February 2026 VPIT Report

Vice President for Information Technology Status and Activity Report for February 2026 Prepared by Timothy M. Chester, Vice President for Information Technology (VPIT) 1.

Key Items for Faculty and Staff Meetings •

State of IT Scheduled for February 25: Dr. Timothy Chester will deliver his annual State of Technology at UGA address on February 25 at 10:00 a.m. via live Microsoft Teams Webinar. This event provides important updates and insights about technology at the University of Georgia, including current initiatives and future plans. To register for the event, visit the State of IT Registration page. For additional information, contact Stacy Boyles.

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New Digital Accessibility Services Hub Launching in February 2026: The EITS Digital Accessibility Services Team will launch the new Digital Accessibility Hub website in February. This site will serve as a central resource for training and support on digital accessibility and will include a feature for reporting accessibility issues across UGA’s websites. The launch is part of a broader effort to comply with the new federal digital accessibility policy, which takes effect on April 24, 2026. For more information about the Digital Accessibility Hub, contact the Digital Accessibility Services team.

2. Services for Teaching Faculty: •

New Digital Accessibility Tool for eLC Launched: Ally for eLC launched on October 15, 2025, to help instructors improve the accessibility of their course content. Ally is a tool that scans instructional materials for accessibility issues 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, which requires all state entities to ensure their websites and mobile apps are accessible to individuals with disabilities by April 24, 2026. Starting with Summer 2026 courses, all instructional materials must comply with the new federal standard. Students will also benefit from alternative file formats offered through Ally, which support diverse learning needs. Q&A sessions will take place throughout the Spring semester, with past session recordings available on the EITS Major Initiatives Page. For more information, contact the EITS Digital Accessibility Services team.

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GACRC Teaching Cluster for Spring: A dedicated high-performance computing cluster for teaching will be available during the Spring 2026 semester, supported by the Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center (GACRC). This teaching cluster is designed to help instructors integrate advanced computing into their coursework. Faculty in Franklin College should note that the cluster includes two multi-GPU compute nodes reserved exclusively for Franklin College courses, providing enhanced capabilities for classes that require intensive computing power. Faculty members interested in learning more about the teaching cluster and how it can support their courses should contact Guy Cormier.

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3. Services for Students: •

Wireless Upgrades Work Continues on More Than $1M in Campus Wireless Upgrades: EITS continues to work on more than $1 million in wireless upgrades across campus, with this year’s efforts focused primarily on large classrooms to address connectivity issues experienced by students during class. These recent upgrades have been completed in the Instructional Plaza Auditoriums A and B, as well as several classrooms in the Miller Learning Center. Work will continue until wireless capacity has been enhanced in all large classrooms. These improvements are part of an ongoing effort to strengthen wireless connectivity and coverage to support teaching, learning, and student life. The $1.2 million annual project, funded by Student Technology Fees, includes refreshing and redesigning wireless networks in many campus buildings. In addition to the ongoing classroom upgrades, EITS is addressing other student areas with weak wireless coverage as issues are identified or reported. Upgrades have been completed at the Health Sciences Campus, the Lucy Cobb Complex (home to the Carl Vinson Institute of Government), the Rhodes Animal and Dairy Sciences Buildings A, B, and C, River’s Crossing, the Poultry Diagnostic Research Center (PDRC), and locations on the Tifton and Griffin campuses. EITS is also supporting the UGA Police Department by installing wireless access points in the new emergency call stations as they are deployed, supporting the university’s broader efforts to enhance campus security. For more information, contact David Stewart.

4. Services for Researchers: •

GACRC Buy-In Program: The Vice President for Information Technology will continue the GACRC Buy-In Program for Fiscal Year 2026. This program helps faculty expand their use of UGA’s high-performance computing and AI cluster at the Georgia Advanced Computing Resource Center (GACRC). To support this effort, the Vice President for IT is providing $250,000 in matching funds. These funds will cover part of the cost for faculty or research groups who purchase dedicated computing resources on the GACRC system.

For full program details, including eligibility requirements, matching structure, allowable purchases, and timelines, contact Guy Cormier.

5. Other General Services: •

Spring Network Maintenance on March 8: The spring 2026 network maintenance will be on Sunday, March 8, 2026, from 4 a.m. to midnight. Students, faculty, and staff should expect intermittent service outages throughout the day. EITS conducts biannual network maintenance each fall and spring to support the university’s infrastructure and ensure sufficient bandwidth and internet capacity. For questions, contact Rayid Tartir.

