogramming projects. The first involved the developmentof a program for the Psychology Department that allowsstudents to conduct Implicit Association Testing (IAT)over the Web. This program was then modified to supportspecialized psychological surveys for Professor DanielKahneman. In FY05, RAAS has continued to work withresearch faculty to provide various types of programmingsupport, and to facilitate the housing of several faculty-


owned high-performance computing clusters in the 87Prospect machine room.

RAAS also worked with Professors Dan Marlow, DavidBotstein, Bruce Draine, Simon Levin, Pino Martin, JerryOstriker, Ken Norman, Chris Tully, and the Director ofORPA, Michelle Christy, to write a proposal for an NSFgrant. Although the proposal was not accepted, itbrought together a number of faculty from differentdepartments for the first time to produce a proposal thatwill likely be augmented and resubmitted.

Support for the School of Engineering andApplied Science (SEAS) Strategic PlanRAAS is currently working with SEAS to survey andinterview faculty in engineering and non-engineeringdepartments as part of an effort to create an ITinfrastructure plan that will meet the needs of both theSEAS Strategic Plan (announced in May 2004) and theUniversity in the years ahead.

To more clearly signal the heightened focus on HPCsupport, the RAAS group has been renamedComputational Science and Engineering Support (CSES).

Humanities Computing ResearchSupport

This was the Humanities Computing Research Supportgroup’s last year. Late in the year, Raf Alvarado, Managerof the group, left to take a position at the University ofSouth Carolina. After a careful review, the functions ofthe group were incorporated into OIT’s EducationalTechnologies Center (ETC). A humanities support personwill be hired in FY06 to assure that on-going projectscontinue to be supported.

During FY05, the major accomplishments of the groupincluded:

• Implementation of a blogging service, PrincetonCommons, in support of faculty teaching andresearch. Although only in its pilot phase, theservice has begun to establish itself as vital partof the University’s Writing Program.

• Development of version 1.0 of TextGarden (TG),a tool for the support of projects that involvetextual analysis.

• Initiation of new projects, including the Cibolaand Sefer Hasidim projects.

• Porting to PHP of Figura, a tool developed byHCRS to encode and display complex rhetoricaland grammatical markup of literary text.

• Assistance with the development of thecurriculum for the GAIT summer trainingprogram.

As Humanities computing support is folded back intoETC, a major challenge will be to ensure that the text-

oriented IT services developed by the group (bloggingservices, Figura, and TextGarden) continue to serve theHumanities community.

Media Services

Media Services [MS] provides a full range of audio-visualequipment and technical support for University classesand events. More than just support for conventionalmedia, services include capturing and placing satellitetelevision broadcasts on the University’s cable televisionsystem, videotaping, and consulting on the design andinstallation of data projection systems.

Highlights

MS assisted in the planning and implementation ofmultimedia AV systems for the Aaron Burr and Jones Hallrenovations. MS coordinated the upgrading of data/videoprojectors in McCosh 60, 62, 64 and in Architecture 106and 107. The group also worked with the School ofEngineering and Applied Sciences to assist with theupgrade of the D221 E-Quad classroom.

MS attended the National Association of Broadcastersconvention to research and recommend broadcast video/audio equipment for the upcoming television productionstudio in the new Science Library.

MS assisted with the implementation of the B1000video playback server, a unit that provides DVD quality(M-PEG2) playback of pre-recorded events over campuschannel 7 and town channel 27.

As part of the group’s continuing association with theOffice of Design and Construction, MS integratedRoomView with Crestron Control Systems in order tomonitor and control twenty campus classroom spaces.These capabilities will now be added to new renovationor installation, facilitating the continuing expansion ofthe campus.

MS activities during FY05 are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1: Media Services jobs in FY05

JobsTotal jobs 1299 1354 2653Course-support Jobs 468 374 842Non-course Jobs 831 980 1811Course Jobs Requiring Operator 169 91 260Non-course Jobs Requiring Operator 108 135 243Videotaping Orders 74 49 123

Non-billable TasksConsulting 11 35 46Training 102 64 166Repairs 66 100 166Maintenance 19 19 38Networking 44 17 61

TotalFall2004

Spring2005


Administrative Information Services

Administrative Information Services (AIS) implements, maintains and supports theUniversity’s administrative systems. The mission of AIS is to provide the bestpossible technical foundation upon which the University’s automated businessprocesses run. Services also include project planning, design, development,integration, testing, and deployment of administrative applications. Corecompetencies include PeopleSoft, Java, PowerBuilder, and the Oracle relationaldatabase management system.

Administrative Information Services contains three groups, Custom SoftwareSolutions (CSS), Data Warehousing and Integration (DWI), and Packaged SoftwareSolutions (PSS).

Highlights

PeopleSoft Student SystemThe new PeopleSoft Student System for the Undergraduate College andUndergraduate Admission was successfully implemented on time and within budgetin August. By replacing the last of the legacy systems, this new system will enablethe University to retire the mini-mainframe, for a savings of more than $400Kannually, and will provide enhanced functionality to the Registrar’s Office, theOffice of the Dean of the College, and the Admissions Office. This completes theimplementation of the University’s PeopleSoft administrative software systems,enables the retirement of the old “mini mainframe,” and places the UndergraduateCollege’s records in the same administrative system environment as HumanResources, Payroll, the Treasurer’s office, and the Graduate School. TheUndergraduate Admission Office will use the new student system to manage theirprospect and applicant pools. A new Princeton-specific web application, developedby the University, enhances the PeopleSoft functionality. Together, these newsystems are now the primary point-of-entry for undergraduate applicationinformation and create a unified data and computing environment for all of theprimary administrative system functions across the campus. A significant portionof this year’s applicants used the new, online system to enter and submit theirapplication for admission to the University.

Delivering IT products and services that meet the needs of theUniversity communityIn September, 2004, the Architectural Review Board was formed. This groupconducts technical architecture reviews of IT-related projects in conjunction withthe appropriate business office representatives who own the systems. During FY05,the board reviewed Badging, Vendor Direct Deposit Self-Service, Labor Accounting,Princeton Receivables, the Health Management System, Maximo, T2 Parking, andthe Roxen Content Management System.

The full deployment of Undergraduate Admission Web Application was animportant development for Undergraduate Admission. This Java-based customapplication will be the point of entry for all the University’s undergraduateadmission applications, regardless of whether they are submitted from theUniversity’s website, the Common Application, or received in hardcopy. Thisapplication then interfaces relevant pieces of information to PeopleSoft for theprocessing of admission. Upon matriculation, the same data then flows into theStudent System to create the initial portion of the student record.

During FY05, great strides were made in creating the new Princeton UniversityInformation Warehouse. An important and major undertaking in the evolution of


Princeton’s information management strategy, theInformation Warehouse combines data from multipledisparate systems to provide standard, reliable, centralizeddata access to the campus. This project was enabled bythe University’s acquisition of COGNOS ReportNet as itsstandard reporting application.

Custom Software Solutions (CSS)

CSS is primarily responsible for the development,maintenance, and support of the University’s customadministrative applications, nearly all of which are Java-based. CSS focuses upon application integration issues inorder to provide the University with a consistentcomputing environment for administrative systems.

Merit increase processFollowing the success of the web based Merit IncreaseProcess that Human Resources implemented during FY04,the Dean of the Faculty office used an enhanced versionof the system successfully during FY05. A more securedistribution of spreadsheet passwords in Decembereliminated even more manual intervention for the HumanResources offices.

Labor AccountingThe Labor Accounting System had been running since1997 on a Sun Server with an operating system that hadnot been supported for at least five years. In February,to mitigate risk during the rewrite of the application, AISmigrated the application to a more current environment.

Development of the new Labor Accounting System is onschedule. The new system incorporates several newbusiness processes, including improvements to existingLabor Accounting functions, automation of previouslymanual processes, and adding entirely new features thataddress gaps in the Standard Business Model. Some ofthe new features include:

• Requests to pay faculty summer salaries and therelated salary commitments input directly into thesystem;

• Eliminate the need for the Graduate Assistantshipin Instruction Appointment (AI) Form byallowing the department to enter the AI forminformation online;

• Ability to pay academic year support for themonths of May and June in advance;

• Ability to pay summer support in advance.

The first pieces of the Labor Accounting system are duefor completion in the spring of 2006 with the balance ofthe functionality due in the fall of the same year.

Undergraduate Admission Web ApplicationThe Undergraduate Admission Web Application (UA/Web) provided the entire Undergraduate Application viathe Web for the first time during FY05. The webapplication contributed to the successful record number

of applications for admission to the Class of 2009. Finalnumbers for UA/Web:

• 4,809 applications entered;• 2,960 applications submitted;• 725 of those requested Early Decision.

For the Class of 2010 cycle, CSS changed the UA/Webapplication to integrate with PeopleSoft Admission on thebackend. Next year, the application will automaticallydeliver applications coming from the Common Application.CSS has also written a more robust web application thatgathers information from prospective students and feedsinformation to PeopleSoft. As a result, the UndergraduateAdmission Office will be able to track prospects better.

With the retirement of the mini-mainframe and the go-liveof PeopleSoft student, the custom Princeton OnlineApplication will become the primary interface between theUndergraduate Admission office and the applicant data.All applications, whether received electronically or inhardcopy, will flow through this application. Importantfurther enhancements to the system in FY06 will includethe creation of an automated feed between the CommonApplication (a shared, communal, web-based collegeapplication system to which Princeton subscribes) and theOnline Application. As a result, data collected by theCommon Application will flow seamlessly andautomatically into the Online Application. From there, itwill flow via interface to the PeopleSoft Studentapplication and the Information Warehouse.

Time CollectionThe new features of the Time Collection system developedduring FY04 were used for the first time during FY05.Scheduling is now seamlessly integrated with timecollection and accommodates regular and nonproductivetimes, both of which are automatically entered into TimeCollection.

The new electronic time clocks, which are fully integrated,flexible, inexpensive, and generic in its design, efficientlyrecord in/out time. This system has completely replacedthe use of mechanical time clocks. Two different userinterfaces– via a magnetic card reader or via timecollection – provide maximum convenience. Through thesame interfaces, managers are able to manage employees’lunch/break attributes and perform at-the-clock supervisoroverride in case of clocking errors or swiping in for anemployee who forgot a card. Currently more than 500employees in four departments are using the time clockfunctionality. The Human Resources department isplanning to expand its use.

