Staff News

University-owned devices follow a structured lifecycle that prioritizes reuse, cost savings, data security, and accountability. Departments retain ownership of the equipment they purchase, while UITS helps manage, secure, support, and eventually retire it. Devices are repurposed whenever possible; when disposal is necessary, University data is securely removed before the equipment enters the surplus process. Employees support this effort by coordinating with their department and UITS before discarding or returning technology.

If Zoom looks or behaves a little differently the next time you open it, you’re not imagining things. A series of recent and upcoming updates to Zoom Workplace is designed to make meetings easier to navigate, reduce interruptions, and give users more control over everything from screen sharing to meeting security. During a recent UCATT learning session, Malcolm Elliott, the university’s enterprise Zoom account manager, walked participants through the changes, including a redesigned interface and new meeting controls.

The university's Space Management and Flexible Work Policy was recently introduced to provide campus with guidance for documenting work locations and flexible schedule agreements. In conjunction with the new policy, the university also needed a place to collect this information which would ultimately be used to help improve space planning, campus safety, facilities management, regulatory compliance, and long-term workplace planning.

This fall, UITS is highlighting expanded technology support across campus, including university-provided GenAI tools, broader classroom assistance from Instructional Technology Services, improved access to the IT Service Portal and Tech Zone, and new AI-powered support features coming soon. The update also reminds the campus community to stay alert for increasingly sophisticated phishing and investment scams.

Many people think of a new year beginning on January 1 or as the start of the academic year each fall. The University of Arizona's fiscal calendar begins on July 1 and runs through June 30, serving as the foundation for budgeting, accounting and financial operations across campus. The new fiscal year officially begins in July. Year-end financial activities, however, continue through August, with Federal grants closing later in September. Behind the scenes, months of planning and coordination make sure every transition happens accurately and with minimal disruption.

Chancellor Woolsey grew up in a small Missouri town where he spent his plentiful free time marveling at fictional depictions of the future. He watched computers advance, and in his college years 3D printing, then ChatGPT. Somewhere between Star Wars marathons and a lifelong love of science fiction, he developed a question that would follow him to a PhD program at the University of Arizona: what if the technology we've been dreaming about on screen could actually help people?

Trellis CRM, the University of Arizona's enterprise constituent relationship management program, improves the university constituent experience by helping units make data-informed decisions in their day-to-day workflows. Of the products in the Trellis ecosystem, Trellis Events allows users to easily create and manage free or paid virtual, hybrid, and in-person campus events.

The university’s AI roadmap has reached some significant milestones, shared in a town hall opened by chief AI officer David Ebert. The biggest news is that campus community members now have access to U of A GenAI collection built on AWS Bedrock. This includes the generative AI platforms that can support teaching, learning, research and administrative work. All are private and FERPA compliant, though not HIPAA compliant. 

When most of campus powers down for the night, critical enterprise systems are just getting started. Reports begin processing. Data compiles. Networks move information between systems. Websites remain online. Behind the scenes, the University of Arizona’s technology infrastructure continues running around the clock—and someone needs to be watching.

University IT systems and networks constantly face the threat of malicious actors attempting to breach them. The staff and faculty responsible for managing these systems must ensure that software and systems are regularly patched and kept current to prevent security vulnerabilities. Besides being a best security practice, this is also mandated by the university’s Vulnerability and Patch Management Policy.