The Faculty/Staff Link provides access to class schedules, class lists, final exam schedules, advisee lists, class photographs, textbook information, links to course websites, and an electronic Faculty Annual Report template. Access to these useful resources requires a BU login and valid Kerberos password, obtained at the IT Help Center, located at 179 Amory Street or in the Mugar Library at 771 Commonwealth Avenue.
Below is a list of definitions for each function you will find on the Faculty/Staff Link.
University Tools
- University Class Schedule
Access current and future University class schedules by selecting the desired semester and college. By entering the departmental acronym (i.e., CS for Computer Science), course number, and section number, the following detailed information about that particular course appears:- Class number (includes hyperlink for course description)
- Course title
- Instructor (may include hyperlink to an instructor’s own web page if instructor creates one)
- Number of credit hours
- Number of students currently enrolled
- Building and room number (includes hyperlink for building location information)
- Time that the class meets
- University Class Schedule Download
Provides users with the option to download the class schedule.
- University Course Descriptions
Provides descriptions of courses offered by the University. The listing can be searched by semester, college, department acronym, and course number.
- University Course Description Search
Gives list of course descriptions by semester year, department, and course number.
- University Final Exam Schedule
Displays the final exam schedule for the entire University for the current semester.
- University Final Exam Schedule Download
Provides users with the option to download the Final Exam Schedule.
- Faculty Annual Report (Charles River Campus)
Provides an interactive version of the University form that faculty may complete and submit electronically during the annual review process, usually September and October. Reports completed online during previous cycles can be viewed or downloaded through the links provided.
- Faculty External Activity Report
Each year, all full-time faculty members are required to complete an external activity report for the previous calendar year to ensure that the external activities of faculty members are consistent with the policy set forth in the Faculty Handbook.
- What’s On the Link
Provides descriptive information about the features of the Faculty/Staff Link.
- Calendars
Displays the University’s main calendar page, which lists special events, the academic calendar, housing schedules, athletic schedules, and holidays.
Instructor's Tools
- Class Lists
Presents the current courses the instructor is teaching. By selecting a course, the instructor can view and download the class list, send email to individual students, or send email to the entire class at once. The instructor has the option to download a photo gallery of the class for use in creating seating charts and/or screensavers. By clicking on a student’s name, the faculty member may access the entire academic record of that student. That information is only available for the duration of the class.
- Grading
Allows an instructor to enter students’ final grades online and publish them for viewing in the Student and Faculty/Staff Links.
- Advisee List
Provides the same access features as the Class List function, but for advisees. Advisors may obtain a complete list of advisees. Students may elect to give a faculty member permission to view records for advising purposes, even though the student may not be an assigned advisee.
- Link Your Homepage
Provides the tools to couple a faculty member’s webpage address or URL with his or her name anytime the professor’s name appears on the Link. Information about creating personal web pages is available at https://www.bu.edu/tech/services/cccs/websites/people/.
- Instructor Classes
Allows access to the current or past teaching schedule of any faculty member.
- Final Exam Matrix
Allows an instructor to display the names of all students enrolled in his or her course in a matrix that plots students’ exam times and availability. Instructors are able to identify common free time to accommodate scheduling a study group or an alternate exam time.
- Class List Matrix
Displays the schedules of all students enrolled in a particular class in a matrix format, for the purpose of identifying mutual free time for the purpose of scheduling office hours, study groups, or make-up exam times.
Administrator's Tools
- Past University Class Schedule
Allows administrators to look at past class schedules and click on courses to view class lists. Lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to the entire class, or students’ photos can be displayed.
- Student List by Class
Allows administrators to look at students by class and click on courses to look at class lists. In addition to these reports, lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to the entire class, or other populations can be retrieved.
- Student List by Graduation
The administrator can choose a population of students by semester, college, program hegis, degree, graduation status, or graduation honors and provide a name for the list. In addition to these reports, lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to those on a list, or other populations can be retrieved.
- Student List by Advisor
Allows the administrator to view a student list by their advisor. Lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to those on a list, or students’ photos can be displayed.
- Instructor’s Schedule
Allows the administrator to view an instructor’s class schedule. The class list can be displayed by clicking on the courses. Lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to the class, or the students’ photos can be displayed.
- Graduate Admissions Selections
The administrator can choose a population of students by semester, college, program hegis, admission status, application status, or student’s response and provide a name for it. In addition to these reports, lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to a population, or other populations can be retrieved.
- Select Student List by College
The administrator can choose a population of students by semester, college, program hegis, registration status, class year, or continuation code and provide a name for it. In addition to these reports, lists can be downloaded, emails can be composed and sent to a population, or other populations can be retrieved.
- Population Review
Allows administrators to review the student populations that were previously selected (for a two-week period), or import a file from their desktop.
- Select Student
Grants the administrator access to a student’s personal and academic information. This is limited to a student within his or her college of affiliation. Past and future ungraded classes can be edited to perform “what if” scenarios.
- Student List by Combined Class List
Provides the same information as a class list, but is applied to classes that are grouped or have many sections.
- Instructor’s Final Exam Matrix
Allows the administrator to view any instructor’s final exam matrix, within their college of affiliation.
- Instructor’s Class Matrix
Allows the administrator to view any instructor’s class list matrix, within their college of affiliation.
- New Graduate Admissions
Provides graduate admissions staff with the ability to add new, robust graduate applications, and modify a wide range of data. Preview the tool (limited distribution).
Other Resources
- Faculty Salary Review Comments
Allows departments to paste the dean’s or chair’s salary increase comments into the recommendation form.
- Faculty Assembly/Faculty Council
Provides a link to the web pages of the Faculty Assembly and the Faculty Council, which represent the faculty in important University matters.
- Faculty Handbook
Provides a link to the handbook maintained by the Office of the Provost.
- My Grants & Contracts
Offers principal investigators grant-to-date accounting and journal entry tracking reports. Investigators may also delegate viewing access to colleagues and assistants.
- Business Link
Provides access to the Business Link.
- Employee Link
Allows an employee to view and change personal information, apply for a parking permit or an MBTA pass, change their Kerberos password, and view job listings.
- Learning Management Systems
Provides information about course management software used at Boston University, such as Blackboard Learn and Blackboard Vista.
- BU Libraries
Provides a direct link to the web pages of the Boston University Libraries.
- BU Today
BU Today is a news site for the BU community, posting news, calendars, and other items of interest.
- Academic Calendar
Displays the University’s Academic Calendar.
- UIS Mainframe File Services
Allows faculty to manage mainframe files, including downloading, copying, viewing, renaming, and deleting.
Contact
- Questions and Info
This link provides general information topics from which to select. These include academic calendars from previous years, student account information, information about MyBU Student Portal, registrar information, information about the logon process, and a list of FAQ (frequently asked questions).
- Report a Problem
Provides the user with the Link Support telephone number and an email link to the system developers. A HELP option also appears here, providing a list of answers to common problems and a list of on-campus locations for computing resources needed to access the Link.
- Suggestion Box
Provides the user with the Link Support telephone number and an email link to the system developers. Faculty are encouraged to submit suggestions for improvements or enhancements via the Suggestion Box.