Student longevity pay, a further enhancement to TimeCollection, affects approximately 2,600 student workers byreplacing the arbitrary student-pay assignment practicewith a batch process that enforces University rules. Thesystem includes a very flexible and powerful reportinginterface.


Princeton ReceivablesThe existing Loans and Receivables system containsserious weaknesses, including security vulnerabilities andan underlying architecture that complicates maintenance.The new system, a four-year effort, will improve businesspractice flows and permit increased web functionality,impossible within the current architecture.

During FY05, Princeton Receivables (PR) built foundationcomponents, including client and security pieces, toprepare for the development of the 15 individualreceivables applications. The first receivable, short termcomputer loans, will deploy in Fall, 2005. The Treasurer’sOffice will then prioritize the list of the remainingreceivables. During FY05, CSS initiated a paralleldevelopment track in order to develop loans and billingsimultaneously. CSS is continuing to keep the existingLoans and Receivables system running in parallel. Newreceivables will bridge back to the old system until thenew system is complete.

The project will have longer-term benefits to theUniversity as well. The Campus Community feedapproach will be redesigned and will be in tune with howfuture application interfaces will be architected. Theproject is taking advantage of newer, proven technologiesto have different receivables “talk” to each other and toexternal systems.

DemandThe DEMAND system, which was used as a portal tomultiple administrative systems and as a test bed for theuPortal Open Source software initiative, was retired at theend of FY05.

Data Warehousing and Integration(DWI)

Data Warehousing and Integration (DWI) organizes andmanages a significant portion of the data recorded andstored in Campus Community, the Data Mall, the newInformation Warehouse, the Interface Hub, EnterpriseReporting, and the campus’s other administrative systems.The group is responsible for establishing many of theUniversity’s policies for data administration. A significantportion of the group’s effort goes into consistentlydefining, implementing, and applying data designationsand values across University systems.

DWI works to enhance University effectiveness bypromoting a culture that capitalizes on its information andbusiness applications as strategic assets. DWI achievesthis vision by:

• Making information access and its underlyingsecurity more consistent, customer friendly, andeasier to manage;

• Promoting the notion of data as a strategicresource and ensuring that data captured byexisting and future systems is consistent with,

and usable by, the broader Universitypopulation;

• Expanding the breadth of information in the datawarehouse, extending its reach to additionalsystems and further refining our data formattingand presentation capabilities;

• Fulfilling the responsibility to support anenterprise repository for people andorganizations through Campus Community.

Campus CommunityAll Campus Community patches delivered by PeopleSoftwere tested in development and quality assurance andapplied into production in February, 2005. DWI appliednecessary changes to customized Campus Communityobjects.

Campus Community spent a significant amount of timeand effort during FY05 getting ready for the August 2005go-live of Student Records and Undergraduate Admission.Major enhancements to Campus Community associatedwith this effort included:

• Redesigning security for Campus Communitypages to prevent Undergraduate Admissionrecords from being accessed by non-Undergraduate Admission staff;

• Reevaluating and restricting access to SearchMatch to a select number of users in light ofUndergraduate Admission being part of theshared system;

• Modifying Search Match criteria to fitUndergraduate Admissions requirements inaddition to the rest of the users on campus;

• Working with the Undergraduate Admissionsteam to develop criteria for duplicate recordchecking using both bio/demo data elements aswell as affiliations;

• Creation of a new address type of “School” forUndergraduate Admissions and changing all thebusiness rules for addresses to account for thenew type;

• Changing the SCORE Address functionality to beconsistent with the rest of PeopleSoft now thatLegacy Student Records is being retired;

• Developing functionality for “MultipleCitizenship;”

• Tuning certain areas within Campus Communityfor improved performance.

Campus Community continued to support HumanResources, the Graduate school, the TigerCard office,LDAP and various other clients on campus.

Hub interfaceNew Hub interfaces were created for Badging, PrincetonSoftware Repository (PSR), and Student ComputerInitiative (SCI). Significant changes were made to thefollowing interfaces: Advance, Dining, Student Health (insupport of Medicat), and Housing. In addition, the Hubnow accepts mail drop codes from Housing and sends thecodes to Human Resources. The Hub was modified to


remove interfaces with Student Legacy and to replacethose with interfaces to the new PeopleSoft Studentsystem.

599,317 individual transactions were propagatedsuccessfully through the Hub. During FY05, the systemwas available 99.9% of the time.

During FY05, in addition to hub-specific work, manyannual feeds and loads were run for Campus Communitydata. For example, the class of 2009 freshmen andfreshmen parent bio/demo data were loaded into CampusCommunity.

Information Warehouse/Data MallThe Information Warehouse will eventually replace thecurrent Data Mall and serve as the University’s primaryreporting environment for administrative applications.The multi-year conversion effort progressed well in FY05.Authorized members of the University community are nowusing the Information Warehouse, a reporting and datadistribution system, to perform data analysis and producepredefined or ad hoc reports. Users have found that thenew system provides more efficient and flexible access tothe University’s comprehensive data collections.

To support the Warehouse, the University selectedReportNet, a web-based, front-end reporting tool, fromCOGNOS Corporation as the University’s standardenterprise report writing product. ReportNet supportspredefined and customized reports on almost any kind ofdata. In addition, using ReportNet, users can establishschedules for the delivery of personalized e-mail reports.Training for dozens of functional office staff was heldthroughout the year with over 200 University employees,both technical staff and clients, being taught the newtools. New database, application, and web servers wereinstalled and the initial rollout of ReportNet with five datacollections occurred in January, 2005. The data collectionsincluded Human Resources, the Committee onCommittees, ID Card, Undergraduate and GraduateHousing, and Facilities.

The next major component to go live, Time Collection,became available on June 30. This replaced the existingData Mall store and increased the number of ReportNetusers significantly.

Three other data collections were created and were beingreadied for production in early FY06. These includedUndergraduate Admissions and Student Records(Registrar) which were planned to coincide with thego-live of the new PeopleSoft Admission and StudentAdministration applications on August 2, and the Studentand Administrative Phone Booths, both of which will beavailable on September 1.

Packaged Software Solutions (PSS)PSS is responsible for the maintenance, enhancement andoperational support of vendor supplied, packagedadministrative systems. These applications include:

• Alumni Records (Stripes);• ClassRoom Scheduling (Resource 25);• COEUS/Grants Management;• Dining Services;• FSA Atlas — SEVIS;• Housing (Diebold);• ID Cards;• LockBox;• PeopleSoft Financials (UFINSI);• PeopleSoft Human Resources Management

System (HRMS);• PeopleSoft Student Administration System;• PeopleSoft CRM (HR helpdesk);• Recruiting (PeopleAdmin);• Telephone Management;• UG Admission.

PSS has several subgroups: PeopleSoft HR & StudentAdministration, PeopleSoft Financials, AlumniDevelopment, Telephone/Resource25/SEVIS, and Grants& Housing Management.

PeopleSoftDuring FY05, PSS supported the PeopleSoft HRMSsystem by applying all PeopleSoft issued patches andfixes and all payroll tax updates. PSS made necessarymodifications to the annual Benefits open enrollment andpayroll year-end processing. During the year, PSSfocused upon increasing efficiencies and automatingprocesses.

For example, PSS applied Maintenance Packs 1 and 2 tothe PeopleSoft HR Help Desk system to remain current.The group also created an automatic monitoring processthat sends an e-mail message to a predefined list ofprogrammers when an error message comes from thePeopleSoft HRMS; By so doing, PSS automated what hadbeen manual monitoring of the system.

PSS participated in the implementation of thePeopleAdmin job posting and resume tracking system;The group wrote all of the interfaces from PeopleSoft toPeopleAdmin, including automated nightly data transfers..

During FY05, the Student team successfully implementedPeopleSoft Student Administration and UndergraduateAdmission modules. The effort took a total of 45 hoursstraight to complete the Student Records conversion andbackups. The team loaded 1.6 million records for roughly58,000 students. 34,500 current prospects were alsoconverted into the production database.

The new system permits faculty to use the Web to submitgrades and to view Advisee’s information. In addition, theteam improved the “STUVIEW” system within PeopleSoftto help the academic deans and departments to view


student records. PSS customized processes withPeopleSoft to meet Princeton’s business needs. Severalnew interfaces and reports support Princeton’s StudentRecords.

By implementing interfaces from Princeton’s UA/Web andprospect inquiry forms to PeopleSoft, the team permittedusers to enter data through the Web while applyingbusiness data validation rules. The new system will provideimproved population identification, tracking, and the abilityto communicate with applicants and prospects.

PSS customized the PeopleSoft Undergraduate Admissionmodule to meet the University’s business processes andwrote several interfaces and reports for the UndergraduateAdmission office. Finally, PSS converted 294,252Undergraduate Admission applicant records going backto 1985 and 387,676 prospect records going back to 2001.The historical data resides in the data warehouse forUndergraduate Admission reporting purposes.

During the upcoming months, PSS will continue to stabilizethe new system in production and catch up on patches andfixes that were not applied during the implementation cycle.

Telephone/Resource25/SEVISDuring FY05, PSS continued to apply the appropriatepatches and fixes to keep the Telephone ManagementSystem, Resource25, and the FSA Atlas/SEVIS systemscurrent. The upgrade effort also involved the conversionto the Windows XP operating system. PSS developed aninterface from the Telephone system to the Interface Hubso that the relevant information can be further propagatedto the University’s LDAP directory. The team alsoupgraded FSA Atlas to make sure that operations reflectnewly upgraded SEVIS regulations.

Badging / ParkingPSS assisted the implementation of a new Badging systemand a new Parking system for the TigerCard office. Early inFY06, the team will assist the implementation of theeCommerce portion of the Parking system.

Office of Research and Project Administration(ORPA)During FY05, the Coeus team completed several projectsfor the Office of Research and Project Administration. TheInstitute Review Board project required a load of Accessdata into Coeus. The team completed the mapping and theinitial load of all historical data for this project.

For CoeusWeb, the team wrote a new subcontract modulethat permits researchers to approve invoices online and tosend purchase order and invoice payment informationautomatically to the Treasurer’s Office. Finally, the teamwrote a new web-based java application to capture and toreport upon possible conflicts of interest within faculty,library, and administrative staffs.

During FY06, PSS will be working with MIT on convertingthe Award Budget subsystem to Java, converting thesponsor forms to the Web, and installing Coeus 4.

