Remote Work Support
As part of transitioning thousands of employees successfully to remote work, OIT has distributed hardware, added new tools, allowed access to campus devices and applications, increased security notifications and more
Staff Laptop Loan Program
OIT quickly identified and secured 1,250 rental laptops for employees, then developed an infrastructure to distribute them to staff who lacked sufficient equipment to work effectively from home.
Virtual Private Network Expansion
Many campus resources will only respond to connections from on campus, and the virtual private network (VPN) has long been used for off-campus authorized personnel to access those on-campus resources. With the rapid shift from on-campus to off-campus work and instruction, demand shifted from the high-capacity campus network to the channels that connect UCI to the rest of the world. The VPN would have been overwhelmed with the additional connections, but OIT expanded capacity and created new VPNs running in parallel to carry the greatly increased load.
Virtual Private Network Bandwith
"I should have taken an extra moment to say what a terrific job ... the whole OIT team are doing. Your rapid response has been impressive beyond words. My work came almost to a standstill within the last week, but you resolved the VPN issue before I even had to ask. I'm back in service, thanks to you and your team. I really appreciate how hard you're all working in order to keep us up and running."
Tobi Anne Walsh, Principal Educational Facility Planner, Capital Planning
Security Notifications
The rapid shift to online work and instruction also created an opportunity for hackers, phishers, and other malefactors. A surge in security attacks followed in the wake of the pandemic. OIT has distributed numerous messages to the campus, advising them of new threats, offering techniques to stay safe while working remote, and how to configure Zoom to limit “zoombombing” and other interference during teleconferences and remote instruction.
"Thank you. That was very informative and helpful!"
Josue Adrian Hernandez-Aguilar, Housing
"Thanks for the reminders. I received two just yesterday."
Ken Janda, former Dean, Physical Sciences
DocuSign Adoption and Support
DocuSign and FileNet were already becoming a popular and efficient method to share documentation and shepherd business processes through approval stages electronically. In response to the pandemic, OIT aided more departments in shifting their workflows to this fully online process.
Supporting COVID-19 Paid Leave
The Time Reporting System (TRS) was recently updated to allow employees to report paid leave hours related to COVID-19. UCI Human Resources is providing information on when it is appropriate for employees to use COVID-19 paid leave.
Remote Desktop Contingency
The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a network mechanism for using a particular computer from a remote location. Anticipating the need for remote work, OIT Desktop Support set up infrastructure and distributed instructions to staff who would need access to the documents and software on their UCI workstations from home.
Helping Other Departments Prepare for Remote Work
"I I just wanted to send a quick note of appreciation for [your] help with remote work preparation. [OIT] managed to quickly gather and prep the spare monitors and other peripherals we had available here in the SIS space for the team to set up remote workspaces. This is just another example of how responsive [you are] … I really appreciate all [you do] to support my teams."
Christopher Shultz Director, Enterprise Student Management Systems
Counseling Center
"I wanted to let you know that with the help of your team to figure out what equipment was still usable and what equipment needed to be sent to the grave, we can reduce our rental laptop request [from 23] to 15-16."
Vivian Yamada, Clinical/Associate Director
Terminal Server Roll-out and Training for all Financial Aid
Spring quarter is a critical period for Financial Aid, calculating awards for the coming school year. OIT assisted their transition to remote work by deploying and configuring laptops for home use, expanding capacity of the terminal server, and configuring office desktops, and network firewall to make remote access for FA staff reliable and secure. We helped FA plan new methods of communicating with students and new workflows for parent loan applications, student requests for financial aid, and COVID-19 related (CARES act) financial aid awards.
Testing Site at Gottschalk
I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of the Net/Tel Services team, especially John Allerton, Davey Wessels, and Haamed Javaheri-Ghazvini, for stepping up with no advanced notice to plan and implement wired and wireless network infrastructure and services for a drive-through COVID-19 mobile testing facility at Gottschalk Med Plaza.
Enabling Remote Operation/Support for Student Affairs
OIT helped Student Affairs acquire Zoom licenses, including security provisions for HIPAA, set up special telephony for communication between the Counseling Center and students, assisted staff in acquiring equipment for remote work, reconfigured Commencement and Orientation applications, created a screening app for Student Health, helped plan for fall-quarter reopening with social distancing, self-reporting and contact tracing, prepared Student Affairs, Veteran Services Center, Housing, and International Center to use Microsoft Teams, DocuSign and cloud storage.
Enabling Remote Operation/Support for Athletics
OIT helped deploy laptops to coaches and Athletics staff and helped configure personal devices for remote work, helped deploy Microsoft Teams, DocuSign, and SharePoint, and offered 1:1 consulting and support throughout the transition.