GETTING CONNECTED
The Humphrey Center
The Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs is housed in the Humphrey Center, located on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus, 301 Nineteenth Avenue South.
Third floor
The Dean's Office (Room 300)
The Dean's Office is the Institute's administrative collegiate office. Within it are the offices of the dean and associate dean, as well as the Communications Office and the Development Office.
Offices of the Associate Dean
Financial Services and Human Resources (Room 307)
Room 307 contains the Institute accounting staff for payroll, budget, and personnel functions.
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Second floor
GSS (room 225)
Graduate Student Services Office
(Room 225) 612-624-3800:
Compstaff (room 281)
The Humphrey computer staff Helpdesk is located in Room 209. Staff is available from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday for walk-in service, phone calls [612-626-9235] or appointments. You may also create trouble tickets from your Humphrey account and send them to Compstaff.
If you are reserving a laptop or portable LCD, you will pick up the reserved items from Room 209.
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First floor
Front Desk (Room 130)
Offices of Institute faculty, fellows and staff, as well as the Institute research and outreach centers are located on the first and second floors of the Humphrey Center. The main entrance (Room 130) is on the first floor. The reception and information desk (the Front Desk) is located just inside the doors of Room 130. The desk is staffed 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday during the academic year. The Front Desk provides general information about research/outreach centers and activities, current events, and conferences. The phone number for the Front Desk is 612-626-8910.
MURP Lab (Room 188)
The MURP lab is accessible by punch code to MURP students. This space room serves as a meeting room for MURP workshops; a place where work materials may be left out from week to week during the spring semester when students are working on capstone projects.
The lab also has the following physical features, which are used by students making visual presentations of urban planning projects:
- a computer with a color map-printer
- a cutting table
- a map filing cabinet
- easels
- storage for presentation boards
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Plaza level
In the plaza (or lower) level of the Humphrey Center are computer facilities, classrooms, and student study and lounge areas. The library, food and cash machines, and restrooms on the West Bank can be reached at this level without going outside (via the tunnel system, called the Gopher Way).
James E. Jernberg Student Lounge (Room 10)
This is where Humphrey Institute students gather. There are student mailboxes; a telephone; bulletin boards for posting jobs, internships and other current information; and a white board for communicating with fellow students. There is a refrigerator, a sink, a microwave oven, a toaster oven as well as tables, chairs, and couches. This lounge is only for Humphrey Institute students. If you see any strangers using this facility, please contact Room 225 at 624-3800 or the University Police at 612-624-2677 (624-COPS).
Public Affairs Student Association Office (Room 10a)
This is the room attached to the lounge and is the office of the Public Affairs Student Association (PASA), of which all students are members.
Study rooms and computer labs
Room 40
Room 40 is accessible to Humphrey students twenty-four hours a day by key card. It is a quiet study room with twelve computers and a printer. Laptop wireless access is available at the front of the room (before the computer area). Please respect fellow students by minimizing noise.
Study tables and carrels, as well as coat hooks and cubbyholes for storing books, are in the room. Study carrels and cubbies are not pre-assigned. Students may leave belongings in a carrel while at class or lunch, but they should not expect to "camp out" for the semester. Belongings can be left overnight in a cubby or a locker. Information on locker rental is available at the Gopher Express West Convenience Store.
The group study rooms within Room 40 are for small group study and are not soundproof. A student may study alone in one of them, but groups have priority. These rooms also have network jacks for connecting a floating group-study computer to the Humphrey network. Students with laptop computers will also find electrical outlets in most of the carrels (but not network jacks).
Lab 80
Lab 80 has 20 computers and a printer. There are also tables and carrels for quiet study. Since Room 40 often has group meetings, it is important that lab 80 is available for quiet study. There is power in the study area where laptops can be plugged in.
Lab 85
Room 85 is the primary HHH student computer lab and classroom, also accessible by key card.
Lab 50
An alternate computer site is the University's ADCS computer lab in Room 50, which allows registered students access to the lab's 70 PCs.
- All 70 computers have access to the HHH network (H and O-drives)
- All 70 computers have SPSS
- 24 of the Lab 50 PCs have ArcView 3.2
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Access and communications
Key Cards
Students are issued key cards to Rooms 40, 80 and 85 and the Jernberg Lounge at the Front Desk (Room 130) for a $10 deposit. It is a good idea for students to save the stub given to them at the time of the deposit. If students take longer than three years to complete a degree, the Front Desk may no longer have its half of the deposit stub. For key deposit refunds, students should return the key card to the Front Desk and deposit card will be returned. The deposit card can be exchanged for cash at the West Bank Bursar, 101a Anderson Hall. Do not plan to do this five minutes before you leave town; the Bursar's hours are limited.
Your student U Card can be programmed to release the front door to the building when it is locked on weekends. Please give your card number to the Front Desk staff to have your card activated. RAs and TAs may also be given U Card access to the internal office (Room 130 and 230) area.
Security
Security requires common sense. Here are some tips we have gathered from the sometimes unpleasant experiences of others:
- Do not let strangers into the building or internal rooms with your key cards, including the lounges and study room. (Authorized persons will have the appropriate card or code. You can also offer to call campus security to assist them.)
- Do not prop open doors after hours. This protects you as well as others.
- If working in the study room at night, pull the blinds.
- Walk with a group when leaving the building at night. Otherwise, you should use the University's escort service, which is free and available twenty-four hours a day. All student escorts are veteran security monitors who have had background checks and training by University Police. Call 624-WALK (9255).
