Incoming students will have one less thing to worry about when they move into the residence halls at the end of the month.

With the Get Connected initiative, on-campus students will be able to set up their new FLASHword (Kent State password), access their FlashLine accounts and register for support sessions with Residence Services technicians in one of six residence hall locations.

This is the first year for the program, said Barb Boltz, director of Administrative Services and team lead for Get Connected. Because of the number of changes being made to on-campus Internet access this fall, the initiative’s timing is convenient.

“We really want students’ first experiences (with on-campus Internet access) to be good and not frustrating,” Boltz said. “Information Services wants to do whatever it can to make students’ first use of information technology to be positive at the beginning of school.”

The support sessions begin Aug. 23 and will continue through Sept. 11. After that, Boltz said, students can go to the open lab on the first floor of the Library to gain assistance.

During the sessions, students will be familiarized with the Cisco Clean Access software, which will scan the machines of all Windows users for viruses and spyware. The software will be ideal for shortening the stacks of computers Residence Services has to clean each week, said Bob Hart, manager of Network Services.

“It’ll let (students) self-remediate their machines and get them on the network without any outside help,” he said.

Also helping students become more self-sufficient this fall is the introduction of the FLASHword, which will require all Kent State students to select one password for all their Kent-based accounts, including FlashLine, FlashMail and Web For Students.

Setting up a FLASHword will allow the user to create a personal profile, which would prevent hackers from accessing their accounts. This will also give students the ability to change their password whenever necessary, rather than calling the Help Desk to do it for them, Boltz said.

As for future Get Connected projects, Boltz said she would like to have students be aware of the ins and outs of on-campus Internet access as early as possible.

“We’re talking to orientation instructors now, getting the word out to (freshmen),” she said. “We’re working on getting the word out even sooner.”

Contact technology reporter Andrew Hampp at [email protected].