CUNYfirst Hands-on Introduction for Faculty at Large (Basic Tasks)
*** Handout (version: May 3, 2013) ***
These sessions are intended for all faculty who do not have any additional administrative duties (like entering class
permissions directly into SIMS now). They cover the four basic tasks each faculty member is expected to perform on
his/her own (“self service”) in the new CUNYfirst system and just for his/her own class(es).
These sessions started March 18, 2013 and will continue through the end of the semester.
An electronic version of this handout is available from an internal web page located at:
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/~mkuechle/cf/
This site is updated frequently and also contains up-to-date information about any technical problems with the training
site.
While you may want to take notes during this session, don’t worry about missing something. Detailed help documents
(with annotated screenshots) are available on the Hunter CUNYfirst web site at http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/cunyfirst
Here is the agenda for the session:
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Exploring the Faculty Center
o My schedule (for any term going way back)
o Class Rosters -- currently "webroster"
o Grade Rosters – currently “webgrading”
o Verifying attendance -- currently “webattendance”
o My textbooks – currently “informed registration”
Looking up student transcripts (for full time faculty) -- details in a “quick guide” available from the “maxweber” site
listed above
To get started, please note an important difference:
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CUNYfirst “production site”: https://home.cunyfirst.cuny.edu/ versus
CUNYfirst “simulation/training site”: https://cnyeptst.cunyfirst.cuny.edu
Starting in January, you have been asked several times to “claim your account” on the production site and to check the
accuracy of the personal information HR has on file for you. If you have not done it yet, please claim your account now. If
you have claimed your account at another CUNY college, you don’t have to do it again, this is a CUNYwide account (like
your CUNY Portal/Blackboard account). After the shutdown of SIMS on March 22 and “go live” of the expanded version of
Cf in early April, all your tasks – especially submitting grades for spring 2013 semester – must be done via Cf. Please
make sure that you can see “Faculty Center” on your menu, after logging in and selecting “HR/Campus Solutions” as
the first step.
However, to allow some hands-on experimenting especially with grade rosters, we continue to use the simulation or
training site rather than the production site for most of these sessions. Unfortunately, you need to claim your account
separately for the training environment. If you have not used the training environment before, leave the boxes for
“user name” and “password” on the login page empty and click the “first time user” link at the bottom. Write
down the password (you select) and the user name (given to you in the process), and – upon confirmation of successful
completion of the account claiming process – return to the login page and use your new login credentials.
For most people the user name is the same on both “production” and “simulation/training” – but there are a few
exceptions. The user name follows the pattern:
[First name].[last name]xx , where xx are the last two digits of your “empl-ID” (given to you during the account claiming
process). Example: Manfred.Kuechler95 (no spaces).
A few things to keep in mind about the simulation/training site:
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It contains real data -- both your own personal data (including SSN, salary, and date of birth) and actual
enrollment data for students from spring 2013 and going back many years.
o Never share your password with anyone, not even with your best friend. She/he will not steal your
identity, but she/he may not be as careful as you are.
o Keep all FERPA requirements in mind, treat the data with the same care as when you are working in the
production environment.
Over the weekend of April 20/21 the training environment was “refreshed”, i.e., made a carbon copy of the
production environment, but we have added a few things not (yet) available in the production environment like
grade rosters for spring 2013 classes – so that you can practice without fear to mess anything up. Students will
not see whatever you enter here.
In contrast to the production environment, the simulation environment can only be reached from a computer with
a Hunter IP address (a desktop at Hunter or a laptop using hunternet). Of course, there are ways to reach your
Hunter desktop (left running) from home; e.g., using Chrome Remote (recommended for computer-savvy faculty
only).
Not everything works perfectly; the conversion program has serious limitations and many things have to be done
manually. One example: instructor names show only for one class meeting per week.
CUNY recommended browsers: Internet Explorer on Win, Firefox on Mac. However, Firefox usually works well
on Win. But if you experience problems (especially with login), try Internet Explorer instead. Also, you need to
allow “pop-ups” for the training site. Otherwise, certain things will not work like viewing a student transcript.
Details on how to do this vary with the browser (version) you use.
Always start with a fresh browser (close ALL browser windows and restart the browser); especially, do not try to
login to both “production” and “simulation/training” during the same browser session.
The new CUNY/empl ID
The CUNY ID (not to be confused with the CUNY Portal ID, needed for access to Blackboard) allows unique identification
(of students, faculty, and staff) in CUNYfirst. It replaces the combination of partial SSN, DOB, and other pieces of
personal information we have been using in SIMS. And having several students named Wu, Li, Williams, or Rodriguez in
one class is not uncommon at Hunter; so searches by just name often do not lead to a unique result.