FAQ
- What is the My College Communication FAQ?
- What if I have a suggesting for improving this FAQ?
- What is the My College Communication site?
- What is the SUNY Orange portal?
- What hardware and software do I need to use the My College Communication site?
- Will the My College Communication site work with my Macintosh?
- Will the My College Communication site work with Linux?
- How do I get a My College Communication user account?
- What is the Oracle Collaboration Suite (OCS)?
- Why are we using the My College Communication site?
- What is a portlet?
- I cannot log on to the My College Communication site. What do I do?
- I have logged on to the My College Communication site, but web page doesn’t work properly. What do I do?
- Where can I get help with the My College Communication site?
- What is My College Communication training (portal training)?
- What do I do if I missed My College Communication training (portal training)?
- Where can I find instructions and manuals for using the My College Communication site?
- How do I access my account at SUNY Orange?
- How do I access my account at home?
- What does my user name look like?
- What does my email address look?
- How do I look up someone’s email address?
- Will my old SUNY Orange email address still work? For how long?
- How can I find out what my user name?
- Can I change my user name?
- How can I find out what my password is?
- Can I change my password?
- Can I use MS Outlook to access my account on the My College Communication site?
- Can I use another email program to view my email on the My College Communication site? If not, why not?
- Does My College Communication help stop junk mail (spam)?
- What is the Junk Mail Manager?
- What is Mirapoint?
- What is the “Welcome to your new Junk Mail Manager account” email message and why is it important?
- What are the “Junk Mail Manager Summary” email messages? What should I do with them?
- How do I work with my Junk Mail Manager account?
- How do I work with My College Communication email?
- When I am composing a new email using a web browser, why don’t I see the “Change to Rich Text Mode” link?
- How do I see all of my email from home and work, not just new messages?
- What is my email quota?
- What happens if I exceed my email quota?
- I deleted messages from my email inbox on the My College Communication site, but it still says I am over quota. Why?
- Does stored junk mail use up space in my email queue?
- What is my junk mail quota?
- I deleted messages from my junk mail list, but it still says I am over quota. Why?
- What is the My College Communication calendar?
- What is an agenda?
- How do I work with the My College Communication calendar?
- What is a My College Communication workspace?
- How do I work with a My College Communication workspace?
- Why do I need to use the My College Communication site?
1. What is the My College Communication FAQ?
The My College Communication FAQ is an attempt to provide a convenient source of answers for common questions about the SUNY Orange My College Communication site.
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2. What if I have a suggesting for improving this FAQ?
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3. What is the My College Communication site?
The SUNY Orange My College Communication site is a web page that will provide access to all of the college’s online resources in one place. (These resources include My College Information (Banner Self-Service), the course schedule, academic calendar, etc.) Eventually, when you log on to your account on the My College Communication site, you will automatically be signed on to as many of the SUNY Orange online resources that you have permission to use as possible, instead of having to sign on multiple times with multiple user names and passwords.
The SUNY Orange My College Communication site is a type of web page called a portal. Previously it has been referred to as “the SUNY Orange portal.” Oracle Collaborative Suite (OCS) is the name of the software we are currently using for the new email, calendaring and collaboration features of the SUNY Orange My College Communication site.
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4. What is the SUNY Orange portal?
The portal is now known as My College Communication. See “What is the My College Communication site?”
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5. What hardware and software do I need to use the My College Communication site?
You need a My College Communication user account and a computer that has access to the Internet and is capable of running a modern web browser.
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6. Will the My College Communication site work with my Macintosh?
Yes, as long as it can run Mac OS X and a modern web browser, you can use My College Communication on your Mac, although some features may not be available.
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7. Will the My College Communication site work with Linux?
It might, but the SUNY Orange ITS Department cannot offer support for using My College Communication with Linux web browsers.
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8. How do I get a My College Communication user account?
For Faculty and Staff
As of September 1, 2007, all SUNY Orange employees will have a My College Communication user account.
If you are a new employee, contact the help desk on your start date to get your login information for the My College Communication site.
If you are a current employee with an existing SUNY Orange email address, you should receive your user account information for My College Communication in an email message. If you haven’t received this email or you have received it but have misplaced it, or if you cannot log on to your account using the information it contains, contact the help desk. If you do not receive an email with your login information by September 1, contact the help desk.
