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On December 23 of this academic year, Travis Mathna, Audio-Visual
Systems Integration & Support for Instructional Technology, and his wife, Peggy officially became parents of a
beautiful 14 year old daughter. Their adopted daughter, April, moved into her new home near Gardners Station. This
culminated a long process for Travis and Peggy. They began their efforts to adopt a child three years ago with an adoption
agency in Chambersburg, but after two years of no results they had about given up their hopes for adoption. Then a stroke of
luck happened. A woman who was an adoption counselor for Common Sense Adoption in Camp Hill met Travis and Peggy in their
capacity as contacts for the Greyhound Rescue Program. During the greyhound adoption process, Travis and Peggy told the
woman about their frustration with trying to adopt a child. The woman arranged a meeting with the couple and began work on
their case. Originally, Travis and Peggy were planning to adopt a younger child. Their counselor told them about April who
was living in a foster home with some good foster parents. Because of the nature of foster parenting, April was close to
being assigned to an alternative group home with other former foster children. This option would not be a nurturing growth
environment for a teenage child. She urged Travis and Peggy to at least meet with the foster family and meet April. Not
wanting to put pressure on April or themselves, Travis and Peggy worked out an arrangement with April’s foster parents
to meet in their home in Columbia for Friday night pizza under the guise of being “old friends”. April was
relaxed, talkative, and very pleasant. That meeting and a subsequent meeting at Travis and Peggy’s home where April
met one of their nieces and walked the dogs convinced them that April was just right to join their family. April agreed.
Full Story |
The Mathna Family | |
Key Card Access Control System | ||
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Sue Plank and Tony Gianato demonstrating |
Providing a safe and secure environment for students, faculty, staff, and administrators is a primary concern for everyone on campus. One tool that can aid in alleviating this concern is the development of a keying system that is tied to the college ID card issued to all members of the campus community. The use of this system can grant access on an individual basis to particular buildings or areas within buildings that are appropriate for that individual’s use. The Key Card Access System went live with its first phase, access to the Fitness Center turnstyles and the second phase, access to academic buildings and Musselman Library, in September. The third phase, access to First Year Residence Halls, is planned for this coming summer. These and other policy decisions are set by the Card Access Committtee, consisting of members from across the functional areas and divisions of the college, and chaired by Bill Lafferty, Director of Public Safety. The heart of the system is the black strip on the back of everyone’s ID card. It was originally used for meal and vending machine purposes. The management software is Microsoft’s IAS (Internet Authentication System), set up in the Dining Offices System and managed by Matt Miller. The access software and security was produced by Sielox Software and managed by a third party vendor, Security International. The on-campus recordkeeping involves creating categories for certain levels of access, granting the level of access at the time a person joins the campus community, denying access at the time they leave the community, keeping records of all access data, and tying the dining and access systems together. Managing this software falls on the shoulders of Anthony Gianato, Data Systems Program/Analyst, and Sue Plank, Assistant Director of College Life Technology. Starting from a blank page, Sue and Tony designed and implemented the system within one year. They continue to be responsible for the database account maintenance as the system administrators. Full Story | |
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Email is generally the first application that a person installs on a new computer or communications
device. It has transformed personal communications. However, with this blessing come some curses in the form of
unwanted communications such as advertisements, solicitations, scams, and other undesirable messages. The sheer
volume of email that the average person receives each day can quickly jam an inbox and lead to missed messages, or
overlooked messages that were intended to be answered later, but missed amid the flood of messages. Recently
In Touch With IT sat down with Vice President for IT, Rodney Tosten, to discuss the problem of
crowded, messy mailboxes and how to keep SPAM under control, how to organize one’s mailboxes into folders
to keep desired messages grouped, creating rules to block undesirable messages and sort others.
Full Story
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 A Folder Created to Receive Campus Daily Digests | |
Construction Proceeds With IT’s New QuartersMaking Connections Across Campus | ||
