Continuity Plan Topics

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Please find below a list of topics covered by the College of Computing business continuity plan. As we continue to move forward in the coming days, we will update this page with new information. You can find links to Institute resources and a digest of the dean's daily e-mails at the right. 

RECENT UPDATES: Digital Proctoring (under "Digital Proctoring," below); Link to Spring 2020 Grading and GPA policies (at right); Updated hours and for package delivery (under "Deliveries"); updated schedule and info for TSO (under "Tech Support").

Building access

CCB and Klaus now restricted to card access, the same way it normally is after hours, but all day.

Check Requests

Please turn in your GTF check requests to the College Financial Services Office as normal.  They will be signed and delivered to the Foundation Office on Fridays (starting the week of March 30) for processing. You will be notified to come and pick up checks on a given Friday.​

Cybersecurity

FOR DEVICES: The best thing you can do to keep your computer and other devices safe is to make sure you have completed all available software updates. You should turn on automatic updates whether you use a Windows machine or a Mac. If you are sharing a computer with others in your home, you should set up unique logins or accounts for each person who uses the machine.

FOR PEOPLE: We know that there has been a rise in phishing and other malicious impersonations. You may receive deceptive texts, calls and e-mails from people claiming to be Institute, college or school leadership. If you are in doubt, please forward the e-mail to phishing@gatech.edu. We also recommend contacting the person who supposedly sent the message via the contact information *you already have* for them – do not use any new numbers, addresses, etc. that are in the body of the e-mail itself. Also, do not share your GT password or your two-factor authentication device with anyone

Deliveries

There will be one Facilities FTE employee and one (possible) student employee onsite in CCB, M-F 10am - 2pm. 

For existing orders delivered to CCB or Klaus, packages will be stored in CCB.  Facilities will not deliver to individual offices or labs. Facilities will communicate via RT (you can contact Facilities RT via building@cc.gatech.edu) and packages may be scheduled for pickup from CCB Suite 033A. In order to adhere to the social distancing guidelines, scheduled pickups are imperative so that packages can be placed through the facilities shipping and receiving window.

If you are expecting packages estimated to be 100 lbs or over, please let facilities know in advance of potential delivery dates.

For Coda and TSRB, please redirect future orders and packages to the address below:

College of Computing, 801 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280

Panchita Smith in Financial Services will be using CCB as the shipping address for all college and school purchases, effective immediately.

Digital Proctoring

DO NOT USE DIGITAL PROCTORING for this term for our formerly on-campus courses. The Institute is concerned about overloaded proctoring services as both a technological and customer service matter as well as the fact that it is now impossible to order webcams, that internet is increasingly unreliable, and that many students will be unable to guarantee interruption-free examination conditions.​ You may read more in this article from the Institute's academic continuity site.

Equipment

Use the equipment loan form below to track and insure any equipment valued at  $99 or more that is being taken off campus. You must have prior approval before doing so. (Monitors are equipment. If in doubt, please complete the form.)

http://policies.gatech.edu/files/Equipment%20Loan%20Agreement.pdf

Students and faculty, please work with a staff member to complete the above form.  Staff should work with their supervisor. Pictures, serial numbers, and other identifying marks should be listed on the form.  The form should be signed and submitted to your School SAO and building@cc.gatech.edu.  

 Email approval from supervisor or staff member is acceptable and will be attached to the completed form.

Faculty who agree to allow their students to take equipment off campus will be responsible if the equipment is lost or damaged. Faculty must complete the form on behalf of the student.

Facilities

There will be one Facilities FTE employee and one (possible) student employee onsite in CCB, M-F 10am - 2pm.

Please continue to use building@cc.gatech.edu to request service.

Mail (Campus and USPS)

Please note that campus mail delivery will be suspended during this time. Faculty/staff may pick-up mail from the 711 Mail Processing Center between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The Mail Processing Center is located at 711 Marietta Street. For alternate arrangements, faculty/staff should email postofficeask@po.gatech.edu.

