Category: Support Information
Housing Reservations via The Link – February 2012
On Thursday, February 2, 2012, shortly after 9 a.m., BU Housing plans to “turn on” the Housing Reservation websites that will be used by continuing students to reserve housing for the 2012–13 academic year.
Please note that the Housing Reservation deadline is 5 p.m. on Friday, February 24, 2012.
The URLs for the Housing Reservation websites are as follows:
Students: https://www.bu.edu/link/shortcut/housing_reservations
Parent payments: https://www.bu.edu/link/shortcut/housing_reservations_payment
Admin: https://www.bu.edu/link/shortcut/housing_reservations_admin
If you receive any inquiries that you cannot answer, please forward them as an external email to housing@bu.edu.
This information can also be found in KB article KB0010379 in ServiceNow.
The BU Admissions process and related Web Accounts
Please note that there is a different admissions process for undergraduate and graduate school applicants. You should become familiar with the information related to Web Accounts and the admissions process outlined in KB article KB0010970 titled "Web Accounts - Application for Admission - Setup and Common Problems" or search on key words such as "Web Accounts" or "Admission".
Client-facing information is provided at
http://www.bu.edu/tech/accounts/special/applicants/web-accounts/
While the KB article and TechWeb page should be reviewed, the key difference in process is as follows:
U: Undergraduate applicants to Boston University should begin the process for Undergraduate Admissions outlined at www.bu.edu/apply. As part of that process, undergraduates who apply to Boston University using the Common Application will receive an e-mail with instructions for creating a BU Web Account. Once they have a BU Web Account, they will be able to use it to check the status of their application credentials and their admissions decision through the Applicant Link. If they have questions about their application or the BU Web Account, they should contact Undergraduate Admissions.
G: Graduate Applicants should begin their online application on the website of the school to which they are applying. During the application process, they will be prompted to create a BU Web Account. If they have questions about the application or the BU Web Account, they should contact the admissions office of the corresponding graduate school. Also note: Graduate applicants should take care to click on "New client" when applying for a Web Account. Specific questions about the actual application should be directed to the relevant graduate admissions department.
Escalation of tickets regarding ServiceNow
Going forward, please assign all incident/service request tickets regarding ServiceNow (aka Service-Now) to the Applications Development - Process Applications assignment group.
For future reference, this is a link to the related kb article.
Online W2 access
A new Knowledge Base entry has been added regarding Online W2 access through the BUworks Central Portal/ESS. In short, online W2's will not be available this year.
https://bu.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0010363
New BUworks KnowledgeBase Entries
There have been two entries added to the Knowledge Base regarding BUworks. The first discusses escalating BUworks Readiness Leader Requests for additional roles/access for employees. The second explains escalations during the Support Pack Implementation.
https://bu.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0010316 - Escalation of Readiness Leader requests
https://bu.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=KB0010317 - Support Pack Implementation Escalation Information
New MATLAB license servers
Starting on January 3rd, 2012 we are switching over to new MATLAB license servers. Anyone using a local version of MATLAB prior to 2011b will require a new license file.
Support information can be found in this KB article on ServiceNow. Additional information about this service can be found on Tech Web.
Effective immediately: All Retiring Fac/Staff & Professors/Presidents Emeritus Retain Email Accounts
Effective immediately, this is a change in the perk for retiring faculty/staff and a continuation of the policy for Professors/Presidents Emeritus. These populations now retain their existing e-mail accounts (ACS, Google, Exchange) for life. Retirees should no longer be transitioned to Google unless they expressly request that option. Forwarding their login@bu.edu mail to an external email address is still an option they may choose.
When Office 365 becomes available, this policy will be reviewed for retirees with accounts on ACS.
If you have any questions, please see Linda.
This is the new text on the Retiree Perk page at HR:
"Keep your BU email account and BU login: All Professors Emeritus and retiring faculty and staff are able to retain their existing BU email accounts hosted on ACS*, Google and/or Microsoft Exchange. No action is required. If you no longer wish to retain your BU email account but do wish to keep your login@bu.edu email address, you can set up forwarding of your incoming BU email to an external email account. If you have any questions or would like assistance, please contact or visit the IT Help Center.
*Please note that the ACS mail server will be decommissioned in late 2012. At that time, any retiree accounts on ACS will be included in the transition to an alternate mail server."
False-positive phishing message regarding United Way
A false-positive phishing warning may appear in Outlook 2010 for clients who receive a message from Peter Fiedler regarding the United Way Boston University Employee Giving Campaign. Despite this warning, the message is legitimate. Please inform clients that the message is safe if we receive any calls or tickets. An example of this warning is posted below:
SPSS license expirations
BU offers versions 15 through 20 of SPSS. The newest versions (19 and 20) are up-to-date, but the older SPSS client program licenses expire tomorrow, December 1st, 2011. They will continue to function for one month, but the few people who still use them will see an initial warning message. Please reassure clients that IS&T is aware of the problem and will refresh the licenses by next Tuesday, December 6th, 2011.
Meet “Knowledge – All” – a new way to search
Starting today, a third way of searching the Knowledge Base is available. Look for Knowledge - All within the Overview & Preferences section of ServiceNow, as shown below.
This listing of all Knowledge Base articles can be filtered using any number of criteria. However, to yield the maximum number of accurate results, we recommend keeping it simple. For example, a search "for text" - "Account" (as shown below) will give you more results than a search on "Accounts." So use a single, key word "for text" search term in its singular form and that should give you the highest number of applicable results.
If you have any problems or questions, please submit a ticket and map it to "Documentation & Tools." Also, just a reminder that detailed information on use of the KB is maintained at www.bu.edu/tech/kb.