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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 important security updates. To prepare for the upgrade, EITS will pause moving any new applications into production UGA SSO

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after February 20, 2026, until the maintenance is complete in March. UGA SSO upgrades are conducted twice a year, in March and September, to ensure reliability and security. For more information, contact Wes Merrill.

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Account Standards Training Set for February 26: The University System of Georgia (USG) released standards regarding user account management for information systems containing restricted or sensitive data in 2013. These standards were made effective July 1, 2013. Annual training on these standards will take place on February 26, 2026, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. via Teams webinar. Data stewards, their designees, or supervisors who are responsible for provisioning and removing employee account access to IT systems are encouraged to attend this training. To register for the event, visit the Account Standards Registration page. For more information, contact Stacy Boyles at stacy.boyles@uga.edu.

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Unified ERP Update: By replacing our current systems for financial and human capital management, the Unified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Project intends to improve the user experience for faculty and staff, streamline core business processes, and unify technology into a single Software as a Service (SaaS) solution.

Project Coordinators have been identified for each major unit and “change champions” will be identified as of the end of February. These individuals will be key in ensuring robust communication through each unit over the course of this project. A change network is also being established including faculty and staff across UGA in the areas of Faculty Affairs, Finance, Human Resources, Reporting, and Sponsored Projects. UGA has recently engaged Huron to prepare a robust resource plan for the Workday Implementation. This work will include partnering with stakeholders across the UGA community to understand current activities and how we need to prepare for changes with Workday. Stakeholder groups will be engaged beginning in January for this work.

Updates and information about project activities will be shared on the UGA Project Website. For more information, contact Lynn Wilson or Shawn Hill.

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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. Users should note that they will lose access to their voicemail if they are not transitioned over to Teams Phone before the March 2026 deadline. As part of this project, Telephone Services has successfully transitioned around 5,000 extensions off

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the UGA PBX and approximately 6,000 phone extensions now on Microsoft Teams Phone with 2,500 remaining. Furthermore, there has been a reduction in PRIs resulting in significant cost reductions due to this transition. For more information, contact Steven Duffee.

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Microsoft Office 2021 Reaching End of Life in October: Microsoft has announced that support for Microsoft Office 2021 will end in October 2026. After this date, the software will no longer receive updates or security patches. To prepare, EITS will work with departmental IT teams over the next nine months to ensure all Office suites are upgraded to the latest version. For more information, contact Justin Sackett.

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FY26 User Access Verification Preparation Begins: In preparation for the financial state audit for FY26, EITS will conduct a verification of all user accounts for several systems.

The FY26 verification will kick off in March and will include Banner systems, the UGA Financial Management System, the UGA Budget Management System, OneUSG Connect, and UGAJobs. This year’s verification process will feature an updated user interface and a more streamlined workflow. More information on this year’s verification will be forthcoming in the spring. For more information, contact Stacy Boyles.

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AI Courses Now Available: UGA students, faculty, and staff now have access to a curated set of AI training courses designed to build practical skills and foundational AI literacy.

These courses, available through LinkedIn Learning, cover topics ranging from generative AI basics to productivity-focused use of tools like Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, NotebookLM, and ChatGPT. The offerings emphasize responsible, ethical, and human-centered use of AI while highlighting real-world applications for teaching, research, and administrative work. Together, these resources support UGA’s commitment to preparing the campus community to use AI thoughtfully, securely, and effectively. For more information, visit the "AI Toolbox", now available in the AI Hub. For questions or support, please contact Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) at helpdesk@uga.edu or 706-542-3106.

6. Did you know?

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Electronic W-2s Now Available in OneUSG Connect: To view or download your W-2, you must be connected to a UGA campus network. A "Viewing Your W-2 in OneUSG Connect" tutorial is available here: https://uga.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/3109/FandA/KB/ArticleDet?ID=151327. If you receive a paper W-2 this year and wish to receive your W-2 only electronically in the future, simply provide consent within OneUSG Connect. A "Consenting to Receive Your Electronic W-2 Form" tutorial is available here: https://uga.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/3109/FandA/KB/ArticleDet?ID=151306. For more information, contact OneUSG Support at oneusgsupport@uga.edu.

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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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