Vice President for Information Technology Status and Activity Report for June 2024 Prepared by Timothy M. Chester, Vice President for Information Technology (VPIT) 1. Key Items for Faculty and Staff Meetings •
University System of Georgia extending D2L contract through 2031: The University System of Georgia is in the process of extending the system’s contract with D2L Brightspace, our state-wide cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS), through 2031. The contract is currently in the signature process with cybersecurity and legal. The D2L Brightspace LMS helps the system’s institutions support online, hybrid and in-person teaching and learning, and the continued partnership with D2L will ensure students and faculty can continue this experience.
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Request for proposal issued for enterprise survey tool: Earlier this spring, an evaluation of UGA’s enterprise survey research tool, Qualtrics, was announced to campus. Qualtrics has mandated changes to their licensing approach which will result in unsustainable, significant price increases. EITS has committed to funding Qualtrics through the end of fiscal year 2025. A request for proposal (RFP) process is underway this summer and all survey vendors, including Qualtrics, will have the opportunity to be selected as UGA’s next enterprise survey tool. As part of this evaluation, all campus units that rely on Qualtrics for their survey needs should review their current and future Qualtrics use. Regardless of the tool chosen through the RFP process, any forms built in Qualtrics that are currently being used for purposes outside of survey research projects will need to transition to other platforms before August 1, 2025. Units incorporating Qualtrics into their administrative and business processes should evaluate other online form creation options, such as Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, and transition those Qualtrics surveys to different platforms. EITS will provide information and training resources for alternative tools this summer. For more information, contact Stacy Boyles at stacy.boyles@uga.edu.
2. Services for Students •
Work continues on more than $1M in campus wireless upgrades: Work is underway on more wireless upgrades in academic buildings and student housing across the Athens, Buckhead, and Griffin campuses. These upgrades are part of EITS’s work to continuously improve Wi-Fi connectivity and coverage to support teaching, learning, and student life. The $1.2 million a year project, funded by Student Technology Fees, includes wireless refreshments and redesigns in many buildings. Wireless upgrades have been recently completed for the J.W. Fanning and Fine Arts buildings. Technicians are also working on more improvements to other buildings and wireless spaces across campus; work for phase three is under way and expected to be completed next summer. For more information, contact David Stewart at stewart@uga.edu.
3. Services for Researchers •
GACRC adds new GPU nodes to support AI research: To further expand services to the AI research community, the Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center will add a total of 26 new GPU compute nodes to the Sapelo2 cluster. These nodes are detailed as 12 quadH100, 2 quad-A100 and 12 quad-L4, all being NVIDIA GPUs. Additionally, we will deploy 3 compute nodes with significant RAM memory to address specific workloads, notably in
VPIT Status and Activity Report for June 2024
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