HousingFacilities rewrote the application that enables graduatestudents to apply online for room draw. In support of thateffort, PSS wrote the edit functions and worked withCampus Community to supply additional graduate statusinformation. PSS also created a new e-mail feature thatpermits Housing to send mass e-mail messages to allgraduate students requesting confirmation of theirpersonal information prior to room draw. In addition, forthe first time, Housing can view undergraduateinformation as soon as they are admitted to the University.

In addition to supporting the current system, PSS begandesigning improvements to the online student housingapplication process. Among the first deliverables,students can now select their dormitory rooms via theWeb.

During FY06, four major initiatives will be undertaken.One will be the rewrite in Java of the Graduate OnlineHousing Application. This is due to go live in the Fallof 2005. Second will be the Undergraduate Online RoomDraw Application. This application will incorporate thenew housing rules that will be in effect for the Fall of2007 and will permit students to participate in room drawremotely and on-line. It is due for completion in January,2007. Third is Web Room Selection, also due in January,2007. Finally, the Electronic Contract will compliment theweb Room Draw and Room Selection. This is due forcompletion in Spring, 2007.

STRIPESWithin STRIPES during FY05, PSS focused uponimproving data integration and access, fundraisingperformance management and metrics, and applicationupgrades to current vendor releases. PSS also enhancedprospect management functions to provide meaningfulonline data retrieval, standardized identification of theprincipal giving pool, and improved progress reports forthe solicitation cycle. The team also implemented theOnBase application interface for indexing and retrieval ofscanned donor files.

PSS reengineered the custom download facility toaccommodate a wider user base through role-basedsecurity and more data selection options. The teamcompleted the interface with Mellon Bank to exchangePlanned Giving beneficiary data and completed theautomated gift feed to University Financials. For PledgeManagement, PSS completed a function to provide donorcommunication and revenue forecasting tools regardingoutstanding balances.

PSS created facilities to perform statistical analysis offundraising sources. The team established data feedsfrom ReunionAid, a third party vendor product thatcollects class demographic data for Princeton ReunionClass directories and web sites. Finally, PSS upgraded toSungardBSR version 8.1 of Advance and version 3.1 ofAdvance Web Community (AWC) version 3.1, expandedthe Campus Community interface to include faculty andstaff, and created new entity profiling and query tools to


track appeals and respondents for Art Museummembership.

During FY06, PSS plans to upgrade the EventsManagement system to SungardBSR version 3, which willallow for the upgrade to Oracle 9i. The team will completethe integration of Art Museum and Library donormanagement within STRIPES, and it will establish a peerscreening data collection program for prospectidentification. Advance/Advance Web Community willbe upgraded to the next vendor release. Finally, PSS willexpand the integration between Advance and Onbase andcontinue to support the preparations for the campaign.

University FinancialsDuring FY05, the University Financials system hasremained current with respect to vendor-supplied patchesand fixes, and has gone a step further by researching andimplementing fixes to data corrupted by PeopleSoft codingerrors. On the infrastructure side, the PeopleSoftFinancials database was successfully migrated to thelatest release of Oracle 9.0.

The team made several significant gains in processingefficiency and resource conservation. For example, theteam improved the vendor search function and the GeneralLedger reporting extract processes. To save one page perprinted order, a reference to a web page replaced the termsand conditions on purchase orders. The team also put inplace processes to improve the synchronization of datafrom University Financials and the DataMall Stores.

To reduce manual data entry and to increase accuracy,the team completed an interface with the Coeus system toaccept an automatic feed of project grant information intoFinancials. As a result, the Treasurer’s office can nowmake mass changes to project grant data without technicalassistance.


Enterprise Infrastructure Services

Enterprise Infrastructure Services (EIS) provides support for University servers andmiddleware services such as databases, e-mail, directory, and authentication services,backup and restore services, systems management, job scheduling, outputmanagement, architecture, and security.

Within EIS, Systems and Data Management Services manages the University’senterprise systems and provides backup and restore services. IT ArchitectureServices is responsible for security, research and development. Computing andSupport Services provides Unix, Windows, and collaboration services (e-mail,calendaring, authentication, and directories).

Highlights

Improved Backup and Restore ServiceThe University file backup system today supports more than 8,000 computers fromdesktops to large servers. To speed up both backups and restores and to takeadvantage of inexpensive disk technology, OIT converted the backup system in latespring to use a large array of low-cost disks rather than magnetic tapes. The result isthat backups run faster, are more reliable, and require much less attention from theTSM administrator. Self-service capabilities for backup users and departmentalsupport staff have also improved. More than 100 terabytes (100,000 billion charactersor the equivalent of 10 Libraries of Congress) of storage is available on the disks. Fordisaster-recovery purposes, high-capacity tape storage backs up the disks.

Central File ServicesOIT put in place a central file server to consolidate more than a dozen individual fileservers, reducing administrative and hardware costs through economies of scale. Theservice supports both Windows and Unix users, and provides a “snapshot” featurethat permits users to recover files they have accidentally deleted. A secondarydisaster recovery server, located across the campus in an alternate data center,provides physical protection for the data as well as large-scale temporary data storageneeds.

Exchange Electronic Mail and Calendaring ServicesOIT completed the preparation and testing for the upgrade of OIT’s “premium” mailand calendaring service to Exchange 2003. Initial migrations were begun. More than100 users are now using the wireless Blackberry device support with Exchange. OITis also preparing to provide Exchange services for the Department of MolecularBiology and the Princeton Investment Company.

Database AdministrationIn addition to managing a 10% increase in databases on more than 40 servers, theDBA group has added support for the increasingly popular SQLServer database fromMicrosoft in addition to Oracle and Sybase. Major projects included completion ofthe multi-year new Student Records and Undergraduate Admissions applications aswell as medical records system, new data warehouse, and Princeton SoftwareRepository.

Account ProvisioningAccount provisioning is the collection of computer-based processes that create andassign “netIDs” and passwords to people and things, and then put the “rightinformation” in the “right places” so faculty, students and staff can gain access toappropriate information technology systems like e-mail, Blackboard, PeopleSoft, Time


Collection, Data Mall, file services, buying softwareonline, and other critical information technology services.

Creating, modifying, and deleting computer accounts hasbeen administered on the University mainframe for morethan two decades. Staff worked with an accountprovisioning vendor, M-Tech, to specify and direct theinitial programming work to replace the University’soriginal account provisioning system, known to many as“CARPROC” (for Computer Account RegistrationProcess) and a mainframe program named “WHALE”. TheCARPROC/WHALE system is the last application to bemigrated off of the mainframe system and the true end ofthe Partnership 2000 initiatives. The new system willreplace or emulate much of the current functionality andprovide a more generalized way to address newprovisioning needs. As part of the design, the new systemis data-driven from the campus-wide PeopleSoft CampusCommunity repository, reducing errors and inadvertentduplication.

Machine Room Growth and Research ComputingGrowth in OIT’s machine room facility has stretched thelimits of current electrical and cooling facilities. To dealspecifically with the cooling needs of the dense “Beowulf”high performance computing clusters that researchers arehousing in 87 Prospect, a specialized air conditioning unitand additional chilled water were added to the machineroom. In addition, OIT has been involved in a study byFacilities to address long-standing health and safetyissues (fire suppression and asbestos) as well as meetingcurrent and future space, electrical, and cooling needsdriven by growth in administrative, academic, and nowresearch needs.

Information Technology SecurityDuring FY05, OIT eliminated its only vulnerable passwordmanagement system and significantly reduced the use ofnetwork applications that transmit easily read passwordsacross the network. OIT upgraded the firewalls thatprotect our centrally managed administrative systems.More robust models will better cordon off sensitivesystems. OIT provided a firewall consulting service toassist academic and administrative departments to protecttheir own computing environments. New intrusionprevention technology has begun to block maliciousInternet traffic from reaching University targets.

New technologies that reduce the amount of e-mail spamthat reaches user desktops, and the upgrading of theUniversity’s standard administrative desktop computers tothe latest Windows operating system version have furtherreduced University exposure to viruses, worms andspyware. During FY05, academic and administrativedepartment use of new security consulting services grewsignificantly. To ensure compliance with applicablelegislative requirements, to spot possible securityweaknesses, and to alternative recommendations,departments can now request overall IT securityassessment of their computing environment. OIT alsoreviews the security capabilities of systems beingdeveloped or purchased for use at the University as well

as off-campus systems with which the University mayinteract.

Collaboration and SystemsServices

Unix Systems GroupThe Unix Systems group provides systems administrationfor the more than 200 Unix-based servers on whichUniversity business and academic applications operate.

During FY05, the Unix Systems group worked closely withthe Windows Systems group to significantly improve thedisk server systems that support the University’s filestorage. The group consolidated a number of existing,independent servers into a single Network AttachedStorage (NAS) device. The result was improved reliabilityand performance, and decreased support and maintenanceoverhead.

OIT rolled out this new “Central File Services,” in August2004 and was able to increase the amount of disk quota forfaculty, students, and staff from 20 MB to 250 MB perperson. Members of the University community arepermitted to purchase additional quota as needed. Thenew Central File Services now serves as a gigantic harddrive in the 87 Prospect Avenue machine room. Ratherthan store critical documents on a local hard drive, faculty,students, and staff are now encouraged to use the CentralFile Services space. The Central File Services data isbacked up nightly, as well as in periodic “snapshots”throughout the day. OIT has also installed a secondary,large capacity storage system at the smaller New Southmachine room. This secondary unit is ready to take overshould the 87 Prospect machine room become unavailable.Given the regular backups, snapshots, and secondary unitat New South, the Central File Services disk has become“disaster resistant.”

Windows Systems GroupThe Windows Systems group provides systemsadministration for more than 100 Windows-based servers.Many University business and academic applications runon these OIT-managed servers.

In addition to the regular systems administration work andthe improvements to the disk storage infrastructure (seeUnix System Group, above), the group worked closely withthe OIT e-mail administrators to complete testing andquality assurance work in advance of the upgrade toExchange 2003 mail and integrated calendaring services.

Collaboration Services GroupThe Collaboration Services Group (CSG) is responsible foradministering the infrastructure for campus e-mail,directory, authentication services, and web services. CSGoperates the University’s e-mail services for receiving andsending mail, and maintains the servers that provideelectronic lists and directories.