If you are a current SUNY Orange employee who does not have an existing email account, you can get your login information for My College Communication by contacting the help desk.
For Students
You will automatically get a My College Communication user account when you enroll at SUNY Orange. To find out your user account information for My College Communication, you must log on to the My College Information page (Banner Self-Service). To do so, go to the MySUNYOrange page, using this link:
This will take you to the MySUNYOrange page, which contains instructions on how to log in to your accounts on the My College Information and the My College Communication sites.
If you have followed the instructions on the MySUNYOrange page and still can’t log on to your account on the My College Communication site, please contact the help desk.
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9. What is the Oracle Collaboration Suite (OCS)?
The Oracle Collaboration Suite (OCS) is a collection or suite of software which will be used at SUNY Orange for the college’s new email system. It also includes a calendar component and tools for collaboration, such as libraries (for file storage) and discussion boards, among other features.
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10. Why are we using the My College Communication site?
We are using the My College Communication site to provide easy access to all of the online resources provided by SUNY Orange. Eventually, the My College Communication site will provide single–sign-on access to as many of the college’s online resources as possible. (These resources include My College Information (Banner Self-Service), the course schedule, academic calendar, etc.)
We are using the My College Communication site to provide all college employees and students with “anywhere access” to their email and schedule information. For faculty and staff, online collaboration tools will be provided as well. The new email system is not only more robust (the previous SUNY Orange email system was having trouble handling the college’s needs), but it provides many improvements, such as easier access to your email using a web browser, automatic “out of the office” replies to email when you are away and an online directory of all faculty, staff and student SUNY Orange email addresses which is available while you are using My College Communication email by means of a web browser on campus or at home. For faculty and staff only, junk mail filtering, which stops junk mail before it hits your inbox, is also provided.
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11. What is a portlet?
A portlet is a box on the “home page” of the My College Communication site. Each portlet provides access to a specific set of information or a specific range of functions. For example, the Mail portlet lets you view your recent email without having to go to a separate email page, the Calendar portlet lets you view your current day’s or week’s schedule without having to go to a separate calendar page, the Google portlet lets you search the web from the My College Communication site, the Weather portlet shows local weather conditions, and so on. Many portlets can be customized. For example, the Weather portlet can be configured to show the weather in any zip code. For more information on customizing portlets see the document “Working with portlets” on the My College Communication help page.
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12. I cannot log on to the My College Communication site. What do I do?
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13. I have logged on to the My College Communication site, but web page doesn’t work properly. What do I do?
First, make sure you are using a modern web browser with Windows XP or newer or Mac OS X or newer. If you are and the My College Communication site still doesn’t work, contact the help desk.
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14. Where can I get help with the My College Communication site?
First, review the other questions and answers in this FAQ. If you do not see the answer to your question here, then check the My College Communication help page. If you still cannot find the help you need, contact the help desk.
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15. What is My College Communication training (portal training)?
These training sessions are for faculty and staff only.
My College Communication training is one or more instructor-lead training sessions that cover the basic aspects of using the My College Communication site, including the basics of using email and the calendar.
Online training materials are also available at the My College Communication help page.
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16. What do I do if I missed My College Communication training (portal training)?
These training sessions are for faculty and staff only.
Take a look at the My College Communication training materials on the My College Communication help page. If you are a member of the faculty or staff at SUNY Orange and feel that the online training materials do not suit your needs, contact the Human Resources Department and let them know you would like to attend an instructor-lead training session.
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17. Where can I find instructions and manuals for using the My College Communication site?
See the My College Communication help page.
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18. How do I access my account at SUNY Orange?
You can always view your account on the My College Communication site from any computer (on campus or off) that has Internet access and a modern web browser. This will allow you to have access to your My College Communication account (using a web browser) from any Internet-connected PC, not just the one in your office.
If you are a SUNY Orange employee who has a college computer specifically designated for your use, a technician from the ITS Department will be scheduled to install MS Outlook on your PC, if necessary, and configure Outlook to allow you to use it to access your email and calendar. You will still have to use a web browser to access the My College Communication site to use some features of your email and calendar (such as the automatic “out of the office” replies to email when you are away). The only way you can use other components, such as workgroups (workgroups are not available to students), is by using a web browser to access the My College Communication site.
