Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Banner System Upgrade Complete

To the Manhattan College community,

       It is with great pleasure that I can inform you of the completed upgrades for our Banner System. This was an extensive upgrade that provided needed functionality for the Financial Aid / Admissions offices, however, we have upgraded every Banner system, e.g. Student, Finance, Human Resources, etc. This will also enable us to stay up to date with Federal Regulations, regarding taxes, etc.

      Along with this were some changes to some Java processes that come alongside Banner. If your computer has been updated to the latest Java 7, you will notice this immediately as when you log into Banner Forms, you will get three prompts warning you if you would like to run this Java application. One prompt is jacob.jar, one prompt is UNKOWN, and one prompt is Ellucian. You must click "I accept the risk and want to run this application." And then click run. I am working with Ellucian / Oracle to make this process smoother in the future, but due to the nature of the Java Security updates, all schools are currently going through this. If you are on Java 6, you may not get the same exact prompts, however, everything will work the same. If you are having any issues with this, please feel free to contact the Helpdesk and we will get your issues sorted out as soon as we can.

       I would implore you to download the new Release Guides for your specific system as you can learn about the new functionality that has been provided with these very significant updates.

      Thank you for your time and patience in this matter.

      Have a great evening!


Melvin Lasky
Senior Database Administrator
Riverdale, NY 10471
Phone: 718-862-7410

Self-Service, Degreeworks, and Banner System Maintenance

From approximately Noon to Midnight today, the following systems will be offline for critical software updates:

- Self-Service
- Degreeworks
- Banner

Starting at Noon and for the duration of the outage, users will not be able to access systems such as Banner self-service to perform such tasks as submitting or checking grades.  Users are asked to wait until normal processing is expected to resume around midnight.  The community will be notified if the system is available earlier. Access to those systems via the myMC portal will also be affected.

Access to other JasperNet services including Email, Moodle, and Home server will be unaffected.

Although the timing of this upgrade is not optimal, it is a requirement in order to continue processing important College tasks including Financial Aid for next year and was delayed as long as possible to avoid interruption during the semester.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

The New (and Much Improved) Google Sheets

For diehard fans of Excel who have switch to Google Apps products, you need to try out the new Google Sheets!

Google just announced a significant upgrade in functionality, including support for offline editing and new filter views for simpler sharing.




For now, you will need to opt-in to use the new functionality.  Turn on the new Sheets by checking the “Try the new Google Sheets” box in Google Drive settings. From then on, all new spreadsheets you create will work offline and include these new features. The post on Google's Office Blog mentions that Google will be adding a small list of missing features in the coming months.  Note that the new functionality will only effect new sheets you create after opting-in.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Well Wishes for Finals and the Holidays

As the Fall 2014 semester comes to a close we at ITS would like to wish the community well for Finals week and the coming Holidays.  We will be working diligently over intersession to make sure that all the technology you rely on is working efficiently when you return.  During this time we will be taking a short hiatus on blog posts.  You can expect more information to come when you return in January.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Phishing Scam

Earlier this afternoon we received several reports from users that a Phishing Scam has been circulating.  The message requests that you reply providing your username and password. If you received this message and replied, please change your password immediately using: https://start.manhattan.edu/


If you require further assistance, please email its@manhattan.edu or call x7973.