Vice President for Information Technology Status and Activity Report for December 2025 Prepared by Timothy M. Chester, Vice President for Information Technology (VPIT) 1. Key Items for Faculty and Staff Meetings
State of IT Moving to February: The EITS State of Technology address will move to February this year and feature a refreshed format. Dr. Timothy Chester will continue to deliver the annual address; however, it will be pre-recorded, similar to the State of the University address, and made available for viewing on the EITS website. For questions regarding the 2026 State of IT address, contact Stacy Boyles.
Cost Recovery Rates for FY27 Announced: Each year, prior to annual budget planning, EITS publishes a catalog of cost recovery services along with their respective rates. To promote transparency, detailed rate components and calculations are available upon request. Departments are encouraged to review the FY27 rates and assess any potential impact on their budgets. The FY27 rates can be found in the Cost Recovery section of the EITS Knowledge Base. Please note that all FY27 rates are contingent upon review and final approval of FY27 budgets by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. If you have any questions regarding the rates, contact Heather Stoltz or call 706-542-7617.
AI License Purchasing Program Launch: EITS is launching a new AI License Purchasing Program to simplify the process for units to purchase paid, generative AI tools for faculty and staff. This program provides a consistent way to acquire these tools under the university’s data protection and privacy agreements, and reduces administrative steps by eliminating CESS requests, UGAMart purchases, P-card transactions, and reimbursements. The initial offerings include Gemini AI Pro for Education, ChatGPT Edu, Claude Enterprise for Education, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. To help EITS plan for January 2026 onboarding and gauge campus-wide interest, unit-level business offices should submit estimated license counts in TeamDynamix by December 8, 2025. Additional purchase periods will be available throughout 2026. Free versions of Google’s Gemini and Microsoft Copilot will still be available for those who do not want to purchase the premium versions through this program. For questions, contact the EITS AI Tools Team.
December 21 Boyd Data Center Maintenance: On Sunday, December 21, 2025, from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., EITS, the Facilities Management Division (FMD) and contractors will perform scheduled maintenance on the Boyd Data Center’s electrical system. This work involves replacing a critical breaker in the Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS), which helps manage power between sources. During this maintenance window, the Boyd Data Center will not have emergency generator backup. The process will include temporarily switching power feeds, replacing the breaker, and restoring normal operations. All work will follow strict safety protocols to ensure a smooth and secure transition. For more information, contact Steven Duffee.
2. Services for Students:
Tech Lending Impact – Fall 2025 Recap: The Tech Lending Desk at the Miller Learning Center (MLC) had an outstanding Fall 2025 semester, serving more than 2,626 students
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since the start of the term. This program provides essential support for students who need supplemental technology. Located on the 3rd floor, East Wing, the Tech Lending Desk offers a variety of computing and audiovisual equipment, including laptops, Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras, tripods, chargers, and more—all available for checkout with your MyID. Laptops remain the most popular item, accounting for 60% of checkouts, followed by cameras at 12% and scientific calculators at 8%. For more information on what the Technology Lending Program at UGA offers, visit the Tech Lending page on the University Libraries website.
Student MyID Access Changes After Graduation: To protect the UGA network and prevent unauthorized access, EITS disables student MyID accounts about one year after graduation or leaving the university. When this occurs, students lose access to many UGA IT services, including UGAMail. To raise awareness, notices will be sent to undergraduate students eligible for December 2025 graduation, as well as graduate students who graduated or left UGA during summer 2025. The first notice will go out on December 3, 2025, with additional reminders shared through social media and other channels. UGA departments are encouraged to remind graduating students that their MyID access will expire one year after graduation. Students should set up a personal email account for job applications, graduate school, or professional programs. To learn more about this process, visit the EITS Website Story “Prepare for MyID Changes After Graduation”.
3. Services for Researchers:
GACRC Webinars: Overview of Research Computing Resources at UGA: The Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center (GACRC) provides UGA researchers with access to high-performance computing, AI tools, and large-scale storage resources. To help faculty and staff learn more about these services, GACRC will host a virtual informational webinar on January 9, 2026, at 11:00 a.m., led by Dr. Guy Cormier and Dr. Jessica Kissinger. The session will offer an overview of GACRC’s infrastructure, explain available computing resources, and guide participants on how to request a user account. Researchers will also learn how GACRC supports computational needs across a wide range of disciplines. For questions, contact Dr. Jessica Kissinger.
4. Services for Teaching Faculty:
New Digital Accessibility Tool for eLC Launched: On October 15, 2025, Ally for eLC launched and is now available to help instructors improve the accessibility of their course content. Ally is a digital accessibility tool that identifies issues in instructional materials and provides clear visual indicators and feedback to guide improvements. This launch supports compliance with a new federal rule from the U.S. Department of Justice requiring all state entities to ensure their websites and mobile apps are accessible to individuals with disabilities by April 24, 2026. The preparation period that began in October is designed to help instructors meet this requirement. Starting with Summer 2026 courses, all instructional materials must comply with the new federal standard. Students will also benefit from alternative file formats that support diverse learning needs. The Digital Accessibility Support team will host two Q&A sessions in December
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for Ally products; sign up for a Q&A session on the EITS Major Initiatives page. For more information, contact the EITS Digital Accessibility Services team. 5.