Students should access their My College Communication accounts using a modern web browser.
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19. How do I access my account at home?
To access your account at home, use a modern web browser to access the MySUNYOrange page found at http://my.sunyorange.edu. This page provides instructions for accessing your My College Communication account.
This is the only method for accessing your account on the My College Communication site at home that is supported by the SUNY Orange ITS Department.
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20. What does my user name look like?
For Faculty and Staff
Your user name should be your first name, followed by your last name, all in lower case with no space. For example, if your name is John Smith, your user name will be:
johnsmith
If you have a preferred name (such as a nickname) on record with the Human Resources Department, then that will be used in place of your first name. For example, if you are named John Smith, but your preferred name is Jack, your user name will be:
jacksmith
If several users have the same name, a number will be added to distinguish duplicates, for example:
johnsmith2
For Students
Your user name should be your initials (including your middle initial, if you have one), possibly followed by a number, if your initials are the same as those of another SUNY Orange student. For example if your name is John Q. Smith, your user name will be:
jqs
If there are already students with the initials “jqs” then your user name may have a number at the end, for example: jqs2, jqs7, jqs12.
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21. What does my email address look?
For Faculty and Staff
Your My College Communication email address is your first name (or your preferred name, if you have one), followed by a dot, then your last name, ending with “@sunyorange.edu”. For example, if your name is John Smith, your email address will be:
john.smith@sunyorange.edu
If your preferred name is Jack, then your email address will be:
jack.smith@sunyorange.edu
If you are having trouble determining what your email address is, or it doesn’t seem to be working, contact the help desk.
Also see, “Will my old SUNY Orange email address still work? For how long?”
For Students
Your email address should be your initials (including your middle initial, if you have one), possibly followed by a number, if your initials are the same as those of another SUNY Orange student, followed by “@sunyorange.edu”. For example if your name is John Q. Smith, your email address will be:
jqs@sunyorange.edu
If there are already students with the initials “jqs” then your email address may have a number between your initials and the “@”, for example: jqs2@sunyorange.edu, jqs7@sunyorange.edu, jqs12@sunyorange.edu.
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22. How do I look up someone’s email address?
You can look up the email address of any other SUNY Orange My College Communication user by finding that user’s name in the “Corporate Directory”. Despite the name, this is a list of all My College Communication users at SUNY Orange. For more information on using the corporate directory, see the My College Communication help page.
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23. Will my old SUNY Orange email address still work? For how long?
This question only applies to faculty and staff.
Yes, all email sent to your old SUNY Orange email address will be automatically transferred to your new My College Communication email address. Your old email address will continue to work indefinitely. If you decide you no longer want people to be able to contact you by using your old email address, it can be deactivated. To make this request, contact the help desk.
This does not apply to people hired after the summer of 2007, who will have only one email address, the My College Communication email address.
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24. How can I find out what my user name?
For faculty and staff
If you are a current SUNY Orange employee, you should have received an email with your account information for My College Communication, which was sent to your old email address. If you didn’t get this email or can’t find it, contact the help desk.
If you are a new SUNY Orange employee, contact the help desk on the day you start work.
For students
To find out your user account information for My College Communication, you must log on to the My College Information page (Banner Self-Service). To do so, go to the MySUNYOrange page, using this link:
This will take you to the MySUNYOrange page, which contains instructions on how to log in to your accounts on the My College Information and the My College Communication sites.
If you have followed the instructions on the MySUNYOrange page and still can’t log on to your account on the My College Communication site, please contact the help desk.
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25. Can I change my user name?
For faculty and staff
No, your My College Communication user name is part of your permanent SUNY Orange identity, like your employee number.
The only exception to this is if your last name changes, due to marriage or for some other reason. In this case, your user name will be changed to reflect your new last name.
For students
No, your My College Communication user name is part of your permanent SUNY Orange identity, like your student ID number.
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26. How can I find out what my password is?
