Dr. James Newman of the Naval Postgraduate School was on campus July 30 to talk with visiting Fulbright students. He shared stories of his time as an astronaut during four Space Shuttle missions. Dr. Newman has logged over 43 days space, including working in the International Space Station and six space walks. He gave the visiting Fulbrighters a taste of what it’s like to be inside a space vehicle as well as his insights for the future of space exploration. Addressing students in both German and Mandarin during his presentation, Dr. Newman expressed his hope that nations would work multi-laterally to set up outposts on the Moon and Mars. His lecture inspired at least one Fulbrighter to consider a career with NASA.
Month: July 2009
New Travel Assistance Service
Reliance Standard, one of our insurance providers, has notified us that effective immediately there is a new 24-hour travel assistance service available to MIIS employees. A copy of the summary sheet/wallet card is attached.
Managing Spam Firewalls
…or, How to Help Keep Your Email Flowing Smoothly
As many of you are aware, the conversion to Outlook has posed a lot of questions and concerns about how our email system functions. Exchange is an entirely different system from First Class, so we need to be better informed and aware of how our email is handled.
During this transitional period, most of us have our First Class email forwarding to our Exchange email. This means that our emails can currently go through up to 3 firewalls, including the MIIS Incoming Spam firewall, the Middlebury Incoming Spam firewall and the Middlebury Outgoing Spam firewall. Since we have full control of our own firewall, we need to focus more on the Middlebury spam firewalls.
Please note that a Spam Firewall is also referred to as a Barracuda, which is the company that provides them to us. Why do we need these firewalls? Because the amount of spam that pours into the internet is truly mind-boggling, and if it were allowed to flow freely, it would swamp our email systems entirely. Blocking the messages we don’t want and letting through those we do is a very complex process, and one that has to constantly evolve to keep pace with the efforts of spammers to circumvent our security measures.
Middlebury Incoming Spam Firewall (shark.middlebury.edu)
Emails sent directly to your Exchange email, (yourname@exchange.miis.edu) and email forwarded from your First Class email, (firstname.lastname@miis.edu) will all go through this point. Please take the time to review the instructions on configuring your Middlebury Firewall account. When you login, your username MUST be your FULL exchange email address: yourname@exchange.miis.edu along with your Exchange password. In the Whitelist field, enter your First Class email address, firstname.lastname@miis.edu, and any other miis.edu addresses you may have routed to you. This will help prevent messages from being held up in the spam firewall.
We are also investigating the functionality of the ‘Spam Scoring’ features of this firewall. If you would like to try this out (we are not 100% certain this will help – but it won’t make things worse) use the following steps while you are logged into the Middlebury Spam firewall.
1. Go to ‘Preferences’
2. Select ‘Spam Settings’
3. Under Spam Scoring, check ‘No’ for Use System Defaults, then ‘Save Changes’
4. Manually change each score to the following (don’t use the slider – type it in over the number) Tag: 3.5 Quarantine: 3.5 Block: 7
5. Click ‘Save Changes’ again.
This will help synchronize the settings of the Middlebury firewall with the MIIS firewall.
Middlebury Outgoing Spam Firewall
We do not have info on configuration for this firewall. However, it is strongly suggested to read the guidelines listed in the ‘Overview of blocked messages’ from Middlebury’s mediawiki. A very strong (and simple) suggestion from Middlebury is to remove the ‘http’ and ‘www’ from any links contained in emails. If you use any url’s in your email signature, please shorten them to the suggested format, from “http://www.website.com/page” to “website.com/page”
Again, once the email transition is complete we do anticipate much smoother transmissions in our electronic communications. We are doing everything we possibly can to keep our staff, faculty and students productive during this trying period.
On September 15, we will transfer our domain name (miis.edu) from the FirstClass server to the Exchange server. That means that all incoming mail (whether the address is @miis.edu or @exchange.miis.edu) will only pass through the Middlebury firewalls.
If you have any questions, please contact the Help Desk at 647-6656, or helpdesk@miis.edu
We certainly hope to post more information as it comes through.
