Application Development

The special maintenance on the Datatel system is complete for Wednesday, March 11. Thanks for your patience and understanding while we did some additional maintenance on the system.

Yesterday, all communications to colleague databases on the Datatel server (lewis-2) were secured with SSL. Now Datatel (Colleague) users can feel free to run Datatel wirelessly. Securing Datatel has been a todo item for quite awhile and brings us one step closer to releasing UIWeb, a web version of Datatel. Additionally, this makes Adam happy and should do the same for our auditors.

Now that 1098T forms have been mailed to students, a new feature is now available on the my.luther.edu web site.

Students can now view their 1098T information in a PDF format.

The new menu item is on the Students menu under the Financial Information section.

A message was sent to the 1628 Alumni with active @luther.edu email accounts reminding them not to share their Norse Key and that Luther Library and Information Services and the Technology Help Desk will NEVER request confidential information, including Passwords, via e-mail.

40,731 friends, students, alumni, regents, staff, prospective students, and parents were invited to view the 2008 Luther electronic Christmas card. The Admissions and Alumni offices sent the email invitations using DaDa mailer list accounts setup by Adam. Mailing list accounts can be requested through the helpdesk and instructions are available for people on campus interested in using DaDa mailer for bulk email messaging. The Publications Office worked with a design agency to create the card and graphics used in the email message.

We are currently testing a new Datatel process that will allow students to obtain a printable copy of their 1098T form from the my.luther.edu web site.

Luther is still required to mail paper forms to students, but the new functionality will allow students to reprint their form if they need another copy.

Luther is participating in the beta testing for these forms right now. Datatel expects to have the software update in general delivery for all Datatel clients within the next two weeks.

On the Luther Directory at https://www.luther.edu/directory/ PDFs have been added. They are portions of the Faculty/Staff Directory for this year. By posting these PDFs it should make finding people in a department easier.

The Luther College Course Catalog for 2008-09 is now available online at www.luther.edu/catalog and replicates the printed version of the catalog. Greg Vanney in Publications and Kristi Haindfield in the Registrar’s Office maintain the information and are able to make changes for next year’s publication through the SmartCatalog software. SmartCatalog software is able to produce a printer-ready copy of the catalog for the next printed publication. Faculty, staff, and students should use my.luther, search for sections, for recent changes to course information and offerings.

The Luther Admission’s website now allows new students to submit their enrollment deposit by credit card online. Students will need to provide their Datatel ID (provided by the Admission’s Office in the mailed student acceptance packet) and name to make the deposit.

The new course evaluation surveys are now available to students. Students in the pilot group of courses will receive an email message with a link to their course evaluation and reminders to complete the evaluations by December 12th. Faculty no longer have access to the faculty information or additional question information for their courses. If students have questions about the survey process they should contact Janine in the Dean’s office at ext. 1005 or email IDEA@luther.edu