UT Dallas Faculty Handbook

Information Resources

Information Resources provides campus wide support for computing, communications, and related technologies. It is headed by the Vice President and Chief Information Officer and is composed of five groups:

  • Technology Customer Services provides “Help Desk” support, technology training, computer lab support, desktop computing support, and faculty/staff/student training.
  • Architecture and Infrastructure Services is responsible for the design and operation of the computing infrastructure supporting the administrative and academic applications, including management of the data center facilities and all aspects of server administration.
  • Enterprise Application Services is responsible for supporting the major central administrative application systems, including the student information systems, the financial information system, and the human resources system (HRMS), plus various ancillary systems such as budget, capital assets, etc.
  • Information Security oversees identity management and computer access measures, preventative measures and monitoring of the security of the university network, and administration of the university’s security training and compliance program.
  • Networking and Telecommunication services is responsible for the design, support and operation of the campus backbone network, the campus wireless network, connections to external networks including the commodity Internet and various research and education networks, campus communications/telephony, and video networking services.

Academic Computing Services

Information Resources provides both direct support for instruction and research as well as consultation services and facilities to students, faculty and staff. In addition, various UTD schools and departments maintain facilities specific for their needs. Some specific responsibilities include:

Technology Customer Services

  • Management and operation of the Sonora lab in the McDermott Library, which provides computer facilities and assistance for general student use plus some faculty development equipment.
  • Management and operation of the Jonsson lab in the Jonsson Academic Center which provides computer systems running Mac OS, UNIX, and MS-Windows.
  • Management and operation of the extension 2911 Help Desk provided for faculty, staff and student assistance with problems related to the use of shared campus computing resources. Calls to the ext. 2911 “Assist line” will often be assigned to the personnel of other departments or individual school’s technical support personnel.
  • Service and support for the installation, maintenance and use of university computer equipment as well as their operation on the campus network.

Architecture and Infrastructure Services

  • Hardware and operating support for central systems (ERP, email, web, eLearning, etc.)
  • Support and maintenance of data center facilities
  • System management and operation of servers provided by Information Resources plus support of selected systems within individual schools and departments.
  • Support of the UTD Library automation system.

Networking and Telecommunications Services

  • Design, management, maintenance and operation of the campus backbone network and wireless network which interconnects most computers and servers and provides connectivity to external networks such as the Internet and Internet 2.
  • Design, installation, management, maintenance and operation of the campus telephone and video networking facilities, cellular and mobile services, and text/alphanumeric pagers.

Networking and Communications

The campus network is composed of primarily 100 Mbps Ethernet segments interconnecting most campus computing facilities and offices with a fiber optic backbone and selected servers connected at Gigabit Ethernet (1000Mbps). Select areas have station cabling supporting Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop. The UTD network is connected to the U.T. System Network, the statewide Texas Higher Education network (THENet), the commodity internet, Internet 2, and the National Lambda Rail network.

Information Resources also provides remote access to the Campus network primarily through Virtual Private Network (VPN) clients using existing customer Internet services. The UTD library provides a proxy connection mechanism for online access to subscribed library resources as well.

Sonora Computer Lab, McDermott Library, 1st Floor

Windows computers and Macintosh machines are provided. Facilities are available for general student use. A variety of word processing, spreadsheet, database and graphics software is supported on the file server as well as standard programming language compilers. A valid UTD computer account is required to use the lab and a Comet Card is necessary to access the printing services.

UNIX Computing Environment

Multiple SUN servers running UNIX (SOLARIS) are provided for instruction and faculty student research. Applications available include Mathematica, Matlab, SAS, SPSS, BMDP, and IMSL. Also, several programming language compilers are available.

Other Campus Facilities

Substantial additional computing resources are provided by individual schools/departments. These include various workstations and servers, as well as Macintosh labs. These facilities are controlled by the specific school/department and are available at the discretion of same.

Fees and Student Access

A per credit hour fee is collected toward the support of Information Technologies, mostly in support of Information Resources. Fees are payable at registration or at the Bursar’s Office. NetIDs are required for computer access and are available to currently enrolled students upon admission. They can be activated in the computer labs, the HelpDesk and online.

Policies

Computer use at UTD is governed by institutional, UT System, and State of Texas policies and statutes. Please refer to the Information Resources web pages at www.utdallas.edu/ir for specific information.

HELP Services

Faculty and staff members requiring assistance should contact extension 2911 or ASSIST@utdallas.edu. Please note that many areas have their own support staff that work directly with IR, and in such cases, calls placed to extension 2911 will be assigned to local support staff.

Information about widespread outages/problems can be found by calling extension 2911.

General information regarding IR may be found at http://www.utdallas.edu/ir.