Running One MIIS Session on Finance and Facilities
For those of you who missed this session, here are the slides on projected changes in the finance area that will result from reorganization and integration. And here are slides showing the recent round of office moves (before and after) that aim to foster collaboration and cohesion within the two new schools and advising center. For those of you who would like to have a quick guide to where people ended up after the extensive office moves this summer, the later slides in the presentation (4-10) will be especially useful.
New Letterhead Template
Recently, all faculty and staff received information from Jason Warburg regarding the introduction of new graphic identity standards for publications, correspondence, business cards, etc. Much of the material that we produce in house does not necessarily need to be printed on expensive letterhead, and may indeed be appropriate to disseminate electronically. Anne Marie Steiger has created a Microsoft Word template that incorporates the new letterhead design. You can download it here: http://www.miis.edu/jobs_forms.html
As you prepare handouts, reports, and other documents please consider using this template to reproduce the letterhead design accurately and consistently.
Email Transition Reminder
FirstClass email will cease to be used on September 15, 2009, as the Monterey Institute completes its transition to Exchange email hosted by Middlebury College. If you are still using FirstClass to send email, you should plan to transition to Exchange email before the fall semester begins. Contact the Helpdesk (ext. 6656) for assistance.
Advising and Career Services Open House
Your colleagues at
The Center for Advising and Career Services
extend a warm invitation for
you to attend an
Open House
At The Center for Advising and Career Services
Third Floor of the McCone Building
Please come up to visit the new space, meet the staff, enjoy good food, good friends and the lovely
environment of the new Center.
Friday, the twenty-first of August
Two thousand and nine
4:00 – 7:00 pm ~ Wine & Cheese Reception
Moodle Upgrade August 17-18
A software upgrade for the Institute course management system: Moodle, accessible online at http://elearning.miis.edu is scheduled for mid-August.
This upgrade will bring the site software up to date and help resolve authentication protocols with the Middlebury network as we continue to align systems with Exchange and Bannerweb.
Our goal is to make this process as minimally disruptive to students, faculty, and staff as possible.
Please mark your calendars for the upgrade currently set for August 17th & 18th. The Moodle server will be down for these two days.
A notice about site maintenance schedule will be prominently posted on the Moodle homepage, and reminders will be sent out as we approach the upgrade dates.
If you have any specific concerns or course conflicts with the upgrade schedule, please contact Bob Cole (TLC) or John Grunder (ITS).
Go! … or how to shorten those messy urls
Ever want to take that long URL from our website and make it something nice, short and simple? Well…now you can! Welcome to GO! (Clicking this link will take you to a Middlebury authentication page, where you should enter your exchange username and password, and then you will get to the main GO page.)
Go is a service provided by Middlebury that will take a long URL and make it nice and short (like tinyURL or bit.ly). For example, the MIIS facebook URL used to be five lines long but is now: http://go.miis.edu/facebook. Anyone with an exchange account can login to this system and create their own shortened URL.
Why should you care?
- Shortened URLs are pretty. All URLs will be http://go.miis.edu/”your chosen shortcut”.
- From computers on campus you just have to type go.miis.edu/bannerweb and it will magically take you to bannerweb. Short is quick.
- URLs change – go URLs can be updated/modified. The URL you publish can remain the same, while the longer “real” URL changes in the background.
Many URLs will be changing during the website redesign process. Before you send out a mass communication that includes a URL, think to yourself:
- Will the recipient need this URL after September 1st?
- Will this URL likely change?
If the answer is yes to both question – it is probably in your best interest to make a go URL and simply update it when the new website is unveiled. Confused? If you have any questions or concerns about URLs and the new website, please contact any member of the web strategy team. They can help you think through whether or not you need a go URL, and walk you through the process.
Moodle Upgrade Planned
We will be undertaking a software upgrade to the Institute course management system: Moodle, accessible online at http://elearning.miis.edu.
This upgrade will bring the site software up to date and help resolve authentication protocols with the Middlebury network as we continue to align systems with Exchange and Bannerweb.
Our goal is to make this process as minimally disruptive to students, faculty, and staff as possible.
Please mark your calendars for the upgrade currently set for August 17th & 18th. The Moodle server will be down for these two days.
A notice about the site maintenance schedule will be prominently posted on the Moodle homepage, and reminders will be sent out as we approach the upgrade dates.