E-mailIn addition to the daily operations for these criticalservices, the group rolled out a new set of systems torespond to the increasing volume of incoming viruses,worms, and unsolicited junk e-mail. In December 2004, thefirst layer of new anti-spam tools was implemented. Thisnew e-mail firewall blocked approximately 70% of incominge-mail traffic.

During FY05, University servers delivered approximately210,000,000 e-mail messages. 140,000,000 e-mail messageswere transferred between the University and the Internet.An additional 77,000,000 internal e-mail messages wereprocessed by the University’s SMTP servers.

Figure 1: Incoming and Outgoing Messages per MinuteJuly 04 – June 05 by one of the “Postoffice” servers

The patterns of e-mail system usage by students, faculty,and staff continue to mirror long-standing trends. Figures2 and 3 below illustrate the typical highs and lows ofconnections to the University’s main e-mail servers.

Figure 2: Faculty and Staff Connections to the mailservice, July 04-June 05

Figure 3: Student Connections to the mail service, July04-June 05

In the spring, OIT installed a second layer of protection to“quarantine” any spam-like messages that the first layerdid not stop. By the end of June the first layer, called the“e-mail firewall” was blocking 65% of the 400,000 incomingmessages by simply stopping all messages from knownspam sources. The second layer, Proofpoint,” thenquarantined about 40% of the mail messages thatsuccessfully passed through the firewall layer. Faculty,students, and staff can accept or delete messages in thequarantine system. Initial reaction from members of theUniversity to the e-mail firewall and Proofpoint systemswas overwhelmingly positive.

Figure 4: “Work” of one of the e-mail firewall systems,the first layer of defense against spam, viruses, dangerouse-mail attachments, phishing scams, implementedJanuary 19, 2005. (through Sept. 05). Note that the“Tagged” messages stop on June 7, 2005, because OITimplemented Proofpoint Quarantine system in its place.

Figure 5: “Work” of the anti-spam Proofpoint system,implemented June, 2005, to Quarantine likely spammessages for each customer

By blocking nearly 300,000 pieces of SPAM each day andkeeping another 75,000 in quarantine off the mail andbackup servers, the anti-spam service has enabled OIT tomeet growing e-mail demands with fewer hardwareresources.

In spring, 2005, on behalf of numerous Universitydepartments, the group completed the upgrade of thehardware and software for Exchange e-mail services. InMay, e-mail administrators began the move of mailboxesfrom Exchange to Exchange 2003, the newest version ofthe software. In addition, both the Molecular Biology andPrinceton Investment Company Exchange Services aremoving to the central Exchange infrastructure.

Staff upgraded the IMAP e-mail software to the vendor’slatest version. Staff also upgraded and consolidated coredirectory services (LDAP) to redundant, load balancedservers.

CSG staff also provided the infrastructure support forvarious web server technologies. For example, the group


worked with the Office of Communications to “go live”with the new University web site based on the Roxencontent system. The group also provided support for anew web scripting service with support for PHP. By theend of the academic year, eight departments were usingthe new shared server environment.

Monitoring toolsCGG staff worked to deploy specialized monitoring tools(Tivoli, Argent, Dell OpenManage, Sun SRS Netconnect,and Sun disk monitoring utilities) that instantaneouslydetail through graphical views the load, disk activity, andmemory usage of University servers and theircomponents.

Redundant serversTaking advantage of upgrade cycles to replace obsoleteand unsupportable equipment, OIT deployed a set ofredundant servers for key infrastructure services as wellas vital applications such as university web presence(www.princeton.edu) and central e-mail delivery.Enhancements, such as the new spam and virus filteringutilities, now have redundant backup and load balancedcomponents that will insure continued operation in theevent of hardware failures.

Single sign-onThe future of login services for web applications is to signin securely once with a netID and password and then relyon the different web applications to know that a personhas already signed in. The adoption of this new loginmethod would simplify access to many web pages byreducing the number of times faculty, students, and staffhave to login.

Such systems are referred to as “Web Initial Sign On” orWebISO. Staff from CSG and Information Architecturegroups completed a pilot project to test WebISO loginservices. Several new applications are slated to be builtusing this WebISO service during FY06.

Systems and Data ManagementServices

Database ManagementThe Database Adminstration (DBA) group provides arobust, secure, and reliable development and productiondatabase environment, and supports software upgradesand product installations, notably the new PeoplesoftStudent Records and Admissions systems. During FY05,the DBAs also expanded their support to include SQLServer, which has begun to appear as a requirement forsome new Windows-based applications.

The DBA group maintains and improves the University’sdatabase infrastructure. During FY05, the groupsupported 45 different applications and 140 databases (a10% increase from the previous year) and three differentDBMSs (Oracle, Sybase and SQL Server). The group also

supports several instances of the BEA Tuxedo applicationserver software and BEA Weblogic web server software.These applications run on more than 40 Unix andWindows servers and encompass more than a terabyte ofdisk space.

The DBAs regularly provide assistance in performancetuning for production applications. For example, the groupoptimized the Peoplesoft Internet Architecture for StudentCourse Selection. The group upgraded the Oracledatabase software to the current release on all applicableservers, and DBAs participated in the team that selectedand will implement the University’s new disk storagesystem. The effort involved the consolidation of sixdevelopment servers into two new servers, reducingmanagement effort and providing better service for thedevelopers.

Implementing and upgrading administrativeapplicationsDuring FY05, the DBA group provided support for theimplementation and deployment of several newadministrative applications. The most significant were thenew Student Records and Undergraduate Admissionsapplications, each the culmination of multi-year efforts.In addition, the DBAs supported the implementation of anew medical records system (Medicat) for the UniversityHealth Center, the new Data Warehouse and the PrincetonSoftware Repository. DBAs also supported upgrades ofBlackboard, the Advance/Stripes development system,and the R25 resource scheduling system.

Major projects for FY06 include the implementation of thenew disk subsystem, implementation of the data guardfacility to provide improved fail-over capability forBlackboard, and an upgrade of the Oracle name serverinfrastructure.

Enterprise Systems Management

The Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) group has adiverse portfolio of responsibilities that includes backupand restore services, system monitoring, job scheduling,and Unix printing.

Backup and restore servicesESM maintains the University’s Tivoli Storage Manager(TSM) backup system. Any computer on the campusnetwork except those owned by undergraduates is eligiblefor the service. TSM currently backs up more than 8,000systems, an increase of approximately 700 over FY04. InJuly, OIT put a new policy in place. The TSM backupservice now focuses on the protection of personal dataand charges for services beyond that baseline. Asexpected, the new policy has slowed growth in demandand provided additional revenue to fund the remaininggrowth. The number of accounts has continued to grow,but the annual rate of growth has slowed from 14% to 9%.The growth in total data backed up has decreased from15% in FY 2004 to 10% last year.


During FY06, ESM will upgrade the backup servers, whichare now running near capacity and develop processes toeither delete or archive backup accounts that have notbeen active for more than a year.

Job SchedulingThe Tivoli Workload Scheduler provides job schedulingservices for all administrative systems on 32 Unix andWindows hosts. In a typical week, the system schedules4,151 jobs. During FY05, ESM staff produced a “TWS/Maestro Problems and Solutions” document to assistMaestro users.

System MonitoringESM is also responsible for system monitoring. DuringFY05, ESM used the IBM Tivoli product to monitor 213Unix servers, 34 web sites, and 22 e-mail related services,an increase of 22% in the number of servers monitoredover FY04.

During FY05, in a significant project, ESM upgraded theTivoli hardware and software. Many of the Tivoli servershad not been upgraded since the product’s installation in1999. All of the Tivoli servers have now been replaced bynewer, faster systems that will increase productivity forESM staff and the Unix systems staff. Staff upgraded theTivoli monitoring software to Version 5.1.1 and staffreorganized Tivoli monitoring to meet better the needs ofthe Unix system administrators.

During FY06, staff will select and implement a new alertnotification system and implement Tivoli’s Web sitemonitoring product to replace the current, locallydeveloped product.

Printing and FaxingThe ESM group operates a central Unix printing serviceand a central faxing service. During FY05, print volumehas grown from 68,710 in FY04 to 72,033 in FY05. Faxvolume declined by about 18%, but the central fax servicestill processes an average of 1,344 faxes per month.

IT Architecture

The IT Architecture group develops, disseminates, andpromotes policies, standards and guidelines to ensure thatthe University’s information technology solutions areimplemented in a consistent, practical, and secure manner.

During FY05, the group played a lead role in thedeployment of the new account provisioning system thatwill administer the computer accounts that are used toaccess the University’s centrally managed systems. TheUniversity purchased a general purpose application thatprovides the functionality typically required for tightlycontrolled, corporate environments. However, thecomplexities of the academic environment required thevendor to make significant modifications to the basesystem. The IT Architecture team played a substantial rolein the overall design of the final product.

The group remained active in responding to the growingthreats from computer hackers who continue to launchever more sophisticated virus attacks that aim to exploitpoor user practices and software vulnerabilities at boththe system and application level. In the IT security area,the group focused on three areas: improving passwordcontrols, addressing software vulnerabilities, andpreventing malicious traffic from entering the network viathe Internet.

Initiatives included the elimination of a legacy passwordsystem that provided inadequate protection againsthackers trying to locate passwords stored withinUniversity systems. In addition, the group has begun toeliminate programs that send passwords across thenetwork in a readable form. For example, computer usersare now prevented from gaining access to OIT-managedservers using a terminal program that does not supportencryption. Additional efforts are underway to eliminateall e-mail and file transfer programs that transmitunencrypted passwords across the network.

To address software vulnerabilities, the group has becomeheavily involved in reviewing system and applicationimplementation designs. The group has also begun toprovide IT security consulting services throughoutproject lifecycles to software implementation teams.Finally, the group has begun to assist Universitydepartments by performing IT security audits fordepartments who request the service and by assisting thedeployment of firewalls to protect their systems.

Malicious traffic originating from sources on theInternet2 is now being detected and blocked with theimplementation of a second McAfee IntruShield intrusionprevention device. The device compares network trafficagainst both known attack patterns and messages that donot comply with domestic and international standards.


Finance, Administration and Planning

Finance, Administration and Planning (FAP) is a “catalyst” for OIT organizationalchange, enabling and facilitating organizational efficiency and effectiveness. FAPcoordinates staff assessment, development, and recognition; project planning andproject management practices; process improvement opportunities; and financialanalysis and budgeting for OIT. In addition, FAP provides a comprehensive ITtraining curriculum and cost effective printing and mailing services to the Universitycommunity.

