Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity


Federal Student Aid

FSA Details Data Security Requirements Taking Effect June 9

The U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office recently published detailed information security requirements for higher education institutions that previously or currently service, administer, or aid in the administration of a Federal Student Aid program, noting that IHEs participating in FSA programs fall under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and must comply with its mandates by June 9, 2023.

cloud data center

U of South Carolina Boosts IT Agility with Cloud Data Center Move

The University of South Carolina has replaced its data center with a custom cloud-based Software-Defined Data Center solution from digital infrastructure provider DartPoints.

Grand Valley State U Teams with Littera on High-Impact Tutoring for Michigan Schools

A new partnership between the Grand Valley State University NextEd Co-Lab and Littera Education will provide every K–12 school district in Michigan with access to research-based, high-impact tutoring.

ransomware

Ransomware Hit 64% of Higher Ed Institutions Globally in 2021, Sophos Survey Finds

Cybersecurity firm Sophos today released its annual State of Ransomware report showing ransomware attacks nearly doubled in 2021 from the year before, and among higher ed institutions included in the global survey of IT professionals, 64% or 410 institutions said they hit by ransomware last year.

COVID-19

Crowdsourced Document Tracks Institutions' COVID Strategies for 2022

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly across the United States, colleges and universities face a familiar dilemma: Will COVID force a pivot to online when classes begin in the new year? A new project kicked off by futurist Bryan Alexander aims to crowdsource the answer to that question in a shared Google spreadsheet.

COVID Back-to-School

Free Rensselaer App Helps Project COVID-19 Re-opening Impact

An online tool developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute helps project back-to-school COVID-19 outcomes based on data such as testing frequency, number of in-person classes per day per student, mask-wearing compliance and more.

Campus Technology Insider Podcast

Podcast Bonus: How the Pandemic Gave IT a Seat at the Table

For information technology leaders in higher education, one silver lining of the pandemic has been the opportunity it has given IT to shine at a strategic level. In this bonus episode of the podcast, university CIOs Jill Albin-Hill and Paige Francis share how they have been able to get involved in pandemic response planning, fast-track IT projects, provide critical solutions to campus challenges, elevate the position of IT within institutional leadership, and more.

Qualtrics Intros Return to Learn Hub to Help Guide Campus Reopening

Survey software and experience management company Qualtrics has created the Return to Learn Hub, a tool for performing daily symptom checks and contact tracing, as well as gauging student and staff sentiment on campus decisions.

Campus Technology Insider Podcast

Podcast: Inside University of Kentucky’s Pandemic Response Team

The fall semester is beginning, and we are finally starting to see reopening plans play out at colleges and universities across the country. In this episode of the Campus Technology Insider podcast, Executive Editor Rhea Kelly explores the pandemic decision-making process with Dr. Eric Monday, executive vice president for finance and administration at the University of Kentucky, and also the chair of UK’s Pandemic Response Team. He talks about how the team is structured, what types of data they monitor, what kinds of challenges they have been working through, and how they are approaching contingency planning.

Campus Technology Insider Podcast

Podcast Bonus: Managing Higher Ed's "New Normal"

In this bonus episode of the podcast, Dr. Elliot Stern, president of Saddleback College in Southern California, talks candidly about how his institution is making strategic decisions for the fall and what kinds of policies and infrastructure they are putting in place to move forward. The conversation comes from Campus Technology's recent Distance Learning Summit – a virtual event focused on the most critical considerations for managing higher ed's "new normal" during the COVID-19 pandemic.