New to Campus?
Help for New Faculty
Are you new to the St. Thomas campus? If so... Welcome! Here's some information to explain our technologies and some "next steps" that you might need to take.
Personalized (and Personal) Help
Every academic department is assigned an Academic Technology Consultant (ATC). Your consultant knows your department and will help you with any technology-related question or problem. If you have a quick or routine question (or one that needs an immediate answer), contact the IRT Tech Desk at (651) 962-6230 (or 2-6230 from any on-campus phone).
Background of Key Systems
St. Thomas uses a Learning Management System (LMS) named Blackboard. Course information is held in our "enterprise system" named Banner. Course information and enrollments (students and instructors) for each and every course are automatically moved from Banner to Blackboard; if you're teaching, you have a Blackboard course and your students have access to it!
Banner has a basic "self-service" area that's accessed through a site called "MURPHY Online". MURPHY holds student registration data, that is where you go to enter grades. If you are serving as a student advisor, this is also where you will go for more information.
Your "UST Account" - the key to all things computer-related
Almost every computer system at St. Thomas that needs a username and password is secured with your "UST Account". Just one username and password connects you to a variety of systems. For all staff, the UST account creation process is automatic, but may take several steps.
If you know that you have a newly-created account already "in the system", you can activate your account by going to www.stthomas.edu/new and filling out the form with your name and enter the activation code. It will walk you through setting up your initial password.
Obviously, this process sometimes hits bumps in the road—especially at the beginning of a semester, when there are a lot of people turning in paperwork. If you have been waiting for more than one week for your account, or if you have questions or problems with this process, contact the Tech Desk.
Email and Network Resources—what your access includes
All faculty receive email, central storage, and Web space. You are not required to use these resources, but they are made available to you. (Do note, however, that UST email is our "communication system of record" and your students' lives will be easier if you use it rather than other email accounts you might have elsewhere.)
You receive a electronic mailbox on the Microsoft Exchange server. If you have a university computer, IRT installs and configures Outlook (or Entourage on Macs) for you to read and send email on campus. You can also read and send email from Outlook Web Access (OWA), a web interface to the email system, or from any email application that supports the IMAP protocol.
You also receive 500 MB of central storage space named "MyStorage". This space is private and restricted via password. You can access it from any point on campus, and anything stored there is backed up nightly. If you have a university computer, this central storage directory is automatically mapped to your computer. There is also a shortcut on your desktop labeled MyStorage which also points to this directory.
There is a web-enabled folder within MyStorage called MyWeb. This folder is where you would put an HTML document named index.html or index.htm,which then automatically becomes your personal home page.
Top Resources for Faculty
