Don't Forget to Take Advantage of Gateway Portal

Q: WHAT ARE CAMPUS AN-NOUNCEMENTS?

A: On the Gateway homepage, you’ll find an area called Campus Announcements. Because all students, faculty and staff see the same campus announcements, that spot generally will include only items that are highly relevant to all three groups.

Events that would be considered campus announcements include the State of the University Address or Mass of the Holy Spirit. This area also will be used to quickly share information about safety alerts or other important updates.

Q: WHAT ARE PERSONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS?

A: Personal announcements are a great feature of Gateway. Often you may have information that is important for members of your college, school or division, but not for the entire SLU community. Now you can target that message so it will appear only on your colleagues’ Gateway homepages.

Each unit is establishing guidelines for what can be shared as well as a point person to whom you may send your information. For more details, contact your dean or vice president’s office.

Q. HOW DO I LOG ONTO GATEWAY FOR THE FIRST TIME?

A: There is a five-step process for those visiting Gateway for the first time.

But before you begin, information technology services strongly recommends using Internet Explorer as your featured browser.

For those using Windows, use Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher. For those on Macs, use version 5.1 or 5.2. Then follow these instructions:

• Point your browser address to gateway.slu.edu

• In the “Secure Access Login” panel on the upper left hand of the Gateway screen, enter your SLU ID (your e-mail name). For example, if your SLU e-mail address is johndoe@slu.edu, you would enter johndoe in the user name field.

• In the password field, enter your WebStar PIN if you are a student, your WebPRO PIN if you are a staff member or your WebFAC pin if you are a faculty member. Click the login button.

• On your first visit into the Gateway portal, you will be asked to change your password. The screen will tell you, “password expired.”

• In the new password field on this screen, enter a new password. Your password must contain at least one letter, one digit and have at least five characters but no more than 20. Re-enter your new password in the confirm new password field. Click the save changes button.

That’s it! You’re now logged into the new Gateway portal.

Q. HOW DOES GATEWAY E-MAIL WORK?

A. Gateway e-mail is a Web-based product, much like the current mail.slu.edu. Because of this, you cannot store e-mail through Gateway on your local computer. Gateway e-mail, however, has a much more user-friendly look and is much easier to use than mail.slu.edu.

You can still use your current e-mail to access and manage your e-mail on your computer. If you currently use Netscape Messenger to retrieve and manage your e-mail, you may continue to do so. Again, Gateway will neither provide storage of mail in local folders (on your computer) nor access to your local folders. For those benefits, you should continue to use your current e-mail.

Q: WHERE DO I GO IF I NEED HELP WITH USING GATEWAY?

A: Robust self-help features, as well as a tutorial, will be available within Gateway to help you understand, customize and navigate through the new Web-based tools. You may also call the ITS support desk at 977-4000 to ask questions.

You may also send questions and comments to portal@slu.edu.

In addition, ITS has trained several “experts” from across the University located in key areas who have volunteered to train others. Volunteers include Steve Brendle, purchasing manager; Michelle Carter, manager for the controller’s office; Pam Dickens, senior microcomputer technician for ITS (pediatrics); Jim Gau, manager for family health services; Carol Lunning, assistant director for career services: Sandy Pritt, assistant director for financial aid; Jeanne Robben, senior compensation specialist for human resources; Stephen Schmidt, accounting manager for the controller’s office; Daniel Shown, administrative secretary for the department of philosophy; Ellen Weis, coordinator for the registrar’s office; and Lisa Zoia, director for the controller’s office.

Q: HOW CAN I GET TRAINED ON GATEWAY?

A: In January, information technology services begin offering employee training sessions focusing on the various aspects of Gateway, including an overall introduction; how to use e-mail; how to set up groups; and how to use the Gateway calendar feature. As part of the training sessions, manuals are available to help familiarize you with Gateway.

The information technology services (ITS) training department has released the Gateway training schedule for April through June. The schedule is available from the Gateway Portal Training channel within Gateway, or from the ITS training site at www.slu.edu/its/training/schedules/gateway_apr_june_2004.html.

Gateway training classes fill quickly and are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Departments with 8-12 members may request a private session by emailing Barb Coleman for more information. In your email, provide at least five dates in which your department would be available for training. There is no guarantee your dates can be honored, but every effort will be made to do so.

Small departments may wish to combine members for private training.

For more information about Gateway training, email Coleman at

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