Faculty get voicemail

While the rest of us were nibbling shortbread and drinking egg nog over the Christmas holidays, the staff in Information Technologies were putting the final touches on a project that gives all academic staff members access to personal voicemail.

Voicemail will be provided for academic staff who hold a Continuing, Contingent Term or Limited Term appointment at no cost to the department or faculty. The voicemail system, which was upgraded in December, also enables users to check for voice messages and receive faxes through the web.

“ Now we’re at the point of asking academic staff members who want the voicemail to contact us,” said Glenn Wagner, Information Technologies’ supervisor of voice systems.

In the past, departments, faculties and individual professors paid for academic staff members’ voicemail out of their own budgets, at a cost of $8 per month per mailbox. As part of bargaining with the Faculty Association, an agreement was made last summer for the university to provide one voicemail for all interested academic staff members.

Sandy Repic, director of Information Management and Administration, said the voicemail project is designed to strengthen communication between faculty, students and staff. “We are interested in improving student access to academic staff and also help academic staff members stay connected to the campus community from wherever they are,” she said.

Wagner estimated that about 800 academic staff members currently don’t have voicemail. “Now we are trying to find out if they want it.”

Along with the voicemail, all users will also be able to view their message inbox via a web interface, accessed at vvm.ucalgary.ca. The system will give them a view of all their messages, and will allow them to play back messages over the computer speakers or through a telephone. Faxes can also be accessed through this web interface.

Wagner said IT has been working with 10 university departments over the past month determining who wants the free voicemail service. Any academic staff members who want the service are asked to contact their departmental Telecom representative. (A list of each department’s Telecom contact is available at www.ucalgary.ca/it/computing/netserv/voice.html.)

“ Then, once we know who wants the service, the real work of installing will begin,” said Wagner.