Other General Services
Spring Network Maintenance Date Announced: The spring 2026 network maintenance is scheduled for Sunday, March 8, 2026, from 4:00 a.m. to midnight. During this time, students, faculty, and staff should expect intermittent service outages throughout the day. EITS performs network maintenance twice a year—in the fall and spring—to maintain the university’s technology infrastructure and ensure adequate bandwidth and internet capacity. For questions, contact Rayid Tartir.
Biannual UGA SSO Upgrade Planned for March: UGA’s single sign-on service (UGA SSO) will undergo scheduled maintenance in March 2026. This upgrade is necessary to move the service to the latest version and apply current security patches. To prepare for the update, EITS will pause moving new applications into production UGA SSO after February 20, 2026, until the upgrade is complete. UGA SSO receives updates twice a year, in March and September, to maintain security and reliability. For more information, contact Wes Merrill.
Verify and Claim Your Departmental MyID Accounts by January 23: Departmental MyID accounts are used by UGA units, colleges, and departments to run automated processes and serve as contact emails for programs. EITS conducts an annual verification to ensure each account has a current owner classified by Central Human Resources as a full-time faculty or staff member. This process also confirms that account details remain accurate. The 2025 verification period begins December 1, 2025, and ends January 23, 2026. Account owners will receive an email with instructions to complete the verification process through TeamDynamix, with follow-up reminders sent until the process is complete. Accounts not verified by January 23, 2026, will be disabled. For more information, contact Kristi Wall.
Unified ERP Update: The Unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project intends to replace the current institutional systems for human capital management, financials, and student information, improving the experience for students, faculty, and staff; streamlining core business processes; and unifying technology into a single, Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. Business, HR, and IT leaders from each school, college, and unit should attend the integrations forum on December 5, 2025. Presenters will share information about preparing integrations for Workday and identifying potential integrations and data feeds that may need modification as part of the transition to Workday. Register for the Integrations Forum.. Updates and information about project activities will be shared on the UGA Project Website. For more information, contact Lynn Wilson or Shawn Hill.
Qualtrics Cost-Sharing Program Begins in January 2026: To support departments that wish to continue using Qualtrics after December 2025, EITS has implemented a costsharing program. The deadline to opt in was May 1, 2025, and participating departments have already received recommendations for survey clean-up. Beginning December 22, 2025, users will need to log in to Qualtrics using UGA Single Sign-On (SSO). Starting in January 2026, Qualtrics access will be limited to cost-sharing program participants only, and UGA SSO will remain required. Current faculty and staff who are not part of the cost-sharing program will retain access through December 2025 and have received
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guidance on transitioning to alternative survey tools. After this time, they should use QuestionPro as their primary survey tool. For more information, contact the EITS Survey Tools Team.
Teams Phone Available for Campus Units: EITS now offers Teams Phone, a cloudbased, next-generation phone system provided by Microsoft. Teams Phone allows UGA employees to communicate and collaborate anytime, anywhere, on any device. It integrates seamlessly with the Microsoft Teams application on laptops, tablets, or mobile devices, allowing employees to access all calls, chats, calendar invites, and meetings in one place. EITS will transition all phone lines off the legacy PBX and onto Teams Phone by March 2026. Telephone Services is scheduling departments that have not already scheduled their transition to Teams Phone. DTRs should fill out a Teams Phone Onboarding Request for their unit as soon as possible. Upon receiving the onboarding request, approximately six weeks prior to the port date, Telephone Services will schedule a large group meeting to address any concerns and answer questions. The Teams Phone transition does not affect AT&T Centrex/HVS users or phone lines outside of the Athens area. As part of this project, Telephone Services has successfully transitioned around 5,000 extensions off the UGA PBX and approximately 3,500 phone extensions now on Microsoft Teams phone. For more information, contact Steven Duffee.
Omni CMS Hosting Ends December 2025: Omni Content Management System (CMS), formerly OmniUpdate and currently the EITS-supported website creation platform, will be retired at the end of December 2025 and will no longer be available for university websites. EITS recommends WordPress, provided by Kaptiv8, as an alternative for website hosting and content management. All university websites currently using Omni CMS must migrate to WordPress or another hosting platform before the end of December 2025. To learn more about WordPress hosted sites, visit the EITS Knowlege Base article, Centralized WordPress Hosting. For more information, contact Dave Crouch.
6. Did you Know?
EITS Help Desk Winter Break Hours: The EITS Help Desk will have adjusted hours for the December Holiday Break. The Help Desk will close early at 5:00 p.m. from December 22 to 24, 2025. It will remain closed from December 25, 2025, through January 1, 2026, in observance of the holiday break. The Help Desk will reopen on Friday, January 2, 2026, with an early closure at 5 p.m. Regular operating hours will resume on Sunday, January 4, 2026. For self-service support during the break, visit the EITS Knowledge Base.
Boost Skills with LinkedIn Learning Over the Holidays: Make the most of your holiday break by exploring LinkedIn Learning, available for free to all UGA students, faculty, and staff with your MyID. With a library of more than 16,000 online courses, you can master the latest software, strengthen leadership and communication skills, and develop new problem-solving techniques. You can also connect your LinkedIn profile to LinkedIn Learning to automatically share completed courses and certifications. Start learning today and take advantage of this valuable resource. Learn more and log in to LinkedIn Learning on the EITS Knowledge Base.
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University of Georgia students, faculty, and staff, as well as interested others, may subscribe to this monthly report by sending an email to listserv@listserv.uga.edu with the phrase subscribe vpit-news as the body of the message.
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