Information Technology Services

Bethany’s Information Technology Services (also known as IT Services or ITS) provides students, faculty, administration, and the larger campus community with the knowledge, skills, and technological resources to learn, teach, work, and excel in an increasingly technological campus and world.

For all technology inquiries:

Email the Helpdesk
Call (507) 344-7411
Visit the IT office in Meyer Hall 203

BLC Email

All students are provided with an @blc.edu email account. This account is the official address used by the college to distribute electronic announcements. It is the user’s responsibility to regularly check for email.

Upon graduation or transfer from Bethany, alumni can retain their email accounts and addresses indefinitely by simply continuing to use the account.

Use your Bethany username and password to log in:

gmail.blc.edu

If you visit gmail.com instead of gmail.blc.edu, you will need to sign in as username@blc.edu. ~~first.last@blc.edu~~ or ~~username@alum.blc.edu~~ will not work. Get password help.

Printing on Campus

Print To College Printers From Your Laptop

Bethany Lutheran College offers the PaperCut software to allow students to print from their personal laptops. PaperCut allows you print PDF files, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, and Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to one of the student printers located throughout campus. To print from your laptop to a Bethany printer, go to this web address:

http://studentprint.blc.edu

This will take you to the PaperCut login screen:

Enter your Bethany username and password, and then click on the Log In button. You should then see the main PaperCut page:

Click on the Web Print link in the left-hand column:

You will then see the Web Print form. To continue, click on the Submit A Job link:

Next, select the printer you wish to use, and then click on the Print Options button:

Under the Print Options page, select the number of copies you need to print, and then click the Upload Document button:

The next step will take you to the Upload Documents page. Click on the Choose File button to pick the file you want to print. Allowed file types are Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft XPS, and PDF:

Once you have selected the file you wish to print, click on the Upload and Complete button:

You will then see a status page tracking your print job’s progress. It should print within 10 to 30 seconds after you hit the Upload & Complete button.

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PaperCut does not support printing web pages. However, if you need to print a web page, you can so by using the free printfriendly.com utility to convert a page into an easily printed PDF file. To use printfriendly.com, navigate to its address in your web browser:

http://www.printfriendly.com

Once you arrive at the page, copy & paste the address you wish to print into the form, and then click the print preview button:

The website will then generate a printer-friendly PDF of your web page. To save it as a PDF for use with PaperCut, click on the “pdf” button above the displayed PDF file:

Password Help

Reset Your Bethany Password For MyBLC, Gmail, And Computer Access

Every Bethany student, faculty member, and staff member receives a Bethany username and password for accessing Bethany Gmail, MyBLC, and lab computers. If you have forgotten your password, or never received it, visit the IT Office (Meyer Hall 203) in person during normal business hours to receive a new password. Please bring along a photo ID such as your Bethany ID or a driver’s license to confirm your identity when receiving a new password.

The IT Office cannot reset passwords over the phone, via email, via instant message, or by text message! Additionally, you must come in person to reset your password – due to federal privacy regulations, you cannot send your parents, spouse, siblings, roommates, or friends to reset your password for you.

Bethany students and employees

If you already know your Bethany password and wish to change it,visit this page.

VIP Page Password

Prospective and accepted students: Reset your VIP Page password.

Phone Service

Courtesy phones are available in the residence hall lounges and at other locations across campus. To dial off-campus numbers from these phones, a “9” must be dialed.

Your Bethany Account

All students are provided with a campus-wide domain-level account for computer, network, and storage access. This account provides access to:

Bethany@blc.edu email account
Campus computers – computer labs, library, etc., and installed industry standard software
Internet access
MyBLC – personal information portal, class schedule, grades, etc.
Network printing (printing is free for students)
Shared network storage drives
5 GB of college-provided Google Drive storage space
Additional accounts, resources, and access as required by students’ courses or other curricular and co-curricular activities

IT Policies and Guidelines

Information Technology Services (ITS) supports the mission of Bethany Lutheran College by seeking to provide the students, faculty, administration, and the larger campus community with the knowledge, skills, and technological resources to learn, teach, work, and excel in an increasingly technological campus and world.

To accomplish this mission, ITS has four ongoing goals:

Assure the availability/reliability of the IT infrastructure (the campus voice/data/cable network, public computer facilities, computer classrooms);
Determine needed IT services and assure the quality, efficiency, and client focus of these services;
Maintain and enhance the currency of hardware and software resources;
Help members of the Bethany community to improve their knowledge of information technology resources.

General policy

Educational computing resources provided, maintained, and supported by ITS are for use by the students, faculty, and staff of Bethany Lutheran College for instructional, academic, research, educational, administrative, and professional activities.

Users are individually accountable for their own behavior with BLC computer resources: Using BLC computer resources does not exempt the user from any other laws or obligations, and actions which intentionally try to circumvent the accountability of a user, maliciously interfere with other user's use of resources, or involve fraudulent activities are prohibited.

It is expected that all parties to this policy will act in a spirit of cooperation, and in a mature, responsible, respectful, efficient, ethical and legal manner.

Violations are subject to formal disciplinary action and loss of computer access privileges through the College.

Ethics

Respect for intellectual labor and creativity is essential to academic discourse. This principle applies to works of all authors and publishers in all media.