The Finance, Administration and Planning group includes IT Training, OIT Budgetand Finance, OIT Human Resources and Administration, OIT Process Improvement,the Princeton Project Office, and the Office of Printing and Mailing.

Highlights

Organizational Planning & Performance EnhancementThe following timeline highlights the processes now in place within OIT to facilitateorganizational planning and performance enhancement practices. Specific details onmany of these practices are described under the appropriate FAP workgroups.

Reduce Reliance on Central FundingTo meet our agreed-upon post-Partnership 2000 IT funding levels, OIT initiated amulti-faceted plan to identify new savings and efficiencies while ensuring minimalimpact on service or employee morale. During FY05, the following steps helped OITreach this goal, even as demand for IT services continued to increase.

The following steps highlight the efforts:

• Assessed the current budget and inventory of services, identifying vacantpositions that could be eliminated with some restructuring and marginal,non-critical services that could be discontinued;

Organizational Planning & Performance Enhancement

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Develop OITDepartment Goals

Prepare Progress Reports

Conduct 360°Assessments for

Select Group

Develop Workgroup,Staff & XFT Goals

Administer Merit Increase

Program

PublishOIT Goals

Quarterly Review

of Goals

Quarterly Review

of Goals

Quarterly Review

of Goals

Quarterly Review

of Goals

Prepare StaffDevelopment Plans

BuildProject Portfolio

IdentifyCapital Purchases

Prepare Operating Budgets

PreparePresident’s/Pricom

Reports

Prepare OITAnnual Report


• Working with the Office of Human Resources andGeneral Counsel, defined and executed aVoluntary Transition Program (VTP) open tothose eligible to retire;

• Created a “doing more with less” task force toinvolve staff in identifying opportunities forsavings. The task force identified over 50 savingsopportunities which continue to be implemented;

• In conjunction with the Office of HumanResources and General Counsel, defined andexecuted a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP)open to all OIT employees;

• Negotiated more cost effective licensing andmaintenance agreements with key vendors;

• Working with the Provost and Treasurer,prepared and reached agreement on a multi-yearbudget and savings plan that will allow us tosuccessfully reach our targeted budget levels.

OIT Core ValuesWorking with the Ombuds Office, an OIT task forceidentified core values to improve how we work with eachother and how we serve our customers. The core valueswere presented at an all-OIT meeting in August 2004.Since that time, we have focused on making the corevalues a reality within our daily work. Adherence to thecore values is now included as a rating factor within theannual performance appraisal process. Within the staffrecognition program, demonstrating core values has beenadded as a criterion for the OIT Achievement Award(recognition from peers) and the OIT Service Award(recognition by managers). New polices and thepublication of OIT best practices refer to the OIT corevalues. We have created core values posters forconference rooms and wallet-size calendars for every staffmember. Finally, to ensure that all staff have easy accessto OIT organizational information, we have recentlyredesigned the OIT intranet site.

Comprehensive OIT Performance EnhancementProcessOIT’s comprehensive performance enhancement processstarts with annual staff progress reports and 360 reviews.The process continues with the development of OITorganizational, department, work group, and individualstaff member goals. Finally, individual staff developmentplans are identified based on goals and associatedprojects. The newest addition to the OIT performanceenhancement process is the OIT Team Learning Forum.The goals for this forum are: to enhance professional andpersonal growth, focusing on leadership and managementcompetencies; to strengthen relationships amongparticipants and build a support system fosteringcollaboration; to engage participants in the importance ofcontinuous learning and in creating a learningorganization. Twenty OIT staff members were selected toparticipate in the first OIT Team Learning Forum. The firstsession, held during the spring, focused on leadership.President Tilghman was the first outside speaker.

IT Training

OIT continues to provide free courses on a wide range ofIT topics for members of the University community.During the past year, OIT offered a comprehensive ITtraining curriculum to support the effective use ofUniversity administrative systems and desktopproductivity tools.

The effort involved two new initiatives:

• Jobs At Princeton, a new online recruitment systemfor hiring managers campus-wide

• Project Management Made Easy, an opportunity forOIT to share its successful project managementmethodology with other Princeton departments. Anoptional, add-on MS Project class is also available.

University Delivered Training

Type of Training # Classes # Attendees

Administrative Systems 107 556

Desktop Productivity Tools 142 1315

Custom Classes 9 63

Total 258 1934

Based on staff feedback, OIT continues to improve thedelivery of IT training:

• Offered staff more flexible schedules to meet theirtraining needs. Many classes were re-designed intospecific task-based two hour segments, a shift fromformer three hour multi-task classes.

• Began to offer “Early Bird” classes in order to providemore IT training opportunities to members of theUniversity community. Starting at 7:30 a.m., theseclasses are designed for staff members who work anight, or morning, shift or for those who want to getan early start on the day. Available only since lateJuly, the Early Bird sessions have already attracted88 attendees and have filled to 90% capacity.

• Coordinated EndNote training for students, whichproved very popular – bringing 75-100 studentstogether at each “bowl-room” session.

• Offered custom training classes for a modest fee inorder to address specific departmental and/orworkgroup training needs

Many of the University departments that offer training arenow using the OIT training database to assist with classregistration. The chart below summarizes the statistics forall training classes administered through the OIT trainingdatabase. A new feature of the OIT training database is tosend notification of attendance status to both theemployee and manager upon completion of the class.

Training Database

# Classes # Attendees

FY04 341 3016

FY05 433 3643

27% Increase 21% Increase


OIT Budget and Finance

Budget and Finance assists OIT operating units withall financial issues. The group provides accountingexpertise, controls the capital assets, recommends ratesfor OIT services, and ensures compliance with Universityrules and procedures.

During the past year, the group carried out a number ofspecial projects:

• Assessed the financial impact of a variety ofalternatives to reduce OIT’s reliance on centralfunding;

• Created a scenario building template to describeinvestment alternatives and the correspondingfinancial impact;

• Evaluated funding options to acquire a University-wide Oracle license, to transition TSM backupservices from tape to disk, and to implement wirelesscomputing in the dormitories;

• Performed a detailed review of OIT cell phone, pagerand home internet usage costs and requirements.This review precipitated a Telecommunications effortto investigate new cost effective options;

• Prepared a presentation to the Board of Trusteesdescribing IT funding practices in higher education.

OIT Human Resources and AdministrationOIT employees are our most valuable asset. In FY05,OIT welcomed 10 new employees and promoted nineemployees; Three employees retired. OIT recognized morethan one hundred employees with service awards, 15employees with achievement awards (i.e. peer nominatedand peer selected recognition) and 2 employees with CIOawards (personally selected by the CIO).

During the past year, we continued to improve the workingclimate for OIT employees. In addition to the TeamLearning Forum and the continuing efforts to make ourCore Values real (both are described above), OITundertook the following initiatives.

Staff Development ProgramIn addition to annual staff progress reports, 360evaluations, and department/workgroup goal-setting,OIT implemented a Staff Development Program (SDP) toidentify and track staff development opportunities acrossOIT. To address the most common needs in the SDP, wepublished the first edition of an OIT Staff DevelopmentCurriculum that introduced and coordinated severalplanned learning opportunities for staff.

OIT Staff Development

Type of Training # Classes # Attendees

Business Writing, ConflictManagement, CPR/First Aid,Employment Law, Facilitation, 16 136Performance AppraisalWorkshop, Roxen, Visio

Internal CommunicationsThe OIT Blackboard Web site was redesigned to improvethe presentation and maintenance of organizational andproject information. Regular e-mail notes were distributedto all OIT staff highlighting new information posted to theBlackboard intranet.

Capturing the pastComputing at Princeton reaches back to 1959 when thefirst mainframe was installed on the back porch of a smallVictorian house on Nassau Street. Many of those involvedin those early efforts are still alive and it is still possible tocapture the history of the extraordinary developments incomputing over the past four decades. The power of“story telling” gives staff an appreciation of what camebefore them and a sense of the legacy they are creatingtoday. To date, we have collected many historicaldocuments, conducted more than a dozen interviews, andare in the early stages of summarizing the events thatshaped computing at the University.

IT MattersPublished regularly throughout the academic year, the OITNewsletter, it matters, continues to be a primary ITresource for faculty, staff and students. The newsletterintroduces our customers to new services, highlights theeffective use of all services, and focuses periodically uponrelevant IT issues. During the past year, OIT publishedtwo special editions, one about phishing, spyware, andfirewalls and a Faculty and Staff Quick Start that is nowincluded in the Human Resources’ new hire packet.

OIT Process Improvement

In FY05, a new organizational support area, ProcessImprovement, was created within Finance, Administrationand Planning to enable a culture throughout OIT thatcontinually strives to improve our operational andmanagement processes and to deliver value.

Accomplishments during FY05 include:

• Created the OIT Interdepartmental Project Portfolio(IPP) to improve communication and collaborationacross the organization on key projects. The IPP listsinformation essential for cross-departmentcommunication on more than 100 projects that involveresources outside a single OIT department and aremore than two weeks in duration. Project Managersand Resource Managers with such projects arerequired to submit their project information to theportfolio. To share the information on a regular basisamong OIT staff and customers, the IPP has beendistributed monthly at OIT Leadership Group, ProjectManagers Team (PMT), and Cabinet Portfolio Review(CPR) meetings. The IPP Coordinator gathersinformation to update the IPP on a regular basis byattending OIT meetings and reaching out to projectmanagers and facilitates meetings to disseminate theupdates. In part as a result of the IPP, managers aremeeting with fewer surprises than in the past.


• In support of the core values, developed bestpractices (e.g., writing effective e-mail, responding toe-mail and v-mail, responding to customer inquiries)that clarify expectations.

• To assist in improving customer communications,formed an OIT Editorial Review Board that providesan editorial service among OIT colleagues.

• Published “$avings Tips” to remind OIT staff of bestpractices in office management, hosting meetings, andplanning travel.

• To empower staff to work on cross-organizationalefforts, continued to encourage the use of OIT crossfunctional teams (e.g., Communications, DisasterRecovery, Facilities and Office Management, ITArchitecture, Software Coordination, Training, andVideo Coordination).

