Routine system maintenance will occur tomorrow (Thursday) from 6:00 p.m. until midnight. For more information on LITS System Maintenance: http://www.brynmawr.edu/lits/system-maintenance-policy. Please contact the Help Desk with questions, help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440, or lits.brynmawr.edu.
Category: Announcements
Announcements/Updates to the BMC community
Warning: New Phishing Attempt (8/15)
This evening, Bryn Mawr community members received a number of phishing messages. These messages include offers for a fake job and threats to deactivate accounts. Please be wary of any emails that threaten the loss of your email account if you don’t fill out a form or take other actions to verify your account or unsolicited emails that offer job opportunities. Even if these messages appear to be coming from a Bryn Mawr email or use Bryn Mawr branding, they are a scam. LITS will never ask you to fill out a form to verify your account. Do not respond to the email, click on any links, or fill out any forms. Do NOT share your passwords with ANYONE.
Often, phishers will use scare tactics – like threatening to terminate your accounts – to get you to follow their instructions. If you ever get an email and have questions about what it’s asking you to do, please reach out to the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440). Please feel free to delete any phishing messages you have received.
If you believe you’ve given your password or personal information to a phisher, please change your password immediately and get in touch with the Help Desk.
Email scams come in many forms. While we work to keep you informed, attacks are increasingly diverse and sophisticated. It’s not possible for us to warn you of every message before you see it. Be cautious and suspicious. If you ever have a question or suspicion, don’t hesitate to contact the Help Desk.
- Learn how to recognize scams by completing the Information Security Education Program
- More information: Malware and spam: Phishing emails
Please contact the Help Desk if you have any questions: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.
WordPress Upgrade Tonight, August 15th, 7pm – 8pm
This evening (8/15) LITS will be performing a necessary WordPress upgrade between 7pm and 8pm. During that time, community members may experience a brief service interruption. Thank you for your patience while we perform this necessary work.
Please contact the Help Desk at help@brynmawr.edu or 610.526.7440 with any questions or concerns or to report any lingering issues.
Important Windows Updates Available: Your Action Required
Microsoft has released an urgent update that will address several security concerns on Windows computers. It is critical that anyone who uses a Windows computer, either College-owned or personal, run any available updates as soon as possible. Please note that these updates may require you to restart your computer.
With any questions about this issue or with running updates, please contact the Help Desk: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.
Reminder: Routine System Maintenance Thursday 6pm – midnight
Routine system maintenance will occur tomorrow (Thursday) from 6:00 p.m. until midnight. For more information on LITS System Maintenance: http://www.brynmawr.edu/lits/system-maintenance-policy. Please contact the Help Desk with questions, help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440, or lits.brynmawr.edu.
MATLAB Licensing Updates
MATLAB (a programming language and environment for numerical computation, data analysis, visualization, and algorithm development) is moving to a named-account licensing model, which will change the options Bryn Mawr College faculty and students have for accessing it moving forward:
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- Anyone can get a free account to use MATLAB Online Basic.
- Bryn Mawr faculty and students can now get an account on Bryn Mawr College’s new MATLAB academic teaching license to access the full suite of online features and install MATLAB on college-owned and personal computers. (Haverford students can get this access through Haverford’s license.)
- We’ve left an older version of MATLAB that does not require an account installed on classroom and lab computers to minimize disruption, but faculty and students who need the latest version or additional toolboxes will need to get an account on the new academic teaching license.
Please see our MATLAB help guide on Ask Athena for more details.
If you have any questions or concerns, please stop by or contact the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440).
Moodle Maintenance: Wednesday, Aug 7
LITS will be performing maintenance on Moodle at 4pm on Wednesday, Aug 7. The upgrade will address security vulnerabilities and functionality updates, and should last approximately 10 minutes. People who are already logged in should experience minimal disruption.
Please contact the Help Desk with any questions or concerns: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.
New Service: Zoom Scheduler for Appointment Booking
Bryn Mawr College faculty, staff, and students now have access to individual and team-based appointment booking through Zoom’s new Scheduler feature.
As with most online appointment-booking platforms, Zoom Scheduler allows you to create one or more booking pages that shows an individual’s or group of people’s availability for appointments. It can be used for both in person or online meetings: when an appointment is booked, Scheduler sends both parties a calendar invite with the in-person location or a Zoom link, depending on the type.
Get Help with Scheduler
- See our ask Athena Guide on Zoom: Use scheduler for appointment booking.
- See Zoom’s in-app Getting Started Guide (open the Zoom web portal or desktop app, click Scheduler, then look for the button in the bottom right)
- Take Zoom’s Welcome to Zoom Scheduler mini-course (14 mins, use SSO login when prompted)
- Schedule a Zoom Scheduler consultation with LITS if you have questions or need help.
Transitioning from Calendly to Zoom Scheduler
If you or your department uses Calendly (or another paid service) for online appointment booking, LITS recommends switching to Zoom Scheduler feature, which gives you the same functionality at no cost to your department.
Transitioning is a three-step process:
- Set up appointment booking in Zoom Scheduler. It’s okay to do this while you are still actively using Calendly; the two systems don’t conflict with one another!
- Find the places you’ve shared your Calendly booking links (in your email signature, on College webpages, on syllabi or Moodle course pages, etc.) and replace them with Zoom Scheduler links.
- Cancel your Calendly subscription and close your account.
You can stretch this transition over as many weeks as you need; however, if your Calendly license renews annually, be sure to cancel before your renewal date or shift to monthly payments to avoid unnecessary expenses.
If you need help figuring out how to recreate a Calendly workflow in Zoom, please schedule a Zoom Scheduler consultation with LITS!
RESOLVED: Campus Network Issues Today, 8/1
We are happy to report that network access has been restored and everyone should be able to connect to and browse the internet once again! Thank you for your patience while we worked to diagnose and resolve the issue.
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Community members across campus have started experiencing issues connecting to the campus network while using both wired and wireless connections. LITS is actively looking into the issue and is working to restore connections as soon as possible.
RESOLVED: Some Bryn Mawr College Services Unavailable
UPDATE, 9:05am: This issue has been resolved and all services are back online. Please report any lingering issues to the Help Desk.
Starting this morning, community members are unable to login to some Bryn Mawr services, including EZBorrow, eMarket, Interfolio, Domain of One’s Own, and Parchment. LITS is working to diagnose and resolve these issues as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Please contact the Help Desk with any questions or concerns: help@brynmawr.edu, 610-526-7440
College Licenses for Overleaf Premium Now Available
We are delighted to be able to offer current Bryn Mawr College faculty, students, and staff using the Overleaf collaborative online LaTeX editor premium accounts through the College’s new institutional license.
Please see Overleaf: Premium Features for more information.
If you have any questions, contact the Help Desk (help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440).
Wireless Certificate Replacement – TOMORROW, 7/30
Tomorrow morning, the certificate for our wireless network (eduroam) will be replaced. While the work is being performed, there will be minimal disruption to your network connection. Once the replacement is complete, everyone will be prompted to accept the new certificate in order to continue connecting to eduroam.
Please reach out to the Help Desk if you have any questions or if you need help re-connecting to eduroam: help@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-7440.