It includes respect for the right to acknowledgement and the right to determine the form, manner, and terms of publication and distribution. If copyright exists, as in most situations, it includes the right to determine whether the work may be reproduced at all. Because electronic information is volatile and easily reproduced or altered, respect for the work and personal expression of others is especially critical in the digital world. Viewing, listening to, or using another person’s information without authorization is unethical. Ethical standards apply even when this information is left unprotected. (Adapted from "Software Initiative Publishes Statement on Software and Intellectual Rights", EDUCOM Bulletin, Spring 1987)

All software that resides on the college computers is owned or licensed by the college and is protected by copyright and other laws, licenses and other contractual agreements. Users are required to abide by the terms and conditions of software use and redistribution licenses. Such restrictions may include prohibitions against:

copying programs or data for use on your personal computer
distribution of programs or data to others
the use of programs or data for non-educational purposes or for financial gain

With a greater emphasis on computer-based assignments and research, students need to be especially cognizant of information technology ethics. In particular, academic dishonesty or plagiarism on student assignments may be suspected if:

the assignment calling for independent work results in two or more solutions so similar that they are virtually identical
a student who was to complete an assignment independently cannot explain both the intricacies of the solution and the techniques used to generate that solution

Students should always save copies of their work to their own accounts to help prove their own authorship of the assignment.

Shared Responsibility
All students, faculty, and staff share responsibility for seeing that Information Technology resources are used in an ethical manner. Please notify a staff member of the Information Technology Services department of any suspected inappropriate use. Users may be asked to cooperate with the college should an investigation into the abuse of the Information Technology System arise. Users are also expected to report any information relating to a flaw in or bypass of security to ITS staff. Users noticing a hardware or software failure on any of the college-owned equipment are asked to report the problem to ITS. Student users should request help from their professors or lab monitors prior to contacting ITS.

Penalties
Penalties for not following these conditions, depending on the severity of the offense, may include but are not limited to loss of use privileges, fines, or criminal prosecution.

Terms and Conditions

All of the computer and telecommunication services provided and supported by the ITS, and any of their individual components, are privileges. In order to be granted and maintain these privileges users must use them responsibly in accordance with:

the mission of Bethany Lutheran College
the policies laid out herein
any local, state, and federal regulations that may apply

The college encourages and teaches ethical Christian behavior as it applies to the Internet. We reserve the right to limit certain content from the network that is in direct contradiction to God's teachings. We may also limit certain activities on our network that degrade network or system performance. Examples of these activities include using peer-to-peer (or other wide area network) file sharing, downloading large video or audio files, persistent media connections, or the use of live image cameras. All users must respect the privacy of other users and their accounts. Users must use only those computing resources they are authorized to use, and in the manner and to the extent authorized.

Inappropriate Use

Engaging in activities that violate any one of these may result in disciplinary action. Such activities include, but are not limited to:

Any use of the network that causes congestion or otherwise interferes with the work of others.
Setting up personal computers as servers, including the use of peer-to-peer file sharing applications (such as Kazaa), or running services such as ftp, http, or media servers.
Tampering or reconfiguring settings on computers, printers, scanners, network switches or any other equipment.
Loading programs on college-owned or other student’s computers without permission.
Viewing or distribution of pornographic images or literature.
Making use of the campus technology resources for commercial purposes or financial gain.
Using college or personal computers for sending abusive, threatening, or harassing messages.
Sending chain letters or similar messages to individuals or lists.
Viewing or distribution of content saturated with offensive language or depicting gross violence.
Informing anyone of the password to your personal, non-transferable account.

Never tell anyone your password!

If you do so, you are in violation of this code.
If someone else uses your account, they are in violation of this code.
If another person needs to access your files, please consult with the Information Technology Services (ITS) staff for an approach that does not compromise password security.

TV Service

Bethany provides televisions in the student lounges and Viking Village area equipped with Hulu. Bethany does not offer installation of cable TV services.

Your Devices

Most computers, phones, and other devices purchased within the last five years will be able to connect to the Bethany network.

For information on connecting your devices to the Bethany network, see the Network and Internet Access page. Wired (Ethernet) and wireless (WiFi) networks are available across campus.

Computer Selection

Do I need to bring a computer to Bethany? There are no classes that require students to have their own computer. The college provides computer labs for student use in Meyer Hall, Honsey Hall, the Student Union, and throughout the library. The lab computers have standard productivity software and any specialized software students need for class assignments. For convenience, most students choose to bring their own computers, but it is not necessary.

Should I purchase a desktop or laptop computer? Most students choose to bring a laptop computer for portability, but desktop computers are generally more powerful and lower cost. See this page for things to consider before deciding on a desktop or laptop. If you choose to purchase an Apple computer, Apple education pricing is available. Some Windows computer vendors have education pricing for their products.

What software should I purchase for my computer? Students may wish to install the free-for-students Microsoft Office 365. There are other free alternatives such as LibreOffice.org and OpenOffice.org. Any specialized software needed for certain classes is available on machines in the computer labs.

Computer Protection

How do I protect myself against viruses and “phishing” scams? Learn more about safely using the internet and securing your computer and mobile devices.

Computer Troubleshooting

My computer is broken. Will IT Services fix it? This depends on the nature of the problem. If your computer can’t connect to the network, we’ll do our best to correct the problem at no charge for current students. However, on student-owned hardware we cannot: install personal printers, install/upgrade hardware other than network cards, install/reinstall the operating system, support personal devices like portable music players, cameras, scanners, gaming consoles, or support games.