The UC Davis Sociology Department provides computer support for affiliated faculty, staff and graduate students. Each year a Computer Committee is nominated to provide recommendations to the Chair of the Department (and to faculty if warranted) for computer policies and technical support guidelines. The Committee is made up of two to four faculty members, and three ex-officio members including the department Chair, MSO and lead Systems Administrator. The Committee is responsible for I.T. recommendations concerning planning, budget oversight, policies, establishing standards and soliciting feedback from the department.

For day-to-day computer support issues, the Department has two full-time technical staff. Part of their responsibilities are to provide computer support to the department. Department affiliates can request computer support by sending email to support@sociology.ucdavis.edu or using the computer support link on the Sociology Department website. Drop-in support is also available as the workload permits. For in-person support, visit 1283 Social Sciences and Humanities between the hours of 8am-12pm and 1pm-6pm. Support emails are perodically monitored during off hours in case of emergencies.

Computer Purchasing and Replacement

The Department routinely replaces faculty and staff computers within every four years (subject to budget). In order to streamline purchasing and computer support, the department recommends the purchase of a standardized PC. Standardizing on a particular computer model saves the department time and money and provides for better service to the department. Full support is also provided for Macs. Support for laptop users is provided to the extent possible.

Faculty who require a specialized computer configuration can work with the I.T. staff to accommodate their needs. If the cost of any specialized configuration exceeds the standard department allotment for computer replacement, then the faculty member will need to cover the additional cost using their own funding.

In general, the purchase of a laptop for use as a primary computer is discouraged. Laptop computers present an inherent security risk to the department network. Because of the mobile nature of laptops roaming from one network to the next, it is difficult to protect our computer network and resources from risks brought in from other networks. Also, sensitive data such as student, interview, respondent and financial records should not be stored on laptop computers because of the risk of theft and lack of physical security. Finally, it is impossible for the I.T. staff to ensure that laptops will be regularly patched with security updates and backed up if the computer is not connected to the department network at all times. Faculty who require a laptop for research or instructional use should work with the I.T. staff to minimize such risks.

Computing Security

Failure of system users (faculty, staff, graduate student, or lecturers) to maintain an adequate level of system security, resulting in compromised systems or malicious probes/attacks on other computers, may result in removal of the system from the department network.

For more information on data and network security issues, please refer to the following web pages:

• UC Davis Cyber-Safety Program
  
• Security Resources for Various Computer Systems
  
• Policies and Directives

Backup Policy

Faculty and staff computers are backed up nightly. Nightly backup sets are retained locally for two weeks. Once per week a snapshot of the nightly backups is archived and stored off-site. Backups include user profiles, which is the C:\Documents and Settings directory on Windows PCs or the /Users directory on Macs.

Nightly backups include the following:

• My Documents (Windows) or Home directory (Macintosh)

• Desktop folder
• Email stored locally

Nightly backups do not include:

• Media files such as music and movies regardless of their location
• Secondary hard drives
• Any directories outside of your user profile

Faculty and Staff workstations are backed up nightly if left on and connected to the department network. Because of the mobile nature of laptops, the I.T. staff cannot ensure that laptops are included in the nightly backups. Faculty who use laptops are encouraged to leave their computer with the computer support staff once per week for a manual backup.

Students and lecturers are encouraged to copy their files to removable media such as a flash memory stick or their network home directory (Z: drive) which is backed up daily. To maintain system security and hard drive space on computers in the lab, the I.T. staff may reformat and erase all data on these computers at any time without notice. Computers in graduate student and lecturer offices are not backed up. A 7-day advance notice will be given before computers in graduate students and lecturers' offices are erased; in time of emergency, a 24-hour advance notice will be given before computers in graduate students and lecturers' offices are erased or reformatted.

Software

The Department installs and supports the following standard software on all department computers:

Some specialized software for research and instruction is freely available to department affiliates. However, most specialized software will need to be purchased by the primary investigator. Faculty are encouraged to include a budget for specialized software in their grant proposals. Please contact the I.T. staff for a current list of available specialized software and the associated costs, if any.

