New to Campus?
New To Campus
New Student Technology Guide
There are a variety of technology resources available to students at UST. You will find information about the most commonly requested resources listed below:
The university encourages computer use by providing easily accessible computing resources to the university community. Whenever this type of service is provided, abuse can and does occur. The Acceptable Use Guidelines/Unacceptable Use Policy is intended as a guideline for students in appropriate use of university computing resources.
Make sure to read the University of St. Thomas Policy on Responsible Use of University Computing Resources. All St. Thomas students are responsible for understanding and following this policy. A general rule of thumb:
- If any activity without a computer would be illegal or a violation of university policies, it is illegal or a violation of university policies with a computer. Use common sense; the bottom line for our policies is respect for the work and privacy of other St. Thomas community members.
St. Thomas students have access to a variety of computer labs on campus to complete coursework or for personal use and exploration. These computing labs have applications for word processing, spreadsheets, database management, statistics, electronic mail, and accessing the Internet. All lab PCs are equipped with the Microsoft Office 2003 Suite and all of the lab Macs are equipped with the Microsoft Office 2004 Suite. Every lab computer has Internet Explorer, Safari or Firefox installed to browse the Web and access email. Many labs are also equipped with course-specific software. Computer assistance is provided in the main labs. Public Computing labs are located in the following areas:
Students living on campus may also use computing labs located in many of the residence halls and commuter students may use the computers in the Commuter Student Center in the lower level of Murray-Herrick—MHC, St. Paul. Most labs offer both PC and Macintosh computers; specialized equipment is also available. You will find scanners and multimedia computers in both of the Information Commons. Many departments on campus also have discipline specific computing facilities for students enrolled in those courses.
Residence Hall Labs
The following labs are open to St. Thomas students who live in the Residence Halls. Priority is given to those students completing coursework. The Residence Hall Labs are located in:
Residence Halls - Getting Connected
To access UST network resources and the Internet, you must register your computer. This means when you come to campus in the fall you will be prompted to read through the Acceptable Use Guidelines/Unacceptable Use Policy and enter your username and password. This registration page will then gather network information about your computer that will help IRT to quickly identify if there is a problem, isolate the location and then communicate proactively if your computer is at-risk. Simply, it helps us to help you keep your computer virus-free and hacker-proof. All you need to do is read the Acceptable Network Usage Policy (also found in your student handbook) and enter your username and password.
To connect your computer to the UST network in the Residence Halls here are a few things to consider:
Note: Information Resources and Technologies cannot install the Ethernet card in your personal computer, please have yours installed before you get here (this includes hardware and software).
Ethernet cable: Make sure to bring your own Ethernet cable. Typically, a cable is included with an Ethernet card; however, it is always good to check. If you don’t have a cable or if you want a longer cable than the one that came with your card, you can purchase a cable at the UST Bookstore, any computer or hardware store.
- A laptop computer running Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2) or Mac OS X or higher.
- Current anti-virus software (Sophos is provided free of charge at UST)
- A wireless network card. It must be a Wi-Fi certified wireless network card that is 802.11g compatible.
Phone Service in Residence Hall Rooms
St. Thomas provides a digital phone in all residence hall rooms (except Selby and the CDC), so a favorite phone from home will not work on campus. Cell phones, however, do work in most buildings. Local phone service is provided free of charge. There is a per-minute charge for long distance service without the added fees and taxes that you get at home. St. Thomas also provides voicemail to all resident students.
Note: Modems do not work in residence hall rooms because residence halls are equipped with digital phone lines.
Compatibility with UST Network
To view the minimum and preferred requirements for connecting to the UST network click here.
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides access to the Internet from home. ISPs will let you send and receive email, browse the Web, download files and participate in online chats. You must personally sign up for service from an ISP to get your St. Thomas email from home. IRT is not able to help you with this service.
If you’re interested in high-speed Internet access, consider digital (DSL) or cable modems rather than the typical (analog) modem. DSL service may or may not be available to any given residential area; contact Qwest, your local phone company, or another DSL provider for more information. Cable modems are available to many cable television subscribers, so contact your cable company regarding availability and cost. (Both DSL and cable modems provide "broadband" access to the Internet, much faster than even the fastest standard modem.)
Important Note: If you plan to use AOL (America Online) or other proprietary online services, you may have trouble using the UST library databases. AOL uses a proxy server to protect its proprietary data, and the library also uses a proxy server to protect its proprietary databases. Because you can’t double up proxy servers, we recommend that you use a service other than AOL.
The university has firewalls and security tools in place to protect the campus network from attack and intrusion. These systems should not interfere with resident students being able to access servers and services located on or off campus. In order to maintain security and maximum availability of the network to community members, certain personally owned devices are prohibited on the university network. These devices include but are not limited to: wireless access points, switches, and routers. The university also expects that all community members who use network resources will comply with the Acceptable Use Policy.
Computing Security Tips:
The university uses an Internet traffic management system to limit and prioritize traffic to and from the Internet. The purpose of the system is to allow the university to better guarantee access to its own web sites for students, faculty, and staff off campus, and to ensure access to the Internet for students, faculty and staff working from offices, labs, and classrooms. It is also intended to make sure that traffic of any one type, such as peer to peer traffic, does not so overburden the Internet link that nothing else works.
The university administration partnered with student leadership to implement a print management program on campus. Every student has an allotment for “free” printing and is charged a per-print fee over and above that allotment. The allotment is $40 for Fall, $40 for J-Term/Spring and $40 for Summer. The $40 allotment is equal to 400 black and white letter size prints. Each page printed beyond $40 will be charged back to the student at a rate of $.10 per standard print. For more information click here.
Productivity Software (such as Microsoft Office)
All lab PCs are equipped with the Microsoft Office 2003 suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and FrontPage) and Internet Explorer to browse the Web, and Outlook Web Access to access your email. Macs in the labs will be equipped with Microsoft Office 2004 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Safari to browse the Web, and Outlook Web Access to access your email. Many labs are also equipped with course-specific software needed for some classes.
The email environment used at the University of St. Thomas is based on Microsoft Exchange. The university’s email system has both a “client” piece (the software you use) and a “server” piece (the application that handles the mail centrally). Your email is received and stored on the Exchange server. You can retrieve your email (and send out new messages) using any compatible client software program you want. IRT provides support for Outlook Web Access as we expect that most students will use resource. OWA allows you to check your email from anywhere in the world with access to a computer and internet access.
Email is an official form of communication at the university and email accounts are automatically created for all students. Accessing email requires a username. To access your email for the first time follow these steps:
It is important that you familiarize yourself with email before school starts. You can retrieve your email (and send out new messages) using any Microsoft Exchange-compatible client software program.
UST provides personal storage space for each student at the university, for more information visit the MyStorage page.
If you are interested in purchasing a new computer or software check out the UST Tech Store. Apple and Dell as well as other vendors provide educational discounts on computers, printers, scanners and select software to the UST community.
NOTE: Items purchased through the UST TechStore cannot be supported by the university or IRT. For technical support, please contact the vendor through which you make your purchase.
Computer Competency Requirement
The goals of the requirement are: to make sure you have certain basic skills, to provide a foundation for more complex computer use during your studies here, and to prepare you to use computers effectively in your life after graduation.
You must complete the first part of the computer competency requirement during your first year. For more information on the Computer Competency requirement, visit the Web site: www.stthomas.edu/competency.
St. Thomas students can contact the Tech Desk for assistance with their computer problems. If you’d like to stop by in person, the IRT Client Services has staff in the St Paul Information Commons located in the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library and at Scholars in Minneapolis. You can also get help with things such as password problems, network connections and general computer usage questions.
