The Student Government Association spent most of its meeting Tuesday hearing from the Office of Information Technology Director of Client Support Services Mark Bragg.
Bragg highlighted many of the technological improvements the university has made over the summer.
OIT has purchased 452 new computers and made improvements to the computer labs students frequent most.
“We’ve rebuilt 18 computer labs,” Bragg said, noting one of the biggest improvements made.
Also, Bragg told the Senate that 18 classrooms in Brown and Sam Wilson halls were renovated over the summer and technological improvements were made.
Bragg said that there have been software package changes on 1,200 of the university’s lab computers in an effort to standardize what programs are available in university labs.
“Some departments may still have additional software that they have installed in their labs,” Bragg said, noting that department-specific software may still only be available in specific computer labs.
Bragg also opened a window to what OIT expects to accomplish in the future.
“Next summer we plan on renovating 18 more classrooms,” he said. Bragg also said that OIT plans to make changes to the student information system.
Several senators also had some questions, including whether or not students will soon be able to log into Blackboard without having to type in the ETSU domain alongside their z-names.
“We hoped to implement that over the summer,” Bragg said. “However, the Blackboard software was being uncooperative.” He said that they would continue to work on the problem.
He also answered one senator’s concern about no longer being able to send mail through Imail using Outlook or other third-party e-mail programs.
“Spam is the main reason,” Bragg said. “We had to clamp the net so tight that we just couldn’t allow it anymore.
“The problem was that the same system that allowed students to send mail through Outlook also allowed other people to send e-mail through Outlook as well, and the university was receiving a lot of spam that way.”
He also explained why the university cannot use spam filtering software to solve the problem.
“There are people in the College of Medicine who are studying Viagra. There are people in the College of Business who are studying mortgage rates,” he said. “We can’t use a filter because it would block the e-mail of those people.”
In other SGA activity, a new senator was approved Tuesday. Amber Napier was confirmed without debate by the Student Senate and was sworn in.
The SGA is also holding a grand opening of its new offices on the lower level of the Culp Center Thursday from 1 to 6 p.m. The offices will be open for all students to tour.

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