Town Hall Updates - November 2025
Good morning and happy Friday. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner, and I wanted to give a shout-out to the culinary students and Chef Ross for their amazing Turkey and Meatloaf meal earlier this week. I can't remember the last time I had such a wonderful turkey meal and fixings! Hats off to you and to all the chefs and their exceptional students.
Renewing Fall Loaners into Spring Semester: Nhia Xiong, our Student Employee Supervisor and CLA, has been doing an exceptional job reaching out to our students with loaners, reminding them to extend their loaner requests to the next semester. To extend their loaners, they need to:
- Check their Ticket and upload their Spring Semester course schedule (eServices and print-to-PDF their schedule) OR
- Reply to our (many) email reminders with their Spring Semester course schedule OR
- Stop by the Service Desk for assistance
If students are not continuing in the Spring, we expect loaners to be returned within ONE WEEK after the semester ends, and we'll send many reminders to do so.
He's also reached out to students who requested loaner devices but haven't picked them up, as well as students who received Chromebooks to swap for Windows laptops.
Monday, November 24, we will turn back on the EAB HandRaise and the Spring Loaner request to start accepting requests for the spring semester and schedule distribution the week of January 5 (the week before the start of the Spring Semester). While we encourage students to use the HandRaise function, we do not want them to submit multiple requests, as this causes confusion.
Updates for Replacing Classroom Laptops: The new V14 laptops are being shipped today, and we expect to receive them next week. I've reached out to the deans to find a point of contact to coordinate the timing of the delivery and swap, and to confirm the software needs.
FY2026 Computer Audit: IT members are conducting a final audit of the first round of computer replacements this year, and we've identified a handful of devices that were missed, which we're working to address. Thank you for your patience and cooperation in allowing us extra time to address those.
Computer Updates/Computer Security: Now that the computer life-cycle updates are coming to a close, we will refocus our attention on computer security and ensure that all the changes we've made to moving to Windows 11 and updating our software haven't gone to waste. You may see additional notifications for software updates and "Ivanti Neurons" when we perform computer patching. Please do not disregard these updates; do not wait until the last minute. We appreciate all the support you can give us!
Staffing updates:
- Data Services and IR - We are in the final stages of the search process for the Director of Data Services and Institutional Analytics. The second IR position, the Institutional Research and Compliance Administrator position, has closed, and we'll be reviewing applicants and interviewing candidates. My goal is to have that position filled within the next two weeks. With these changes to the Data Services and IR team, we are pausing Thursday Office Hours to refocus on how we manage and prioritize our data requests. With a fully staffed team in the upcoming month, I look forward to reinvigorating the service we provide to our college and all of you.
- Service Desk - We are finalizing the PD for the Director of User Services at the Service Desk, which will go to the System Office IT for approval in December. The position will be posted in early January.
- I would like to formally welcome Vong Yang to the team. He officially began in the permanent role as End Point and Network Specialist, where he will be primarily responsible for inventory management, onboarding, offboarding, and crossboarding employees, handling Service Desk escalations, and serving as a backup for some of our network team operations. He joins our amazing team of dedicated technicians.
General Information and Notifications: Lastly, for news and updates, including IT Townhall updates, you can visit https://services.saintpaul.edu and click on SPC IT Service Updates.