If you have any specific concerns or course conflicts with the upgrade schedule, please contact Bob Cole or John Grunder.
Help Build the MIIS Community!
The Student Council is responsible for recruiting 40+ volunteers to facilitate the Community Building Activities during New Student Orientation in late August. Greg Freeman, the SC President, recruited a good number of student volunteers; however, students have requested that we add more faculty and staff into the group of facilitators.
As a Community Building volunteer, you will co-facilitate a group of 10-20+ incoming students from a mix of programs and cultures in getting to know each other and MIIS. Peter Shaw will train you in many creative icebreakers and team-building activities. You will also lead the Great MIIS Campus Treasure Hunt (with prizes for the winning team). Past facilitators have had great fun meeting new people and practicing their facilitation and cross-cultural skills.
If you are on campus during the dates listed below and you would like to volunteer, please click on the link to the Google Spreadsheet and add your information to a new row. Your participation will be greatly appreciated. For those that will volunteer, more information will be sent to you by email the week prior to Orientation.
If you have already signed up to volunteer, but your plans have changed, please update the Google Spreadsheet accordingly.
DATES & TIMES:
Monday, August 24, 2009
Facilitator Training
10:30am-11:30am
Holland Center
Food and beverages provided
12:00-2:30pm
Community Building Activity Session With New Students
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Community Building Activity Session Part Two
2:30pm-5:00pm
Friday, August 28, 2009
Facilitator Debrief Meeting and Luncheon
12:00- 1:00pm – B106
CNS Student Wins Prize from Russian Center for Policy Studies
Monterey Institute student Nikita Perfilyev was awarded the special prize “New Talent in Nonproliferation” by the Russian Center for Policy Studies (PIR Center) on July 3, 2009. In addition to studying nonproliferation at the Institute with the support of a Fulbright fellowship, Nikita is a research assistant at the James Martin
Center for Nonproliferation Studies. He is currently studying Chinese at the Middlebury Language Schools. More information.
Local AFS Group Seeks Volunteer
AFS Steinbeck Coast is currently seeking a Sending Coordinator (description attached). This is a volunteer opportunity that two people can share. Each year AFS has a training gathering and invites coordinators from throughout the United States to attend. In past years they have met in Portland, OR, Chicago, IL, St. Louis, MO, and Baltimore, MD. AFS pays all expenses to attend.
If you are interested, please contact:
Roy Michaels, AFS Volunteer
831-783-1747 office
831-422-9176 home
Guidelines for Appropriate Use of All Campus Electronic Mail Messages
The following guidelines are adapted from Middlebury’s policy on the use of college email. We think they make sense for us as well, and would like to ask that all members of the community to follow them.
1. Messages must relate directly to College business. Announcements of non-college events should be handled through other channels.
2. E-mail messages should be avoided for College events already listed on-line or in publications, unless there is significant supplemental information or last-minute changes in location or time.
Currently, everyone has the ability to send an all faculty or all staff message, and it would be wonderful if everyone could voluntarily use these guidelines so that we don’t have to restrict access.
When the students return in the fall, we will need to adopt similar guidelines for messages to all students, and student messages to faculty and staff.
We understand that there is a need for a place to post “classifieds” and other messages of a more personal nature, and we are working on a solution.
Thanks for your patience!
Advancement(and many others)@work
With the closing of the Institute’s fiscal year on June 30th, Institutional Advancement also marked the end of its FY09 fundraising efforts. While the economic downturn did present significant challenges, there are several bright spots to report:
The number of faculty/staff donors grew from 44 at the close of FY08 to 52 at the close of FY09 (18% increase)
The number of alumni donors grew from 131 at the close of FY08 to 162 at the close of FY09 (24% increase)
Overall cash received grew from $5,315,554 million in FY08 to $5,355,569 million in FY09 (a slight, slight increase)
While Institutional Advancement is the hub of these efforts, we could not have reached any of these results without the help of many across campus. Special thanks to the Digital Media Commons for their help with our digital solicitation and stewardship pieces, Recruiting and Student Financial Services for providing us with many compelling student stories, and to the members of the academic leadership and faculty who have spent time with both our prospective and existing donors. We look forward to, hopefully, even better results in the coming year!