Princeton Project Office

OIT continues to pursue coordinated project planningefforts. The Princeton Project Office (PPO) offers supportfor managers of IT projects, in OIT and other departments,to ensure that projects are delivered on time, withinbudget, and with expected results. PPO provides projectmanagement support and mentoring, facilitates projectreviews, and shares project management best practices.Accomplishments during the past year include:

• The Princeton Project Management Methodology(PPMM) is now used throughout OIT. During thepast year, 12 key projects in Academic Services, 14key projects in Administrative Information Services,four key projects in Enterprise Information Services,three key projects in Finance, Administration andPlanning, three key projects in Support Services, allapplied the PPMM.

• Working with the OIT Project Office AdvisoryCommittee, continued to mentor project managersand to address project management issues.

• Redesigned the PPMM, placing online many easy-to-use templates and a “lite” version for small to mid-sizeprojects.

• Developed a new course offering, ProjectManagement Made Easy, to assist both functionaland technical staff to get started with the PPMM.Offered nine workshops to more than 120 peopleacross campus.

• Provided more than 150 hours of facilitation and/orconsulting to projects both within and outside OIT.

Office of Printing and Mailing

The Office of Printing and Mailing provides a broad baseof cost-effective, cost-recovery services to the Universitycommunity with special consideration given to thesupport of Annual Giving, Development, Alumni Council,and the Office of Communications. Printing and Mailingservices are divided into four areas:

Graphics and PrepressPrinting and Mailing continues to produce a range ofintegrated services, including design, illustration,typesetting, scanning, Toshiba composite color output forproofing and copying, and Epson large format printing upto 44 inches in width by 20 feet in length.

In FY05, Printing and Mailing added a Presstek Dimension400 Computer-to-Plate System. A far more efficient andproductive approach, the new system eliminates theneed for a film-based workflow, eliminates traditionalplatemaking and the need for any chemistry because theplates are processed with plain water, and fits into theexisting pdf/digital workflow. In addition, the systemreplaced the department’s film processor, plate processor,all manual stripping of film, and two ultraviolet plateburners. With the system in place, the use of the ECRMimagesetter, which was used to produce negatives and filmpositives, is also being phased out.

Offset Printing ProductionPrinting and Mailing continues to print a wide variety ofprinted work, from single color to process color:letterheads, business cards, flyers, note cards, books,pamphlets, manuals, pocket folders, and posters. Thebindery area has capability for perfect bound, saddle-stitched, and spiral bound books, and support for cutting,collating, punching, perforating, folding, scoring, andlaminating up to 12x18 inches. New to the printing area inFY05 was the installation of the Ryobe 2-Color OffsetPress, which accommodates plates produced from thecomputer-to-plate system.

Digital Networked Printing CenterThe Xerox DocuTech 6180 provides printing in blackon paper up to 11x17 inches; the Xerox iGen3 DigitalProduction Press provides printing in color on paper up to14.3x20.5 inches. The upgrade to the DocuSP Color Serverfor the iGen brought extraordinary enhancements to colorappearance. The center has the capability for scanningand printing a wide variety of work including personalizedlaser letters and postcards.

Mailing ProductionMailing continued to offer a full range of servicesincluding inkjet addressing, automatic inserting, sortingfor first class, third class, and international mail, mailinglist standardization, metering, wafer sealing, live stampaffixing, bulk mailing, packaging, shipping, and masse-mail notices to the campus.


Support Services

Support Services provides direct customer support for the University’s informationtechnology infrastructure. Support Services is comprised of five main groups.Network Services sustains the data infrastructure. Customer Support provides inperson, telephone, e-mail, print, and web-based IT support for the University.Student Computing Support provides direct support for students and sustains theiraccess to workstations and shared printers in public University spaces. DesktopSupport, which includes both the Hardware and Software Support groups, maintainsand enhances the University’s desktop computing infrastructure. TelecommunicationsServices supports the University’s telephone and voice mail systems.

Support Services also subsumes a range of smaller support programs and services,including SCAD and DCS programs, the OIT Ambassador Program, Policy Office,Software Sales, Software Licenses, Software and Service Contracts, SoftwareDeployment, Faculty Computer Program, and the University Copy Centers.

Highlights

Enhancing the telecommunications infrastructure

Expanding the wireless infrastructureResponding to the growing demand from undergraduate students for expandedwireless coverage on campus, OIT is deploying a ubiquitous wireless infrastructurethroughout the dormitories and residential colleges. By placing the wirelessinfrastructure in student living spaces, which house the highest concentration ofwireless-capable computers, the University is maximizing its investment in thistechnology. By the fall, nearly 90% of undergraduates will have wireless laptopspurchased through the University’s Student Computer Initiative (SCI). Some wirelessinstallations also took place this year at 120 Alexander Road, Von Neumann Hall, HelmHall, Bobst Hall, and the Graduate College.

Temporary Visitors Wireless NetworkDuring the year, the Networking group initiated a new service, Temporary VisitorWireless Network Access (TVWNA, pronounced “tuna”) to provide short-termInternet connectivity for wireless devices brought by visitors (including guestlecturers, trustees and alumni) to the University. TVWNA provides networkingconnectivity for wireless devices for up to seven days within a calendar month.TVWNA is not intended to provide service to devices belonging to PrincetonUniversity faculty, staff, and students, or to longer-term visitors. To initiate theservice, the Networking group upgraded and reconfigured the wireless networkinfrastructure.

Network upgradesThe project to upgrade network wiring and Ethernet switching electronics from sharedto switched Ethernet in all campus buildings also continued during the year. HardwareSupport assisted the Facilities Planning Office during building renovation and newconstruction. In addition, OIT upgraded several network servers to new hardware.Work progressed on the campus ring network that will be used for disaster recovery.

Reliable and cost-effective telephone and voice messaging servicesDuring FY05, the University enabled Caller ID and Caller Originated Trace on everycampus telephone line. The call volume for FY05 was 19,785,600 total calls with 6.3


million inbound calls, 5.8 million outbound calls, and 7.7million intra-University calls. System reliability during theyear was rated by Nortel at 99.9993% uptime. Two newAutomatic Call Distribution (ACD) systems were installedto sustain excellent service for the University.

Princeton Software RepositoryA year ago, OIT introduced the Princeton SoftwareRepository (PSR). This new online facility makes availablethird-party software packages that have been configuredto work within the University’s computing environments.PSR also provides standard processes to register,distribute, update and decommission software packages.

By the end of FY05, PSR provided the most up-to-dateversions of 67 free software packages. OIT sponsoredthese initial core software packages. Individuals ordepartments may sponsor additional packages. Also thispast year, a PSR Advisory Committee was established withmembership from the University’s research community.The committee reviews policies and approves requests forsoftware package sponsorship.

OIT developed the PSR Webstore, which went intoproduction on January 10, 2005. All software sales are nowprocessed through the web store. A next phase of theproject will permit members of the University communityto purchase, and then download, software online. Projectplans include adding the hardware currently sold in theSolutions Center Depot to the web store database makingit an integrated point-of-sale system.

Copiers and copy cardsIn February, 2005, OIT took over supervision of all Librarycopiers as well as the copy card system used in all themachines. OIT now oversees the purchase/lease andgeneral administration of approximately 200 copiers andthe purchase/sale of approximately 5,000 copy cards.

Student computer initiatives and clusterupgradesAgain in FY05, the SCI program offered for sale tostudents aggressively priced, highly capable computerscustomized for the University environment. In addition, inpreparation for the academic year, Student ComputingServices upgraded 46 personal computers and installedeight new printers in campus computer cluster locations.OIT also replaced 75 laptops.

Communication and DocumentationDuring its first full year of existence, the Communicationsgroup became an integral part of Support Services.Working closely with OIT operational groups, theCommunications group coordinated customercommunications about system and service upgrades onmore than two dozen projects. Continuing its collaborationwith central University business offices, theDocumentation group focused during FY05 on thedeployment of the Student Records system.

Networking

The Networking group works to sustain a cost effectivedata network capable of supporting the University’sacademic and administrative needs. Towards that goal, thegroup insures the correct and efficient operation of thecampus network, maintains the University’s access to theInternet and other external networks, manages the variousremote access facilities, and evaluates new networktechnologies for possible deployment on campus.

In addition, the Networking group works closely with otherOIT groups as well as academic and administrativedepartments to assess network-related needs and to applynetwork technologies that address those needs.

As in past years, a significant number of campuscomputers, notably Dormnet machines, were infected byviruses. Networking staff devoted considerable time todetect, document, block, fix, and restore network access tothese infected machines.

Highlights

The group played an essential role in the continuingexpansion of the campus network. Departments continueto request the installation of additional networkingservices. During FY05, the Networking group continued toupgrade the physical network wiring from shared toswitched Ethernet within campus buildings. In severalcampus buildings, the group upgraded the coreconnections to gigabit Ethernet and the internal networksto support 100Mbs desktop connections. In support ofdisaster recovery, the group moved the point-of-entry forthe campus’s AT&T internet connection from the 87Prospect Ave. Computing Center to New South.

Wireless service is being deployed in all campusdormitories. The group expanded the number of wirelessIP addresses in the wireless IP pool to 4,000 with easyfurther expansion to 8,000. The group installed networkmanagement using RADIUS servers to assist in recordingusage and controlling access.

The group upgraded several network servers to newhardware, including the DNS and DHCP servers as well asthe network web and host database server, Heymon. Thegroup made functional improvements to the DNS serviceby separating the on-campus from the off-campus DNSservers. The group continued to make progress on thecampus ring network that will be used for disaster recovery.

Security systemsOIT worked with several departments that are in theprocess of deploying network-based applications such assecurity camera systems.

No “Phishing” allowedIn a small achievement but a significant precedent, theNetworking Systems blocked a “phishing” e-mail from


gaining access to the Princeton.edu domain. As a result,campus users were prevented from linking to a bogus website located in Romania.

Telecommunications Services

Telecommunications Services provides the University withreliable and cost-effective telephone and voice messagingservices. With FY05 revenues of slightly more than$3,700,000, Telecommunications Services is OIT’s largestcost recovery unit.

Highlights

InfrastructureDuring FY05, Telecommunications Services managed 8,755academic and administrative telephone lines, 2,930 studenttelephone lines, and more than 12,500 voice mailboxes.Every telephone line on campus has Caller ID enabled andCaller Originated Trace (for threatening or harassmentcalls). Console attendants responded on average to morethan 400 inquiries per day. The call volume for FY05 was19,785,600 total telephone calls (6.3 million inbound calls,5.8 million outbound calls, and 7.7 million intra universitycalls).