- Be similarly careful about your belongings. Do not leave them unattended. If you have a locker, avoid storing valuables in it. Thieves can access lockers--everything from books to money have been stolen.
On campus outside the building, the police can be reached directly from emergency phones under blue lights. Again, avoid walking alone `t night. The campus is not well-lit or heavily trafficked at night, nor is it busy on weekends. The non-emergency number for the University's police is 624-3550 and the emergency number is 911.
Student mail
Student mail is delivered to the Jernberg Lounge, 10 Humphrey Center, once a day. All student mail is directed there. Research and teaching assistants who will be receiving mail for a specific project can inform the front desk staff (Room 130) to make special arrangements for mail delivery.
Students can drop off stamped, outgoing U.S. mail in the mailbox in front of the Humphrey Institute. Pickup is at 11 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. daily. Students may purchase stamps and send Express and Priority Mail through the U.S. Post Office branch at the Gopher Express West Skyway store (between Blegen and Willey Halls).
Mail addressed to on-campus locations does not need a stamp. It can be placed on the left-hand corner slot of the bottom shelf of the first and second floor mailboxes (Rooms 130 and 230) in spaces marked "Campus Mail" or deposited directly in campus mailboxes around campus. If students seek to send Campus Mail after the Humphrey offices are closed, they may use a 3:00 p.m. pickup Campus Mail slot located near 55 Heller Hall.
Lockers
Information on locker rental is available at the Gopher Express West Convenience Store.
E-mail and Internet access
It is University policy that "student e-mail accounts shall be an official means of communication of the University with all students. Students are responsible for all information sent to them via the University assigned e-mail account." More information about the University's e-mail program is found at http://1help.umn.edu/commtools.html.
As a University of Minnesota student, you can access the Internet once you establish your e-mail account. Student accounts are generated when students register for the first time, but must be activated via the Student E-Mail Account Initiation Form.
You can access the internet in one of three ways:
- by using the public computing facilities on campus (available to U of MN students only)
- by using "directly connected" computers provided by your department
- by connecting to the University modem pool from your home computer using a modem.
Internet access requires software: first, to establish a connection with the University's network, and second, to use specific resources such as e-mail, gopher, or the worldwide web. Computers in the public labs are directly connected to the University ethernet backbone, and have most popular browsers.
If you are setting up a home computer, the University's Academic and Distributed Computing Services (ADCS) can supply you with Internet Kits, which provide many useful and popular internet clients as well as instructions on how to establish a direct or modem connection with the University network. Configuration information for setting up a connection yourself is available from ADCS in Room 50.
You might want to search the ADCS Knowledge Base for questions about University Internet services. More in-depth classes on specific Internet clients are also offered by the ADCS training program.
Once your account is active, you can change your password and various other account options on the web.
Buying an Internet kit
Faculty, staff and students at the University of Minnesota can purchase the Internet Kit from any of the three walk-in locations of the ADCS Helpline (152 Shepherd Labs, 93 Blegen Hall, 50 Coffey Hall, or B060 in Coffman Union).
The Internet Kit contains software and instructions for connecting your computer to the Internet, as well as many popular Internet programs and utilities. The Internet kit installer automatically installs Internet software onto your computer and configures your connection software.
Kits are available on CD. Older versions are available on 3.5" floppy disks and contain software and installers for Windows and Macintosh platforms, as well as other useful programs and utilities.
The cost of the kits is $6, which covers production costs. Individuals must pay for the kits in cash or with a check; credit cards and disks are not accepted.
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Information resources
Information about Humphrey Institute degrees, the Graduate School Catalog, and this student handbook will be important reference materials to you throughout your studies at the Institute.
Humphrey staff and faculty directories
The online directory can be found at /people/index.html. To change or correct information on the Humphrey directory site, contact Compstaff.
Humphrey student information is provided at the One Stop University site at: http://search.umn.edu/
Occasionally, faculty, staff, or students accessing this site may find no information available for a student they know to be active. This person has chosen to suppress their personal information. FERPA (student information privacy) laws prohibit GPO staff or anyone else from sharing information a student has requested be suppressed. Student and Academic Services can, upon request, pass on a message with the caller's contact information to that student (call 624-3800).
Once research and teaching assistants have been assigned an office and phone, they should verify that the Front Desk staff has also been updated about their new office or cubicle number and phone number.
Syllabi
Most syllabi can be found on the Humphrey website at the following address: /academics/syllabi.html. Please contact the instructor if you wish to have a current copy of a syllabus that is not on the site before the beginning of the semester.
Course evaluations
Results of course evaluations for Institute classes are available to students in Room 225 only if the instructor has authorized disclosure of the evaluation results. University policy allows faculty members to decide if students may access their own course evaluations.
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Student organizations
Public Affairs Student Association (PASA)
All Humphrey Institute students are members of the Public Affairs Student Association. PASA represents student interests at the Institute, provides a social link for students and coordinates the Institute's annual spring banquet. Election of officers is held at the end of fall semester each year. PASA also connects students to Institute committees, representing student interests in the Institute's decision-making process.
Other student committees
In addition to official Institute committees, students form committees or task forces to work on other Institute issues. Members of the PASA Steering Committee help form these committees, but students are not limited to the issues selected by the Steering Committee.
Planning Student Organization (PSO)
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/academics/gradprograms/murp/pso/
University of Minnesota Student Organizations
http://www.sua.umn.edu/groups/
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