Printing at JHU

If you’re a new student here on campus, chances are high that you’ve needed to print a few things out already, especially if you enrolled in an Expository Writing class this semester. If you or your roommate has a printer in the room, then you can rest assured knowing that you’ll always have a physical representation of your homework, right? Wrong. The inconvenient truth about technology is that it sometimes, for whatever reason, fails. Not all of these problems are permanent, but in a tense situation with time running out, it’s comforting to have a back-up plan.

For all the students who have forgotten or will ever forget to buy computer paper or printer ink over the weekend, Johns Hopkins created not one but several safety nets to assist you. The most easily found printing center is on M Level in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, about 50 feet away from the Guard’s Desk. Before you print for the first time, you should be sure that you have either J Cash on your J Card or on a printing card, which you can purchase at the Circulation desk for cash or buy from the black box in the Printing Room with a credit card. If you only want to print black and white copies, you can use the main printing room. For color copies there is a room on A Level that you can use instead.

Prior to printing in the Printing Room, you need to tell the printer what it is you want it to print out. Immediately to the left of the red double doors outside the room are three computers that are for one purpose only: to handle all the printing needs of JHU students. These computers have most of the Microsoft products installed on them, and connections to the Internet through the Mozilla Fire Fox  browsers.

After locating your document on the computer, hit the print button. You’ll go through the normal menu items, and after you hit “OK,” you’ll be asked to name your printing job. It’s a good idea to use your last name because you’ll recognize it on a list, and it can be modified with numbers in the case of numerous print jobs.

After you’ve gone through these steps, you can go into the Printing Room and print your documents. Go up to a printer, swipe your J Card or the Printing Card, and the screen will change to a list of all the unfinished print jobs. Look for your print job’s name, check the box next to the job name, and hit the print button. Your account will be charged $0.07 per page; however, the MSE Printing Center prints double sided, so you end up using half the paper that you would have used otherwise.

The Library isn’t the only place on campus you can print either. AMR I, Wolman, and Charles Commons all have their own computer labs, called Residential Computing Clusters (RCC). Each contains nine pcs, two Macs, and two Laser printers, one of which is color. The Charles Commons RCC is equipped with six computers and one printer. The AMR I RCC is open to AMR I and II residents, while the Wolman RCC is open to Wolman and McCoy residents and the Charles Commons RCC to Commons residents.  There are also various computer kiosks around campus that are equipped to handle a quick-print task every so often. These printers require a small fee of $0.06 per page.

Of course, if you for some reason can’t physically get to the library or another printing center, you can always use wireless printing and print it out later. To do this, log on to the “hopkins” wireless network and go through the normal printing option windows. You should still see the “Enter print name” window by which you can identify your print job in the library. Whenever you’re ready to print, Hopkins is ready to handle it. 

http://www.library.jhu.edu/services/computing/laptopprinting.html

ISIS

If you are a student, faculty, or staff at Johns Hopkins University, you have definitely had some experience with ISIS, the Integrated Student Information System. ISIS is a university-wide student information system which is designed for making the technical aspects of being a student simpler for you.

Most notably, ISIS is the online system through which you can register for classes every semester. One may access this feature of ISIS through logging in to http://isis.jhu.edu or accessing the ISIS system through your JH Portal and scrolling over the “Registration” tab in the top left-hand corner. The Registration tab allows you access to all the information you would have to request from a registrar’s office at most other universities. From the “Registration” tab, you have access to your program of study information, the registration system, your class schedule, and your grades. From these sections of ISIS, you can determine your adviser's name, register for classes, swiftly get the last seat for an interesting class after being on the wait list, upload your class schedule to your computer’s calendar, or even view your transcript (including your uncovered freshman grades).

Additionally, the “Financial Aid” tab, located to the right of the “Registration” tab, you can access your relative financial aid information, such as the required forms to complete in order to keep your financial aid and the summary of your scholarship, work/study, and other aid awards. Through the “Financial Aid” section, you can determine the amount of aid you are receiving for the current year, accept or decline aid, and manage all of your financial aid needs.

