Rutgers.eduAnnual Review 2021-2022
Did you know?
Technology impacts this university in many ways, but did you know about the various areas and reach of Rutgers IT efforts? From preparing for a hybrid workplace in Camden to working on various youth initiatives in Newark to upgrading the Wi-Fi at SHI stadium and more, Rutgers’ tech needs continue to be taken care of throughout each campus.
Technology in the service of patient care
2.8 million
annual patient visits to Rutgers health practices
New fundraising system to enhance alumni connection
The Rutgers University Foundation started converting to a new CRM fundraising system, Affinaquest. This relationship management system is in the Salesforce platform, which is part of the Scarlet Journey initiative. Affinaquest will provide faster and more accurate processing to better serve Rutgers alumni and donors. Additionally, the Foundation will be able to tailor messages to prospective donors and alumni in the system so that outreach is more personable and geared towards their specific interests.
Women+ in IT group scores grant to assist Newark youth
In April 2022, the Rutgers Women+ in IT group was awarded the Rutgers–Newark Chancellor’s Impact Seed grant. The $25,000 award is going towards two initiatives to develop STEM in the Newark community:
- Supporting FIRST LEGO League Challenge for middle school students, an annual event that runs for 12 weeks in the fall, which brings students together to work as a team.
- Designing a two-year program for the new high school, the School of Data Science & Information Technology, located in the West Ward of Newark. This program will provide an understanding of data science and the backend programming to develop online applications.
RU–Camden IT equips faculty and staff for hybrid work life
RU–Camden IT has moved to a mobile-first/laptop strategy for all full-time faculty and staff. As part of this initiative, now, no matter if faculty and staff are in their homes or at the office, they can access any of their data from the Cloud seamlessly by using OneDrive. Necessary technological equipment like laptops, docking stations, keyboards, monitors, and mouse were also provided to 700+ employees in order to support both work locations. This gave employees flexibility and helped to increase their productivity in the hybrid workplace environment. Additionally, employees will receive a new high performing computer every four years in order for them to maintain efficiency with leading-edge technology.
RU-N IT strengthening connections in the classroom
The wireless classroom initiative is a collaborative project between RU-N IT and academic departments in Newark that focuses on creating tighter coordination between the technical resources, faculty, and students. With the Rutgers–University Newark wireless classroom initiative, hundreds of Rutgers students in multiple Newark courses can use RUWireless Secure to take their online mid-term and final exams successfully. The goal is to assist faculty and students in navigating the uncharted hybrid workplace environment, including allowing them to consistently access online exams and other time-sensitive work through the university’s secure internet without any hindrances.
Upgraded Wi-Fi for students in SHI stadium
The Wi-Fi project for the student section of SHI stadium was completed in time for the first football home game against Temple University on September 4, 2021. With the help of Athletics, OIT, especially RUWireless and the Project Management Office, Bullet Communications, Cisco, and AmpThink, students who are preconfigured for RUWireless Secure can enjoy Wi-Fi in the student section and that concourse. For the second home game against Delaware on September 18, 2021, over 1,500 clients took advantage of connecting to Wi-Fi in that area.
Student section fans at SHI Stadium during Wagner game.
SAS application additions and updates
The School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), Rutgers’ largest school, has a tech operation responsible for a number of applications and services that power the school and other units. This year, the SAS IT Office deployed a new application, the Onboarding system, that gathers departmentally provided information and facilitates communication between new employees and the school’s human resources staff.
Furthermore, their eLearning placement exam application, which allows all incoming students at Rutgers to take an assessment to determine what course they will be eligible for in various subjects, expanded to support nine languages in 2022, including Polish, French, and German.