Bert's Alerts - February 27, 2015
In the Spotlight
The College of Western Idaho (CWI) Biology Club hosted a bird education and conservation event recently aimed at raising awareness about the American Kestrel. The club collaborated with the American Kestrel Partnership and MK Nature Center to host the event at the Nampa Campus Academic Building. Activities included a live bird presentation and a question and answer session. The day concluded with the building of nesting boxes that will be placed on and near Nampa Campus to promote population recovery in the area.
News Highlights
CWI Horticulture Students Win Industry Scholarships
College of Western Idaho (CWI) is celebrating a pair of students from its Horticulture Technology program who were recently awarded $750 scholarships from the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association (INLA). Lindsey Dejuncker and Jacqueline Correnti were chosen for two of three statewide scholarships presented at the INLA Horticulture Expo in January. Dejuncker and Correnti were selected among applicants from the University of Idaho, College of Southern Idaho, and Brigham Young University-Idaho.
Dejuncker, of Boise, and Correnti, from Star, are both in their second year of the program. They were selected by INLA Board members based on applications that considered faculty recommendations, service, and commitment to the horticulture profession. In addition to the program, both students are heavily involved in the Horticulture Club, as well as other volunteer opportunities in the community.
“The CWI Horticulture Technology program is proud of Lindsey and Jacqueline,” says CWI Horticulture Instructor, Dan Schults. “Their selection shows the quality of students in our program. Such recognition by statewide programs like the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association also gives legitimacy and prestige to the CWI Horticulture Technology program.”
CWI Piloting Food Service Concept
College of Western Idaho (CWI) has partnered with a national vending machine operating company, Canteen, to provide a self-service food and vending market for the CWI community. CWI has opened the Canteen micro-market at its Ada County Campus Pintail Center to determine the feasibility of expanding the service to other locations. The market offers a variety of items, including fresh food, to its customers.
The micro-market concept is based on an honor system of payment. Customers can access items out of machines and pay at a kiosk. The kiosk will accept cash, debit and credit cards, and Paypal accounts. There are security cameras in the area to monitor payment.
The test site will be operational for six months and then evaluated for continued use. Success of the program will be determined based on overall use as well as adherence to the honor system. If theft is an issue, Canteen will discontinue the markets. If the program is successful, markets may be expanded to additional CWI campus locations. The number and type of machines can be customized by market location.
Micro-markets are usually found in controlled access areas such as staff lunchrooms or in hotel lobbies. CWI is one of the first higher education institutes to try the concept.
CWI Night at the Stampede Funds Scholarships Again
College of Western Idaho (CWI) invites employees, students, alumni, and the community to support student scholarships by taking in CWI Night at the Idaho Stampede, Saturday (Feb. 28), at CenturyLink Arena. The game will provide a great opportunity for the College community to take part in an event full of fun and camaraderie, while enjoying a night of basketball downtown and supporting CWI student scholarships.
CWI has partnered with the Idaho Stampede basketball team for the second consecutive year to offer discounted $10 tickets (full price is $15), of which the Idaho Stampede are donating 100 percent of the ticket price back to the CWI Foundation for student scholarships.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m. and the game is sure to provide a fun night in downtown Boise as the Idaho Stampede take on the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
To purchase tickets, visit www.igrouptix.com/idahostampede
User Name: CWI
Password: MOXIEJAVA
President's Writing Award Submissions due March 20
The College of Western Idaho (CWI) English Department is now accepting submissions for the second-annual President's Writing Awards, which recognize and honor excellence in student writing at CWI. The awards are presented each spring and celebrate the power of the written word—the beauty and necessity of thoughtful communication.
Submissions must be produced for CWI coursework between Spring 2014 and Spring 2015 semesters. Students may submit up to one entry per category:
- Creative nonfiction
- Critical analysis
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Research Based
The submission deadline for the President’s Writing Awards is March 20. Visit cwi.edu/academics/presidents-writing-awards for more information on eligibility, the submission process, and categories.
Van Reservation Moving to 25Live
Starting Monday, March 2, College of Western Idaho (CWI) faculty and staff will be able to reserve passenger vans for CWI related operational and educational use via the College’s 25Live scheduling system. Visit the myCWI Fleet Management page for more information. Please contact Bob Wallis at 208.562.3466 or bobwallis@cwi.edu with any questions.
Tech Talk: Moving Data and Email
The College of Western Idaho (CWI) Information Technology (IT) Department presents this series of Bert’s Alerts articles intended to share updates at CWI as well as relevant technology topics.
Office 365 Migration
CWI’s email migration is continuing and IT has already migrated over 700 email accounts. The migrations are proceeding as scheduled and the process remains on target. This weekend IT will have all staff account migrations complete. All faculty accounts should be migrated by the next weekend. IT appreciates continued patience with this process.
Data Center Move
In an effort to continue providing better service to technology users at CWI, the College will be undertaking a move of its data center services to a new provider, Involta, in March. The data center is where all of the major servers for things such as Colleague, Blackboard, Telephones, and File storage are found.
There are several reasons to move a data center. The primary reason is to reduce costs. Another reason is to be able to build better redundancy for centralized services by having access to many different network service providers such as CenturyLink and Level 3.
IT has scheduled this move for the weekend of March 21—the beginning of Spring Break. During that weekend there will be no access to things such as Colleague, Blackboard, and myCWI. IT will not begin the work until classes have ended on March 21 and will have everything operational some time on March 22.
