Tech Trends on Campus

Faculty & Staff - Fall 2025

OIT's 2025-2028 Strategic Plan

The Office of Information Technology is Shaping the Future of Technology with the launch of the 2025–2028 Strategic Plan. Rooted in innovation, collaboration, and service excellence, this roadmap outlines OIT’s commitment to enhancing The University of Alabama by focusing on six strategic domains. With ambitious goals and a future-ready mindset, OIT is investing in people, technology, and partnerships to elevate the digital experience for students, faculty, and staff alike.

In 2022, we created a strategic plan that focused on providing leading-edge IT resources, services, and support for UA students, faculty, and staff. Take a look at how we achieved those goals below.

Follow Us on Social Media

Our social media pages post updates about outages, useful tips and tech news. Follow us on X, Instagram and YouTube!

Windows 10 End of Life Arrives this Fall

Beginning September 2025, Windows 10 devices will no longer be permitted to connect to the UA campus network. Upgrade to Windows 11 today!

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and we want to keep UA cyber-safe! Brush up on your safety tips by clicking the header and visiting our cybersecurity website

Upgrade Your Software

Did you know that you can upgrade many of your Microsoft apps including Copilot, Teams and Power BI. Review the list on the OIT website 

Box Provisioning and Log-In Change

Box accounts are no longer automatically created for all University of Alabama students, faculty, and staff. Individuals can opt in to receiving a Box account.  

We're upping the ante...

‌Every year, hundreds of faculty & staff members fall for phishing attacks that leave their personal information compromised. Protect yourself from phishing emails by staying alert! 

‌

T‌his year we're making the competition longer and sneakier, and you get to submit ideas of what you think would get the most people! The best idea will win a prize, and will likely get your opponents out of the running!

‌

‌Sign up for a "Catch the Phish" competition using your UA email and be entered to win prizes! The more simulated phishing emails you catch between October 1-31, the more you could win! Competition details will be emailed to you when you sign up.

High-Performance Computing and Data Center Under Construction

Exciting progress is underway! The University of Alabama has officially broken ground on its state-of-the-art High Performance Computing and Data Center. Spearheaded by the Office of Research & Economic Development (ORED) and the Office of Information Technology (OIT), this facility will empower faculty and research teams at the University with cutting-edge computational capabilities.

Blackboard Ultra

UA is making great strides toward having all Blackboard courses in Ultra for Spring 2026. Fully online courses, plus a growing number of face-to-face classes, are using the mobile-first, accessible, intuitive Ultra course view in Fall 2025. Ultra is the latest incarnation of Blackboard and brings an updated interface and workflow to the reliable and expected tools of an enterprise LMS. 

Red Team/Blue Team Exercise

What happens when simulated attackers go head-to-head with our defenders? The OIT Security team recently partnered with CrowdStrike for a Red Team/Blue Team exercise designed to test and strengthen UA’s cyber defenses. By emulating real-world threat tactics, the exercise revealed critical insights into detection gaps, tool misconfigurations, and response readiness, ultimately sharpening our security posture across campus.

Title II Changes to Digital Accessibility for ALL at UA

Our institution, like all other public colleges and universities, must meet new federal requirements for digital accessibility by April 24, 2026. These changes will help make our digital resources more accessible and usable for everyone, including individuals with disabilities. Now included in our responsibilities are academic materials created or adopted by instructors, email newsletters, social media posts, documents shared online, and more. UA is educating everyone on campus about the new requirements via compliance training, workshops and webinars, and a communications campaign. Learn more at accessibility.ua.edu, and remember, accessibility is everyone’s assignment.

ADOBE DAY 2025

Every student, faculty, and staff member gets Adobe Creative Cloud

‌completely free on the OIT website.

‌

‌Learn how to leverage it and get free swag on September 18 during Adobe Day, which includes in-person and virtual workshops and events presented by the Adobe team and campus experts. Sign up for updates below to hear when RSVPs open and the lineup drops!

Your Office Phone is in the Cloud

On June 14, the Office of Information Technology successfully transitioned UA’s phone system to a cloud-hosted Cisco Dedicated Instance platform. This major upgrade enhances reliability, scalability, and security—ensuring our communication infrastructure is ready for the future. Learn how the migration unfolded, what changed for users, and why cloud-hosted VoIP is becoming the new standard.

CampusPress

The Center for Instructional Technology has officially migrated faculty websites from Weebly to CampusPress, a WordPress-powered platform built for higher education. CampusPress offers UA-branded templates, powerful publishing tools, and enhanced accessibility—all designed to support faculty in showcasing their professional work.

Have a suggestion for the Spring newsletter? 

Follow OIT for information on outages, tech news, and tips!