Work OrdersDuring FY05, more than 973 work orders were issued fortelephone work that involved 3,954 changes to telephoneservice or equipment. In addition, the group processed1,165 work orders for voice mailboxes. The group achieveda 98% success rate in meeting requests for new orchanged services.

RatesTo accommodate the replacement of obsolete equipmentand the 2004 upgrade of the PBX core that is nowenhancing reliability and bringing new technicalcapabilities to the University, the monthly service ratewas increased by $0.50 per month during FY05.

The domestic long distance rate of $0.07/minute and theinternational rates of $0.10/minute to Canada and theUnited Kingdom continue to keep the Universitycompetitive in the marketplace. A drop in long distanceusage during FY05 was attributable to increased cellphone usage, primary within the student population.

During FY05, use of the Conference Bridge increased from26 to 29 departments. The largest user realized savings ofmore than $80,000 during the year. Overall, the conferencebridge saved the University more than $225,000 in FY05.

Cell Phone Loaner ProgramThe cell phone loaner program for faculty and researchersgoing on trips was again successful. During the year,Telecommunications Services loaned 50 cell phones fordomestic trips and more than 120 cell phones forinternational travel.

During FY05, Telecommunications Services offered a newservice to cell phone users who need to call internationallocations. A prepaid service supports calls to more than80% of all international locations for $0.07 per minute. Theprepaid service has a domestic long distance rate of $0.05per minute. This new service is available to all members ofthe University community.

Voice over IP trialMore than 30 units are installed in a VoIP (voice over IP)trial. Technical issues remain. TelecommunicationsServices hopes to offer such service, including a wirelessversion, within two to three years.

Automatic Call Distributor SystemsTelecommunications Services purchased and installed newAutomatic Call Distributor (ACD) systems for the HelpDesk operations in OIT and in Human Resources. The newservice will permit the two departments to provideincreased levels of customer service. Later in the year,Telecommunications Services added a third user, theAdmissions Office.

Student Computing ServicesStudent Computing Services (SCS) sustains access topublic workstations and printers, manages the ResidentialComputing Consulting program that provides in-room ITassistance for students, and coordinates the StudentComputer Initiative (SCI) that sells computers to students.

Highlights

Computer ClustersDuring FY05, SCS maintained computing and printingfacilities in 31 University buildings. At the end of the year,the University’s computer clusters contained a total of 266Windows machines, 62 OS X Macintosh computersproviding both Macintosh and Unix environments, 37printers, and seven scanners. There were 616,828 loginsto OIT cluster machines, a decrease of 13% from FY04.

Cluster upgradesIn preparation for the FY05 academic year, SCS upgraded46 Dell PCs and installed eight new printers in the clusters.SCS replaced the Sun workstations in the Friend Centerand Jadwin Hall with high-end OS X Macintosh computersthat support both Macintosh and Unix environments.

In partnership with the Registrar’s Office, SCS replaced allof the 75 laptops in the Friend Center classroom/clusters.SCS moved the computer cluster for Wilson College out ofGauss Hall and into a newly designed cluster in 1937 Hall.The new Wilson College cluster includes a seminar roomwith data and power at every seat. SCS moved thecomputer cluster for the residents of the LawrenceApartments from the tower to another location owing torenovations. In response to student interest in morecomputers in the upper class dorms, SCS added twoworkstations in the 1901 cluster. And in response to a


request from the Housing Department, SCS installed aprinter in the new Bloomberg Dorm.

During FY05, SCS updated the cluster image and installedthe software suite on all cluster machines in order toprovide an up-to-date variety of academic and generalpurpose software applications to the Universitycommunity. In addition to the OIT cluster facilities, 236departmental student cluster machines in 13 departmentsrely upon the cluster image.

Print accountingSCS implemented UnipriNT, a print accounting system inFY01. Requiring that students select their print jobs at theprinter continues to save a considerable amount of paper.During FY05, a total of 6.9 million pages were printed oncluster printers, an increase of 5.12 % over FY04.

Information KiosksIn response to the University’s Health and Well-beingsurvey, SCS partnered with the Department of Athleticsand the Office of the Dean of Student Life to threeadditional information kiosks in the lobby of Dillon Gym.

As part of a project for the Recollector Exhibit at thePrinceton Historical Society, SCS developing a kiosk thatpermits visitors to search back issues of their newsletter.Apple Computer loaned the equipment for this kiosk. Inaddition, SCS developed a CD that permits patrons toinstall and search the newsletter on their home computers.

Residential College ConsultantsDuring FY05, 32 students worked as ResidentialComputing Consultants (RCCs). The RCCs providednetwork and computing support for their peers in thedormitories, including the Graduate College, LawrenceApartments, and the Graduate Annexes. The RCCsparticipated in OIT activities during the fall Orientationweek, and they provided help sessions at everyResidential College during the first week of classes.

In addition to their outreach efforts, the RCCs respondedto 1,656 tickets in OIT’s job tracking system.

Back to SchoolSCS coordinated the OIT back-to-school effort. Withassistance from other OIT groups, SCS manned booths inthe Residential Colleges during the New Student brunch,participated in the first-year-student and the GraduateStudent sign-in events, and extended the office hours atthe Solutions Center; TigerTV and Ethernet cabledistribution booth.

Student Computer InitiativeOpen to all University students, the Student ComputerInitiative offers for sale aggressively priced, and highlycapable computers customized for academic work atPrinceton. During FY05, the SCI program sold a total of1,333 computers: 998 Dell (75%) and 335 Apple (25%).

Customer Service

OIT’s Customer Service provides OIT’s first line ofassistance for the University community. Established inFY04, the Solutions Center in the Frist Campus Centerprovides a centralized location for key IT services andfront-line assistance. The OIT Help Desk continues toprovide comprehensive e-mail, phone, and web assistance.The Documentation group assembles print and webdocumentation to assist faculty, staff, and students tomake better use of existing resources. A newCommunications group coordinates OIT’scommunications with members of the Universitycommunity.

The Solutions CenterDuring FY05, the Solutions Center continued to provideaccess to computing sales, computing support andhardware repair. The Clinic, the hands-on computingconsulting area, assisted 8,018 customers. The major areasof support were helping customers whose computers wereplagued with viruses and spyware infestations, registeringand configuring computers for the Princeton network, andworking with customers who had experienced hardwarefailures. Sixty-six percent of the customers serviced in theSolutions Center Clinic were undergraduates.

The Help DeskThe Help Desk continued to serve as the single point ofcontact for all campus computing inquiries 24 hours/day,five days/week. Staff members continued to provideemergency coverage on the weekends. During FY05, theHelp Desk staff responded to 46,201 individual customerphone inquiries and 24,889 e-mail inquiries. Help Deskstaff continued to provide support and training for theSCAD/DCS members and maintained and supported theUniversity’s Listserv e-mail service and OnTime calendarservices. The Help Desk also supported the University’sweb-based admissions and financial aid applications,SCORE, and all the University Business Applications andcomputer purchase programs.

Communications ServicesDuring its first full year of existence the CommunicationsServices group has become integral to OIT’scommunications with the University community. Workingclosely with OIT operational units, the group coordinatedcustomer communications about system and serviceupgrades and changes for more than two dozen projects.

Communications Services enhanced the OIT web presencethrough expanded announcements and regular technicalinformation updates. In order to sustain an accuratearchive of easy-to-read, up-to-date descriptions about allaspects of OIT’s support for the IT infrastructure, thegroup updated more than 1,000 KnowledgeBase solutionsand created nearly 200 new solutions. Following theimplementation of the new content management systemfor the University’s core web pages, CommunicationsServices is working with OIT colleagues to redesign theOIT web site to align with the new University site.


The group also worked with Student Computing Servicesto create a series of publications for incoming students,including a new brochure on Information TechnologyResources for Students. Communications Services alsocreated printed publications to support academic andadministrative systems, and publicizing OIT services in avariety of advertisements in the Daily Princetonian. Forfaculty and staff, the group produced a ‘Quick Start’guide. For new hires, the group created a packet ofpublications that is now distributed at HR Orientationsessions.

DocumentationThe Documentation Group continued to work closelywith central University business offices, focusing on thedeployment of the Student Records system. Majorprojects included the PeopleSoft 8 upgradedocumentation, updates to the Labor Accounting UserGuide, the PeopleSoft Financial upgrade documentation,CIS and SCORE updates, Undergraduate Admissionsdocumentation, and documentation for EIS (the NAS andDoubleTake) and Support Services (PSR II).

Desktop Support

Composed of two groups, Hardware Support and SoftwareSupport, Desktop Computing Support (DCS) providesquality, timely walk-in and in-office hardware and softwarecomputing support as well as cable television services tothe campus community. Related services include in-depthcomputing needs analysis and guidance on strategicplanning. In addition, the group provides analysis andadvice on new technologies and determines the bestmethods for providing ongoing support.

Hardware Support

Hardware Support provides a range of services, includingrenovation support, warranty and non-warrantyequipment repair, installation and configuration ofhardware, and maintenance of the University’s wirelessand Tiger TV infrastructure. Throughout the year,Hardware Support set up, configured, and repairedcomputers and printing equipment in hundreds of campuslocations. By request, the group activated network andcable television services and, on a daily basis, providedroutine maintenance for the underlying telecom-munications infrastructure. Given the growing size andcomplexity of the network, much of servicing is nowcarried out during off-hours.

Highlights

Building renovation supportDuring FY05, Hardware Support assisted the FacilitiesPlanning Office during the renovation and newconstruction of campus buildings. The effort involved

removing and later upgrading data cabling, networkequipment, and computer clusters. In most sites,Hardware Support designed and installed hardwired andwireless cabling systems. During FY05, project sitesincluded: 1901/Laughlin, Pyne, Henry, 1903, Lockhart,Holder Hamilton, the Boiler House, Aaron Burr, Clio, theLawrence apartment additions, and the EngineeringQuadrangle.

Network UpgradesThe project to upgrade network wiring and Ethernetswitching electronics in all campus buildings continuedduring FY05. Several additional dormitories were rewired,as well as additional sections of the E-Quad, Jadwin Gym,and Dillon Gym.

The group completed all but the last segment of theredundancy fiber ring. They made preparations toimplement the ring in the event of a failure of the primaryfiber infrastructure or to restore computing servicesquickly to the ten buildings designated “most critical.”

