Rutgers IT Annual Review 2022-2023
Information Technology Advancing the University Mission
Message from Michele Norin, Senior VP & Chief Information Officer
At a university of Rutgers’ breadth and stature, the technology offerings are truly vast. That’s as it should be, given the key role played by technology for every aspect of the university’s mission. From Canvas to Wi-Fi to Zoom, we need technology to teach and learn, make new discoveries, advance healthcare, conduct university business, and serve our communities.
Rutgers relies on scores of IT services, some known by pretty much everyone at the university (myRutgers, RUWireless, ScarletMail), others that are newer and still garnering attention (the Virtual Computer Labs, for instance), and we are continually seeking to improve, expand, and ensure you know about them. To enhance the Rutgers network so it’s faster and more resilient. To simplify and streamline tech support for faculty, students, and staff. To ensure researchers have the computing resources to innovate. As you look at the accomplishments of the past fiscal year, I hope you will reflect on the dedication of the IT teams who are making all of this happen and seek to discover even more of the resources we have to offer the Rutgers community.
Sincerely,
Michele Norin
Senior Vice President
and Chief Information OfficerÂ
Rutgers IT by the numbers
Explore impressive statistics, numbers, and milestones within various areas of Rutgers IT.
Supercomputers solve complex problems
From never-before-seen looks at the galaxy to predicting cardiovascular disease, the Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC) is at the helm of innovative and life-changing research. OARC offers world-class supercomputers like Amarel and experts who help researchers face complex computational projects.
With support from the National Science Foundation, a new high-performance computing cluster, Price, was added to Amarel resources at Rutgers–Newark in January 2023. Price marks a significant milestone in efforts to expand computing capabilities and support its growing research community.
$66.6 million
dollars in new research awards for OARC-partnered projects since March 2016
365+
Rutgers departments, institutes, and organizations performing research on systems maintained by OARC
1,800+
faculty, staff, and students from over 200 departments across Rutgers campuses have attended high-performance computing training since inception in 2017
2 billion+
Amarel compute hours surpassed in 2023
4,800+
Rutgers faculty, staff, and students using Amarel for research, training, and education purposes
Enhancing educational technology
Academic technology tools are vital for the Rutgers community to effectively learn, instruct, and work in and out of the classroom. Key resources include:
- Adobe
- Canvas
- Computer labs – in-person and virtual
- LinkedIn Learning
- Microsoft Office
Digital Learning Commons (DLC) at Alexander LibraryÂ
Web conferencing and collaboration
Web conferencing continues to be a key factor when it comes to collaboration and communication within the Rutgers community. With Rutgers’ three powerhouse web conferencing platforms—Zoom, Webex, and Microsoft Teams—faculty, staff, and students have a variety of options and features to choose from when it comes to meeting, holding classes, hosting events, working on projects, and more online.
Meetings hosted over the past year*
1,338,275
130,461
177,418
*These figures are estimated throughout the 2022-2023 fiscal year.
The power of a resilient network and cybersecurity
Producing information is one of the most important things that a major research university like Rutgers does, so protecting that critical information is a must for Rutgers IT. We store it securely, back it up to protect against data loss, and organize it so the entire Rutgers community can find it when needed.
A major component of that is the Rutgers network, which is currently undergoing a multi-year effort, to add more strength, speed, and technical upgrades across Rutgers locations that will further support the vast, ongoing projects and initiatives at the university.
User-friendly tech support with the Rutgers IT Help portal
The Rutgers IT Help portal (ServiceNow for IT Service Management) has made significant progress over the past year including, but not limited to:
- Adding 40 new service request forms for users.
- Onboarding new IT teams to change enablement to support the timely and efficient delivery of changes to university services.
- Launching a new user interface to modernize ServiceNow’s look, feel, and navigation for ITSM agents.
- Rolling out the mobile app and user location data to support IT Service Management users.
- Offering one-on-one team training sessions.
- Hosting a ServiceNow higher education user group for IT staff with speakers from MIT, Yale, and other Big Ten Academic Alliance schools.
374,800 knowledge article views
15,378 users accessed the portal
16,709 incidents submitted through the portal
Behind-the-scenes look at new version of the myRutgers portal
Known as the personalized portal for Rutgers online services and garnering over nine million logins a year, myRutgers provides faculty, staff, and students access to academic, financial, and employee self-service applications in one place.
During 2022-2023, IT staff members worked on a major upgrade to the myRutgers portal for the Rutgers community. This new version was developed to provide added convenience and functionality to the platform, including a new mobile application, a maps section with real-time bus information, a university social community section, and a hub for university news. Its beta launch occurred in Fall 2023 and the new version is anticipated to officially launch in 2024.
 The Rutgers Barnes & Noble College First Day is officially available for winter, spring, summer, or fall courses, so all students have seamless access to all digital course materials via Canvas?
RU–N IT has been working on major Rutgers–Newark outreach programs to address digital disparities and promote digital inclusion in the Newark community?
RU–Camden IT integrated new tech upgrades including student-facing cameras, expanded video recording capabilities, and more in classrooms all across campus this year?
Rutgers IT has provided the university with all of its technology needs – both on and off campus, near and far. These are just a few of the many IT projects and initiatives that made a major impact on the university this year.
Inside look at Rutgers IT resources
Learn about Rutgers IT and the wide variety of resources offered to faculty, staff, and students, including the Rutgers IT newsroom, Tech Guides, security tips, web conferencing best practices, and more.
About Rutgers IT
Helpful Resources
Remote Tips
Social
Annual review 2022-2023 credits
- Produced by the IT Communications team within the Office of Information Technology
- Communications planning, creative direction, and project management by Amanda Pecora-DeFazio
- Writing and research by Allan Hoffman, Amanda Pecora-DeFazio, Paige Geralds, and Tori Yeasky
- Website development by Rich Sese
- Website design and coordination by Anita DeSimone
- Graphic design by Kyndall Thornton
- Also, thank you to the numerous IT staff members throughout various OIT divisions and Rutgers schools, departments, and units who provided statistics and data for the 2022-2023 annual review.
Data refers to fiscal year 2023, unless otherwise noted.