Technical Support Policy
The purpose of this document is to clarify the software and equipment that the Office of Information Technology supports and the degree of that support.
In general, the OIT department supports hardware and software that is owned, licensed, and maintained by the college.
Specifically, this means that students' home computers and applications will not be supported. If a student is working on college equipment for assignments, OIT will support the functionality of that equipment.
This policy additionally excludes support of employee personal computer equipment. Software provided through OIT to employees for their home computers and limited dial-in connectivity are the only exclusions to this policy.
This policy dictates that data stored on employee computers is the responsibility of that employee or the employee's department. OIT will assist in providing instruction on how to back up mission critical files at the request of each employee or department.
Hardware
OIT will repair defective equipment through component replacement, unless the price of a replacement item is more than ½ the cost of a new item, in which case OIT will replace the item with new or comparable equipment.
OIT will not replace defective equipment that is over 5 years old. The replacement of equipment over 5 years old is the responsibility of the individual department.
Each department should adopt an equipment replacement schedule of 3-5 years.
Jackson State Community College will standardize on TBR and state contracts to have fewer points of contact for repair. Dell and Gateway are currently the primary vendors.
The OIT department will assist in specifying hardware to meet a department's needs. Typically, this consultation should only take 5-10 minutes.
Software
OIT will support the following applications based on the classifications of campus wide, departmental or localized, not mainstream, and all others not classifiable.
For all licensing, please see the information at the end of this page.
Level I: Install, Technical Support
MS Windows 95, 98, NT4, Me, 2000, XP Pro
MS Office 97 or higher
MS FrontPage 98 or higher
MS Publisher 98 or higher
QvtNet 4.x
Internet Explorer 4, 5, or 6
Outlook Express 4, 5, or 6
Symantec Corporate Edition Anti-Virus
SIS, HRS, FRS, & other systems-based applications (for training)
Other applications based on campus wide needs.
Level II: Install, Limited Technical Support
Netscape Communicator/Navigator
Microsoft PhotoDraw
Adobe PhotoShop
Adobe PageMaker
Academic Software (AutoCAD, Pro Engineer, OPAC, SAMS, CTM, etc.)
Other applications based on departmental or localized needs.
Level III: Install, No Technical Support
Microsoft Works
Corel Office Suite
WordPerfect (any version)
Other Anti-Virus software
Applications that are not considered mainstream.
Level IV: No Technical Support
Screensavers, Games, Desktop Themes, Outdated Applications (such as First Choice), Applications whose developer/publisher is no longer in business.
Anything else not listed and that cannot be categorized. If any of these applications are determined to have caused technical issues, then it will be removed from the computer.
Jackson State has entered into a Microsoft Campus Agreement which provides the latest Microsoft 32-bit operating system (e.g. Windows 2000 or Windows XP), the latest version of Microsoft Office Professional with FrontPage, Visual Studio, and Microsoft Project.
QVT/Net was purchased as a site license for JSCC. It may be installed anywhere on campus.
Symantec Corporate Edition Anti-Virus is provided for all Jackson State owned computers. The virus definitions are updated automatically.
All other applications not listed here, must be purchased either through OIT or directly from vendors.