Responding to requests, the group installed wirelessservices in several locations, including: 120 Alexander,Von Neumann Hall, Helm Hall, Bobst Hall, and a few of thecommon spaces in the Graduate College. By year’s end,Hardware Support had begun to install wireless systemsthroughout every campus dormitory.

Cable TelevisionDuring FY05, Hardware Support began a project totransition the campus TigerTV infrastructure from anaging broadband coaxial cable to a new fiber basedsystem. In a significant accomplishment at year’s end, thegroup relocated the TigerTV head end from McCormickHall to the Computing Center at 87 Prospect Ave.

Special projectsDuring FY05, Hardware Support became re-established asan authorized Hewlett Packard warranty service center. Insupport of the ongoing campus proximity card system,Hardware Support extended the Princeton Private networkto many additional locations. The department also helpedOIT’s Student Computing Services to replace manycomputers and printers in OIT clusters.

Software Support

Software Support provides proactive support for theUniversity’s 2,500 DeSC machines as well as TSM backupand restore assistance for Windows and Macintoshcomputers. Software Support staff are involved in thecreation of the software image for campus machines inDeSC, the computer clusters, and the Faculty ComputerProgram. Software Support also maintains the computersin the Armory and 120 Alexander Training room as well asthe computers in the “cluster-in-a-box” program.


Highlights

Customer ContactsDuring FY05, Software Support processed a total of 5,683OPM incidents. Of those tickets, staff touched or updateda total of 12,328. The top five departments serviced wereOIT (1,174 tickets, 20.66%), Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering (237 tickets, 4.17%), Woodrow Wilson School(215 tickets, 3.78%), Office of the Dean of Religious Life(170 tickets, 2.99%), Health Services (166 tickets, 2.92%),and the Residential Colleges (162 tickets, 2.85%).

Special ProjectsDuring the year, Software Support improved TSMreporting, and tested several new software productsincluding the Symantec Antivirus 9.1 Edition and the newSAV 10 antivirus client and server. Projects underwayinclude assistance with the XP SP2 migration, support forthe Resource 25 software, helping to maintain Keyserverfor DeSC, and copyright infringements and networkdisturbances.

Software Sales

Located in the Tech Depot at the OIT Solutions Centersince FY04, Software Sales continues to provide softwareto departments, faculty, staff, and students. In FY05Software Sales sold nearly $350,000 of software,approximately the same volume as FY04.

Enterprise SoftwareA year ago, OIT introduced the Princeton SoftwareRepository (PSR). This new online facility makes availablethird-party software packages that have been configuredto work within the University’s computing environments.PSR also provides standard processes to register,distribute, update and decommission software packages.

During FY05, PSR provided the most up-to-date versionsof 67 free software packages. OIT sponsored these initialcore software packages. Individuals or departments maysponsor additional packages. Also this past year, a PSRAdvisory Committee was established with membershipfrom the University’s research community. The committeereviews policies and approves requests for softwarepackage sponsorship.

On January 10, OIT introduced PSR Webstore. Allsoftware sales are now processed through the web store.The new web store for software had an extremelysuccessful first year and customer reaction was verypositive.

The next phase of the project, an enhanced software webstore, will permit members of the University community topurchase, and then download, software online.A few licensed software products including SAV, andMicrosoft products are currently downloadable. The goalof PSR III is to make every product whose license permits,downloadable. Campus users will be able to purchase a

product online through the web store, and when thetransaction is complete, immediately download theproduct from a server. PSR III project plans also includeadding the hardware currently sold in the Solutions CenterDepot to the web store database.

Software LicensingDuring FY05, OIT and the Library agreed to share the costof a three year site license for EndNote. OIT will includeEndNote on the image of the SCI computers beginning inFY06.

At year’s end, OIT was in the process of acquiring a sitelicense for MATLAB and toolboxes. Usage of MATLABcontinued to grow during the year, and OIT increased thecurrent license to 200 seats.

During FY05, the group pursued licensing agreementsfor IDSynch (account provisioning), Proofpoint andBarracuda (span filtering/firewall), AT&T (internet protectservice) and Verizon (enhanced wireless communication).

Special projectsAmong other projects during the year, the group preparedextensive documentation for an audit of Software Sales’business practices with PPPL. The group prepared adetailed comparison of Sun vs. third party maintenancecosts. And the group examined the licensing changes inthe wake of the decommissioning of the Universitymainframe.

Copier Center

In February 2005, in order to centralize the campusadministration of copiers, OIT took over the supervisionof all Library copiers and the copy card systems used inall of those machines. OIT now oversees the purchase,lease, and general administration of approximately 200copiers, as well as the purchase and sale of approximately5,000 copy cards. In FY05, the Copier Center machinesmade 16 million copies (departmental copiers only), downonly slightly from the 16.5 million during FY04.

Policy Advisor

The OIT Policy Advisor strives to enforce Universitypolicies related to technology use and copyright. ThePolicy Advisor serves as corresponding secretary toOIT’s computer and network emergency response team,acknowledging reports of network probes and abusesapparently originating at Princeton, and forwardingreports to appropriate personnel in other departments forinvestigation and resolution. The Policy Advisor alsoparticipates as a member of the University InstitutionalReview Panel for Human Subjects.

During FY05, the Policy Advisor resolved more than 200official copyright infringement complaints filed with theUniversity, contacted alleged infringers regarding morethan 75 other allegations of infringement, and cooperated


with the Office of General Counsel in notifying 42 otherstudents of pending subpoenas in lawsuits to be filed foralleged infringement. The office also collaborated with theOffice of General Counsel and with a group of ComputerScience students and faculty to increase awareness of theUniversity’s policies regarding copyright and thetechnology.

Special ProjectsDuring FY05, the Policy Officer cooperated with theDepartment of Public Safety regarding incidents involvingcriminal use of technology, theft of computers, locatingmissing students, and significant cases of electronicstalking. The Policy Advisor provided assistance todisciplinary authorities and distributed computing supportpersonnel with interpretation of University IT policy toparticular cases. In addition, the Policy Advisor providedassistance to victims of threatening or harassing e-mail, tothose who perceived spam as originating within thePrinceton.EDU domain, and to SCAD and distributedcomputing personnel who identified Princeton.EDUmachines as attacking or infected.

The Policy Officer filed daily reports with the Director ofPublic Safety to supplement the campus crime statistics.The Policy Advisor acted as arbiter for those dissatisfiedwith algorithmically assigned University NetIDs. TheAdvisor also served as arbiter for requests from Class of2004 and affiliated degree-completing graduate studentswho desired additional extension of account access. ThePolicy Officer also arranged for access for the new OITemployees housed in 87 Prospect. The Policy Officer alsoterminated access for student and casual employees whono longer worked in the building, and arranged speciallock-up and extended open hours schedules with theTigerCard Office for the OIT units requiring suchadjustments.

Support for Computing in AcademicDepartments and DistributedComputing Support (SCAD and DCS)

The SCAD and DCS programs complement OIT’s centralsupport by providing University departments a higherlevel of individualized advocacy and attention. Membersgain priority access to the OIT Help Desk and OPMtracking system, and special opportunities for training.

During FY05, departmental consultants participated inmonthly meetings that addressed common concerns andissues related to campus computing. Both programcontinued to grow at modest rates. During FY05, sixdepartments joined the SCAD program; nine departmentsjoined DCS. By the end of the year, there were 42 membersof SCAD in 53 participating departments. DCS had a totalof 31 members in 40 departments.

SCAD/DCS Security Meeting (SECOM)The Secom group met monthly working with OIT’sSecurity Group to help implement new ideas and todiscuss concerns regarding campus security concerns.The group has a membership of approximately 20 peoplefrom the SCAD/DCS program and members of OIT.

Departments participating in SCAD ProgramAmerican Studies ProgramApplied & Computational MathematicsArchitectureArt & ArchaeologyAstrophysicsAtmospheric and Oceanic StudiesBendheim Center of FinanceCenter for the Studies of ReligionChemical EngineeringChemistryCivil EngineeringClassicsComparative LiteratureComputer ScienceCouncil of HumanitiesCreative WritingEast Asian StudiesEcology and Evolutionary BiologyEconomicsElectrical EngineeringEnglishEuropean Cultural Studies *French and Italian LanguagesGenomicsGeosciencesGerman *Hellenic StudiesHistoryIndustrial Relations *Jewish StudiesLatin American StudiesMathematicsMolecular BiologyMusicNear Eastern StudiesOffice of Population ResearchOperation Research Financial EngineeringPhilosophyPhysicsPoliticsPrinceton Institute for International & Regional Studies *Program in the Ancient World *PsychologyPrinceton Environmental InstitutePrinceton Material InstituteReligionSpanish & Portuguese LanguagesStudy of Woman and GenderSociologySociety of Fellows in the Liberal Arts *Theater & DanceVisual ArtsWoodrow Wilson School


Non-academic departments participating in theDCS ProgramAlumni CouncilAthleticsArt MuseumCareer Services *Dean of the College *Dean of Undergraduate Students *DevelopmentEnvironmental Health and SafetyFinancial Systems SupportFriend CenterFirestone LibraryFrist Campus CenterFacilitiesIndex of Christian ArtsHuman ResourcesLanguage Resource Center *Nassau HallOffice of General Council *Outdoor Action *PrincoPrinceton-Blairstown Center *Princeton University Press *Program in Science and Global SecurityRegistrars OfficeReligious LifeSchool of Engineering & Applied SciencesStudy for Brain, Mind and BehaviorTelecommunication ServicesTiger Card Office *Undergrad AdmissionUniversity Financials

* Departments that joined the SCAD and DCS program during FY05.



OIT in the News 2004-2005PrincetonUniversity


Summer 2004, Pacesetter News


September 30, 2004, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


September 27, 2004, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


September 28, 2004, The Daily Princetonian


October 6, 2004, The Daily Princetonian


November 1, 2004, The Daily Princetonian


November 15, 2004, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


December 6, 2004, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


December 7, 2004, The Daily Princetonian


January 31, 2005, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


February 1, 2005, The Daily Princetonian


March 2, 2005, The Daily Princetonian


March 28, 2005, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


May 16, 2005, Princeton Weekly Bulletin


May 24, 2005, Princeton University website


June 7, 2005, The Princeton Packet

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