To the right of the “Financial Aid” tab, you can find the “Billing” tab. The “Billing” section is where you can find your current balance and its due date. Most importantly, the “Billing” section allows you to pay your tuition dues by eCheck, paper check, and view your transactions. Furthermore, if you are like many students, taking advantage of the “Authorized Users” section, accessed by “Billing”-->”Authorized Users”, is an extremely efficient way of allowing your parents to access and pay the balance. Through a simple, straightforward process, you can click “add authorized user” and, within 1-2 minutes, have established an account for your parents or guardians to access the parts of ISIS that you specify, which includes billing, financial, your class schedule, and your grades (but only if you choose to allow them to do so).

Lastly, the “Personal Info” tab is the last of the four tabs and permits you to enter and update your personal information, your emergency contact information, your family information, and your authorized users. Although entering all of this information seems like a hassle, you can not register for classes until all of your required information is established; I wouldn’t procrastinate registering for classes because those seats fill fast!

As more of a postscript, there a few additional features of ISIS that I would like to point out. Your Hopkins ID, which is different from your JHED ID and JCard, is a 6 character alphanumeric ID necessary for confirming your individual identity as a Johns Hopkins community member and is always located at the top of the ISIS screen, right above the “Billing” tab, as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, there may be an “ALERTS” link on the top right-hand corner, also shown in the screenshot below, that only appears when there is important information for you to know. Finally, the first screen that comes up when you access ISIS is the announcements section. Important information from each section of ISIS (Registration, Financial Aid, and Billing) appears here, so don’t ignore it in order to stay up to date with all your information-related needs.

ISIS Home Page - Hopkins ID and ALERTS are highlighted by a red outline

If you need any help with ISIS, check out the JHU Systems Help web page, accessible at http://help.sset.jhu.edu/dashboard.action, which links to ISIS help pages specific for students, faculty, or advisers.

JShare

A little-known, underused service provided by Johns Hopkins to faculty, staff, and students is JShare, a file storage system out there in the cloud. Students are each allotted 5GB of space to upload files, which can be accessed from any location with an internet connection, and can also be shared with anyone who has an e-mail address.  You are given control over who has access to folders and the contents of those folders, and can also track who last modified a file as well as tag files, among other features.

You can access your own JShare link directly, or through the Portal by going to "myApps" -> "JShare" from the left sidebar (shown below).

As long as you stay within the JShare policies, this could be used for a variety of things, from hosting a website to backing up files to storing and sharing files that are being worked on from multiple locations.  Overall, JShare is fairly user-friendly and self-explanatory, though there's not too much to it besides storing files.  Nonetheless, this is a LOT of space for the average Hopkins user, and it's a great, free resource that you should be sure to take advantage of!

For more information, see the student JShare resource.

Advertising @ JHU

The school year’s here and your student group has a bunch of great things planned for the year – performances, parties, trips, recruitment.  But how do you get the message out to the student body?  Well Hopkins has a variety of places and platforms for your advertising (assuming you’re part of a registered student group), and it’s just a matter of knowing what to have, who to talk to, and where to go.  Here’s a quick run-down on some great ways to advertise on the Homewood campus:

Posters\Flyers – This is the simple, old-fashioned college advertising method.  But let me tell you, it works!  If you want to post in the dorms, make a poster (maximum 8”x11”) and drop by the Office of Residential Life in AMR II to get the stamp of approval.  Then make copies of the stamped poster and make sure you follow the rules for posting!  If you want to post anywhere else (academic buildings, breezeways, etc.), you can pretty much post whatever and however you want.