The SUNY Orange ITS Department cannot look up your password for the My College Communication site. This is a security feature of the My College Communication site. If you do not remember your password, it can be reset to a new value. If you need to have this done, contact the help desk.
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27. Can I change my password?
Yes, you can. Once you have logged on with your current password, click on the “Change password” link at the top of the My College Communication site. For more details on how to change your password, see “Using the My College Communication site” on the My College Communication help page.
It is important to choose a password you can remember. The SUNY Orange ITS Department cannot look up your password for the My College Communication site. If you forget your password, however, it can be reset. If you need to have this done, contact the help desk.
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28. Can I use MS Outlook to access my account on the My College Communication site?
This information applies to certain faculty and staff only.
You can access your email and calendar on the My College Communication site using Outlook, if you are a SUNY Orange employee who has a college computer specifically designated for your use. In that case, a technician from the ITS Department will be scheduled to install MS Outlook on your PC, if necessary, and configure Outlook to allow you to use it to view your email and calendar. Before the technician arrives, you can access the My College Communication site using a modern web browser.
Even after Outlook has been configured properly, you will still have to use a web browser to access the My College Communication site to use some features of your email and calendar (such as the automatic “out of the office” replies to email when you are away). The only way you can use other components of My College Communication, such as workgroups, is by using a web browser to access the My College Communication site.
If you do not have a PC specifically designated for your use you can access the My College Communication site using a web browser.
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29. Can I use another email program to view my email on the My College Communication site? If not, why not?
No. We are sorry, but this is not supported by the SUNY Orange ITS Department. There are very many different email programs available. The ITS Department simply does not have the resources to offer support for all of them; therefore, the best solution is to offer thorough support for the official means of viewing and working with email on the My College Communication site, which is accessing the My College Communication site with a modern web browser, or for some faculty and staff members, using MS Outlook. (See “Can I use MS Outlook to access my account on the My College Communication site?”)
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30. Does My College Communication help stop junk mail (spam)?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
Yes, it does. Along with the new email system we are using a new junk mail filtering service that scans all of the email sent to SUNY Orange and sequesters the email it determines to be junk mail. This mail is said to be quarantined and is stored in a special on-line folder called “My Junk Mail”. You can see all of your quarantined email by logging on to your Junk Mail Manager web page. For more information on the new junk mail filtering service, see the My College Communication help page.
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31. What is the Junk Mail Manager?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
The Junk Mail Manager allows you to manage all the email that the junk mail filtering service has determined to be junk mail. If any legitimate email has been marked as junk mail, you can “approve” the email address of the sender so that the current message and all future messages from that sender will make it into your inbox. For more information on using the Junk Mail Manager, see the My College Communication help page.
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32. What is Mirapoint?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
Mirapoint is the name of the company that supplies our new junk mail filtering service. Occasionally, you may see the junk mail filtering system or the junk mail manager referred to as Mirapoint.
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33. What is the “Welcome to your new Junk Mail Manager account” email message and why is it important?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
This email message gives you important information you need to use your Junk Mail Manager account, particularly your junk mail manager password. Keep this email. There is no way to recover the information it contains if it is accidentally deleted. If you don’t have this email, your Junk Mail Manager account can be reset, but this may take a few days. For more information on using the Junk Mail Manager to change your junk mail manager password, see the My College Communication help page.
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34. What are the “Junk Mail Manager Summary” email messages? What should I do with them?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
You will receive an email message with the subject line “Junk Mail Manager Summary” every day. (The frequency can be changed in the Junk Mail Manager preferences.) This message will list every email that has been quarantined as junk mail (spam). It is possible, especially at first, that some legitimate may be quarantined. You can approve any message that has been incorrectly quarantined. Once you approve a message it will be released from quarantine and delivered to your inbox. All future email messages from that sender will be delivered as well. All quarantined messages that you don’t approve will be automatically deleted in two weeks.
We recommend that you check all quarantined messages for the first two weeks, to make sure that no legitimate email is being quarantined. After that, it will probably be safe to ignore the “Junk Mail Manager Summary” email messages. But remember to check them (or log on to your junk mail manager account) if you don’t get an email you were expecting. For more information on using the Junk Mail Manager to manage quarantined email, see the My College Communication help page.
