This Monday, Barnard SGA asks and answers questions to BCIT’s Executive Director of IT, Victoria Swann, and Associate Director of BCIT, Aida Santiago-Agosto.

Welcome back to my chronicles of Barnard SGA! Are you ready for round two? Today I decided to be even more of a dweeb and hide behind my computer and join the zoom. I know SGA misses my face, but alas, spring break-itis has joined forces with the remnants of my senioritis from high school. Adding onto this, my legs were in profuse pain from doing too many Bulgarian split squats in my PE class which happens to be mandatory to my education. I need not make any more excuses though, so I will keep it moving. As I lay in the lap of luxury (aka under a very fuzzy blanket), I await the person who is running the SGA zoom to unmute themselves.

Let’s start off with the external announcements:

• I’m keeping it real with my readers that I did not get the first external announcement because the SGA zoom’s mic was muted. I feel like I am letting you guys down. Still, here are the other announcements. 
• Juniors, keep an eye out for a surprise post-spring break event and follow the junior class’s Instagram!
• Keep an eye on your emails to apply for Pizza with the Provost. More information about this is in the weekly SGA newsletter.
• Be on the lookout for the transfer housing session on Friday, where they will announce when transfer housing groups are available.
• Seniors, cap and gown pickup is Friday in the Diana Event Oval.
• They are still accepting applications for orientation leaders, so if you want to be one next year, make sure you apply, and check the newsletter again for more information.

Now let’s move on to the BCIT portion of this meeting! 

Sidebar: If I am being completely honest, I needed to be at this meeting so badly because I do not understand technology. I am barely able to write this article because computers are a mystery to me. Also, whenever I have a technological problem I always think I am able to solve it myself because I have the “I can do this myself” gene, even with my little knowledge of computers, so I needed a reminder that we literally have a team of experts who actually know how to solve my problems. This is reminding me that I should fix my DUO because DUO has to call me every time I have to sign in because I broke mine and it’s very embarrassing. Okay, rant over. Sorry about that. 

Let’s actually move on to the BCIT portion of this meeting.

BCIT’s Executive Director of IT, Victoria Swann, and Associate Director of BCIT, Aida Santiago-Agosto, came to speak directly to SGA and answer their questions. They started off by giving some background information on BCIT and answering some of the questions that were given to them ahead of time.

First off, they acknowledge that most students don’t understand what BCIT is and what they do. 

Their system is that the BCIT office consists of many different teams like internet security, infrastructure group, and support groups that us students are most likely to interact with, like student computing. They are not IMATS, though many times they work very closely with them. IMATS is under the library’s domain and helps with classes, Courseworks, and the media lab. BCIT does work like building computers and helping students with technical issues with the student computing services. The student computing services help with account-related issues, alumni support for email and drive transfer. They basically assist students with technological issues.

Next, they addressed their move to Milbank.

They wanted to announce that student computing and BCIT moved from Diana to Milbank 111 (the old financial aid office), as a part of the many moves that have been happening in Barnard’s campus. They do not anticipate any other changes in the future. 

Then they addressed how students can get help.

The easiest way to contact them is to email help@barnard.edu. Also, students can call the office, their phone number is 212-854-7172. Students looking for help could also come into the office from 9-5 Monday through Friday. On-campus Wifi is Barnard secure and Barnard guest. BCIT is able to help if students have any issues with on-campus Wifi. For external dorms, they might not be able to help because they are with external Wifis,  and if they can’t help, students should go to residential life. For help with transferring your email after graduation, there are senior events about this and also information on their website about how to figure that out.

Finally, they addressed what BCIT is currently working on.

Recently, they moved a lot of services to Workday which helps with the consolidation of information. However, they are still working on making this website better and more efficient. In addition, Barnard has to decide how to move the student information system out of the platform, Colleague, that’s been storing their information for a long time. BCIT is figuring out what other universities are doing to understand how to move forward, but it will take a while. Web Advisor is going to be retired this summer and be moved to student planning, Slate, or SSOL depending on which system is the best fit. Finally, and I think the most exciting announcement, Columbia is creating the platform Vergil, so that everyone can register on there instead of doing it in student planning for Barnard and SSOL for Columbia. This is extremely exciting because that means there will be no disadvantage to Barnard students in the course planning process.

Lastly, they went to the Q&A portion of the meeting. These were some of the questions asked and answered.

In the fall, SGA listened to a presentation from GS students about another student registration platform that other Ivies use. They proposed using a third-party software as opposed to Columbia creating the software in-house. Was this on their radar? What has BCIT been involved with in the development of that system?

The BCIT representatives said they had not heard about it. Columbia is considering a third-party system and BCIT is helping offer pros and cons to each system and has been long in conversation with what Columbia is building.

How can we get the word out about the new move to Milbank?

BCIT is grappling with how to get the right information in front of students when students are getting too much information in general. The representatives uno reversed it back to SGA. SGA responded by saying that they could put this in the SGA newsletter or on the SGA Instagram so be on the lookout for this information. Or you can just read this article with all the information right here!

When should students expect a response with a ticket?

Student computing responds relatively quickly in answering students about their technological problems. Depending on how easy the problem is, student computing can take a very short or much longer time to fix the problem. Student computing will keep communicating with students and they will be working on the technology from the backhand perspective.

And with that, the external part of the meeting comes to a close. That’s all for Barnard SGA this week! Stay tuned for more and I will see you all next week!

Image via Bwarchives