Purchasing

The Computer Committee includes routine faculty and staff computer replacement in their annual budget within four years. The computer staff informs faculty and staff members about equipment replacement and recommends a standard package. Faulty parts for computers younger than three years are covered by warranty; the department will cover replacement parts on primary faculty computers that are no longer covered by manufacturer warranty. The department also funds software programs for both undergraduate and graduate instructional use that includes computer lab instruction. Specialized software programs for faculty research are supported by faculty research grants. Computer related purchase requests should be given at least one month prior to the department fiscal close deadline (June 30) and the closing date of the equipment purchasing deadline of the funding source. Additional lead time is suggested for times which may require obtaining quotes from vendors, issuing purchase orders, researching performance and compatibility. All purchases must be made through the department - reimbursement is not possible.

Printing

To lower printing costs, users are strongly encouraged to use our efficient network printer located in the mailroom.

Service Level Agreement

To maintain high-quality support for the Department and its affiliates, four broad categories have been determined by the Computer Committee to be representative of the typical requests and areas of focus for the technical staff. All computer support requests would fall under one of the four categories listed below. The standard initial response time is noted to the right of the category. These service levels apply to both PCs and Macs, desktops and laptops.

High Priority - Immediate

• Server issues that impact multiple people
• Public printer issues
• Time critical projects
• Security breaches
• Issues that prevent work from being done, and there is no quick workaround

Normal Priority - One day to one week

• File restore from backup
• Personal printer issues at the department
• Purchase requests
• Help with standard department software
• Help with UC Davis administrative software (Banner, PPS, DaFIS, DESII)
• Installation and maintenance of specialized software purchased by the department (Stata, SPSS, StatTransfer, Matlab, EndNote, HLM, LISREL and Atlas)
• PDA support for Palm OS devices
• OS re-installation on a yearly basis, unless there is a stability issue which merits reinstall
• Issues that prevent work from being done, when there are other methods of getting the work done Limited assistance with MyUCDavis, web-based course management and other central campus services
• Website updates

Low Priority -­ As time allows

• Support for non-standard hardware or software if required for research or instruction
• Basic functionality of department systems used at home, if the system is brought to the office

No Priority - No support provided

• Installation or upgrade of commercial software without proof of license
• Operating systems and applications not actively supported by the vendor (e.g. Windows 95/98, Mac OS 9)
• Home Internet and network services (e.g. Cable, DSL, off-campus wireless networks)
• Computer issues involving non-department machines
• Personal printer issues at home
• Support for machines not primarily used by the faculty, staff or students in the department
• Non-UC Davis email accounts
• Support for entertainment hardware/software unless required for research or instruction (e.g. MP3 Players, DVD players, etc.)
• Telephone service, troubleshooting, or repair
• Non-Palm OS PDA support

Graduate Student Computing

The department equips each graduate student office with a computer that features the standard department software including Microsoft Office, Internet and Email access. In addition to graduate student offices, the department offers a graduate computer lab located in 296 Social Sciences and Humanities. The computer lab consists of eight Windows PCs and two Macs. Specialized software such as Stata, SPSS and EndNote is available in the graduate computer lab.

Graduate students are encouraged to take advantage of other labs and resources on campus such as:

• Social Science Data Service
• IET Computer Labs

Lecturer Computing

The department equips lecturer offices with a computer that features the standard department software including Microsoft Office, Internet and Email access. Also, the I.T. staff can provide technical training and orientations to lecturers who are new to UC Davis and need assistance learning how to use the central campus computing systems for instruction.

Emeriti Computing

The department provides a computer in 1283 Social Sciences and Humanities for emeriti use. The computer features the standard department software including Microsoft Office, Internet and Email access. Emeriti who have made arrangements to retain their office may also have a computer there. Such computers are not included in the four-year replacement budget and will be decommissioned when they are no longer operable or when security updates are no longer available from the vendor.

Contacting the Computer Committee

For questions or concerns regarding these technical support guidelines, please email the Sociology Department Computer Committee at soc-compc@ucdavis.edu. All other computer related questions can be directed to support@sociology.ucdavis.edu.