Post office hours are:

Mon. March 16 | 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. (retail window); 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (package pickup)

Tues. March 17 | CLOSED for staff training

Wed. March 18 – Fri. March 20 | 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. (retail window); 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (package pickup)

Sat. March 21 - Sun. March 22 | CLOSED

Mon. March 23 – Fri. March 27 | 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. (retail window); 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (package pickup)

Sat. March 28 - Sun. March 29 | CLOSED

Research labs and servers

There is no intent to shut down servers, whether research, instructional or administrative, nor disrupt computational research. The institute is restricting physical access to lab space, however. The Institute's concern, with regards to shutting down research labs, is one of social distancing.  This is a prudent step to prevent more than one person from being in close proximity.  Per the instructions,  please feel free to apply for an exception through your school chair.

Software for teamwork

We will all need additional software tools to keep our teams and our workload running smoothly.

The standard Georgia tech voice/videoconferencing software is BlueJeans. If you haven’t used it before, you may consult these helpful instructions. 

For real-time text and file collaboration, the Institute uses Microsoft Teams. You may find instructions for using Teams here. 

For a productive teleworking experience, please verify that you have a working GT-owned mobile device (laptop, tablet, etc.) and that you are able to successfully login to campus resources (Office 365, Techworks, Passport, etc.). Make sure you are saving files to adminfs.cc.gatech.edu (the College’s administrative fileshare) and/or the GT Dropbox service, instead of locally on your desktop or laptop.

Finally, we recommend you verify that the software listed below, along with any additional software that you use on a regular basis, is installed and working. 

Tech Support

STAFFING PLAN: All TSO employees will telework. 

SUPPORT PLAN, MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8 AM - 5 PM:

  • All requests for technical assistance should be emailed to helpdesk@cc.gatech.edu. TSO is closely monitoring the queue. The main help desk phone will not be manned.
  • Remote support to CoC faculty, staff and graduate students
  • If hands-on assistance is required, TSO will schedule an on-site campus visit and adhere to the social distancing guidelines.
  • For a critical service outage (i.e., www.cc.gatech.edu, building-wide wired network, data center electrical and cooling problems), TSO staff will come on campus as needed.
  • For Academic Continuity resources, please visit https://gatech.service-now.com/continuity.

Teleworking

The Institute has created a webpage with tips for teleworking for supervisors and staff members.

We must staff some essential operations, but our goal is to protect the staff members who must come to campus by clearing out as many other folks as possible. To be clear, all staff members are permitted on campus, but if you can work at home we would prefer you to do so. You should expect to hear specifics from your supervisor.

If you are in an at-risk group for coronavirus, and your supervisor asks you to come in, please let them know that you cannot. To be clear: you are not required to disclose the medical condition that puts you at risk, and supervisors are not allowed to ask for that information. We just need to have a clear picture of our staff availability.

Timesheets

All biweekly time-sheets that were turned in during the week March 8thor afterwards will be processed/entered into the system on Friday (03/20) for processing.  

  • College employees: Ben Powell will send an email to bi-weekly College (360 employees) staff members on Monday, March 16 asking them to submit their hours worked via email, CC’ing their supervisor. Please submit your hours to Brian Boddy, Connie Irish and Ben Powell for processing prior to the 03/20 time-entry day. For students, we will process all timesheets that were turned in prior to them leaving for spring break.
  • School employees: Biweekly staff and student workers in the schools should take direction from their SAO.
  • NOTE: Starting March 23rd, there will no longer be paper time sheets. This biweekly pay period starts the new OneUSG connect payroll system.  Financial Services will no longer be processing pay for hourly biweekly and student workers. The employee and supervisor are required to do their part in the new system. Any retroactive pay for late timesheets must go through the opening of a ticket in https://gatech.service-now.com/home.

Workload

We expect everyone in the college to complete their normal workload, or the closest approximation possible under the circumstances. Please work with your supervisor to explicitly plan your workload, and please plan to be creative about the videoconferencing, shared chatrooms, and other technical tools you need to organize and share your work during this time. If you do have extra time because of canceled events, please plan to fill that time productively, with a project or with online training approved by your supervisor.