Leaflets – Another standard college advertising strategy is handing out leaflets (quarter-page flyers) in high-volume traffic areas.  This strategy is cheap and efficient.  Generally, the best place to do this is the breezeway between Krieger Hall and Ames Hall.  Again, just get the leaflet approved by the Office of Residential Life in AMR II.  In addition, you can stuff these in dorm residents’ mailboxes or place them in the four-sided plastic napkin holders (“Table Talkers”) in campus dining areas.  Student groups must submit a copy of their proposed table talker to Kelly Davies in the Housing & Dining Office (Wolman 101), and these can’t be posted more than one week in advance of an event.

Tabling – Reserve a table in trafficked areas to have personal interactions with students.  Usually this goes in conjunction with handing out leaflets, giving away free stuff, or having some kind of poster or interactive thing.  To reserve a table outside residence halls, contact the Office of Residential Life (AMRII) no more than 2 weeks in advance, or contact Syreeta Hubbard (bbl@jhu.edu, 410-516-8209, Levering 102) for a breezeway table.

Banners - Banners are wonderful because they’re big and in high-traffic areas.  Contact the appropriate person for where you want it: 
· Mattin Center - Eric Beatty, Mattin Center 210, 516-0774, ebeatty@jhu.edu
· Breezeway - Syreeta Hubbard, Levering Hall 100, 516-8209, bbl@jhu.edu
· Residence halls - Hannah Von Krause, AMR II, 516-8283
· MSE Library - Betty Cook, 410-516-7676

Chalking – Chalking can be a fun and interesting way of advertising.  The obvious drawback is that inclement weather could quickly wipe away your hard work.  To reserve chalking space in the courtyard areas of AMR I & II, contact the Hannah Von Krause (AMR II) at 410-516-8283.  For all other areas, contact Syretta Hubbard (Levering 102) at 410-516-8209.

Mural Boards – These boards are located next to Whitehead Hall and also in the tunnel under Gilman Hall.  These locations get pretty heavy traffic, and the boards can really catch peoples’ eyes.  Latex paint and brushes and trays are provided, but bring a drop cloth and clean everything when you’re done.  Come up with a concept and contact Jillian Rickerd at Office of Student Activities (Mattin Center Suite 131, Jrickerd@jhu.edu, 410-516-4873) to reserve a board.  Your mural will be an attention-grabbing billboard for a minimum of 2 weeks!

Flash Ads – You may have noticed widescreen plasma tvs displaying ads in such places as the library and the Krieger computer lab.  These ads must be submitted at least two weeks before you want the ad displayed, and they can be displayed for up to one week at a time.  Flash ads can be submitted as PowerPoint, Flash (.swf), JPEG, BMP, or GIF files.

Today’s Announcements – These announcements are sent out to every student’s e-mail inbox every day of the school year.  Many students at least scan through these e-mails, and they are relatively easy to submit.  These are great for day-of announcements of events.  Just submit the post by 12 noon the business day prior to posting.

Hopkins Groups – Hopkins Groups is a new, up and coming online community for Hopkins students and student groups (see our previous blog post on this).  The main page prominently features a virtual “Public Flyerboard,” which functions like a cross between a real public flyerboard and FaceBook events.  Register your group, set up the profile, and start posting events.  There may not be many people using it yet, but if you start using it and advertising now, it’ll probably catch on soon enough.  I’ll also mention here that there is a separate Hopkins Events page where student groups can post events.  This doesn’t seem to be linked to the new Hopkins Groups page, but while it exists, it might be worth posting here as well. (events.jhu.edu)

FaceBook – You can never go wrong with a FaceBook event.  Make a FaceBook group for your student group, set up events, and invite everyone you know.  This is great for getting some idea of a head count (though not always accurate) and for sending out messages to everyone invited or RSVP’d.

For more information on advertising and a start-to-finish guide to running events at Hopkins, see the “JHU Event Planning and Promotion Handbook.”  Remember – the key to getting your group name and events out there is exposure.  Use as many mediums in as many places as possible.  So now that you know what to do, start working on yours ads and submit them!