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35. How do I work with my Junk Mail Manager account?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
For more information on working with your Junk Mail Manager account, see the My College Communication help page.
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36. How do I work with My College Communication email?
For more information on working with your email, see the My College Communication help page.
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37. When I am composing a new email using a web browser, why don’t I see the “Change to Rich Text Mode” link?
The “Change to Rich Text Mode” link only appears in Internet Explorer 6.5 on Windows; it doesn’t work with any other web browsers. If you are using Internet Explorer on Windows and still don’t see the link, make sure you are using Internet Explorer version 6.5. If you think you should be seeing the “Change to Rich Text Mode” but are not, please contact the help desk. (Also see Modern Web Browser and Rich Text Format in the glossary.)
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38. How do I see all of my email from home and work, not just new messages?
This information applies to certain faculty and staff only.
This only applies to people who are using MS Outlook to view their email. You can contact the help desk and ask to have this change made to your Outlook configuration. Please note however, that once this change has been made, you have the possibility of running out of space on the mail server, unless you manage your email (by deleting old email or storing it locally). See the My College Communication help page for more information on this issue.
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39. What is my email quota?
Your email quota is the total amount of space you have for storing email. If you exceed your email quota, you will not be able to receive any new email messages. For more information, see the glossary or the My College Communication help page.
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40. What happens if I exceed my email quota?
If you exceed your email quota, you will not be able to receive any new email until you remove some email messages to free up some storage space. You will receive an email message warning you when you are about exceed your email quota and another when you have exceeded your email quota. Incoming email will be stored while your email quota is full, so you will not lose any messages. The stored messages will be delivered to your inbox once you have removed some old email to free up storage space in your email quota. For more information, see the My College Communication help page (URL/link).
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41. I deleted messages from my email inbox on the My College Communication site, but it still says I am over quota. Why?
Deleting email messages is only the first step. When you delete messages they are not actually removed; they are stored in the “Deleted Items” folder. To actually get rid of these messages completely, to free up storage space, you must empty the “Deleted Items” folder. For instructions on how to do this, see the My College Communication help page.
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42. Does stored junk mail use up space in my email queue?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
No, your junk mail has its own storage space, in the junk mail queue.
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43. What is my junk mail quota?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
Your junk mail quota is storage space on the junk mail server. Your old junk mail is saved for a certain period of time (typically two weeks) so that you can look through it to make sure no legitimate email messages have been quarantined as junk mail.
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44. I deleted messages from my junk mail list, but it still says I am over quota. Why?
This information applies to faculty and staff only.
Deleting junk mail messages is only the first step. When you delete junk mail messages they are not actually removed; they are stored in the “Trash” folder. To actually get rid of these messages completely, so you free up storage space, you must empty the “Trash” folder. For instructions on how to do this for junk mail, see the My College Communication help page.
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45. What is the My College Communication calendar?
The calendar is an online calendar and appointment book you can access by using a web browser (or, in some cases, MS Outlook). You can list events and appointments in the calendar, and use it to schedule meetings with other SUNY Orange My College Communication users. Various SUNY Orange institutional calendars will also be viewable by My College Communication users, including the academic calendar. The calendar is sometimes also referred to as an agenda.
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46. What is an agenda?
An agenda is another name for a calendar. (See “What is the My College Communication calendar?”)
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47. How do I work with the My College Communication calendar?
For more information on working with the calendar, see the My College Communication help page.
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48. What is a My College Communication workspace?
A workspace is a component of the My College Communication site that provides a set of online tools for collaboration. These tools can be used by a group of My College Communication users to work together, over the Internet, even though they may not be in the same place. For example, a workspace could be used by a department, or a committee. These tools include a separate workspace calendar, libraries for file storage and discussion boards.
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49. How do I work with a My College Communication workspace?
For more information on working with a My College Communication workspace, see the My College Communication help page.
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50. Why do I need to use the My College Communication site?
All official communication from Orange County Community College administration, faculty and staff will be sent only to your email address on the My College Communication site. This will include snow closing announcements. Therefore it is important that you use your email account on the My College Communication site and check it frequently. This email address will be the only one listed for you in any college publication or web site as of September 1, 2007.
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