Information Technology

Mailman IT uses a ticketing system to log and track support requests. To create a ticket:

Desktop Help: msph-tickets@cumc.columbia.edu

AV Help: msph-av@cumc.columbia.edu or for AV emergencies call (646) 438-5925.

For Issue Escalation, please contact: 

Elizabeth Tashiro, MS
CTO, Associate Dean for Information Technology 
Phone: 212-342-3021
Email: es2222@columbia.edu

Ed Arnold-Berkovits, MS
Director, Servers & Applications 
Phone: 212-305-0721
Email: ea2124@columbia.edu

Rebecca Yohannes
Director, HPC Resources
Phone: 212-342-0487
Email: ry111@columbia.edu

Simon Mak, MS 
AV Manager
Phone: 212-342-5339
Email: sm3797@cumc.columbia.edu

Edwin H. Lopez
Director, IT Client Services
Phone: 212-305-3395
Email: el3162@cumc.columbia.edu

Steven Siew
Manager, IT Operations & Support
Email: ss6699@columbia.edu

Sarah Seigel
IT Procurement
Email: ss5044@cuimc.columbia.edu

All student computing at CUIMC is supported by CUIMC IT. They provide two resources: A Website outlining available resources and a walk-up "Tech Bar" located in Hammer Library. 

• CUIMC Student Computing
• CUIMC IT "Tech Bar"

Columbia University Medical Center and Columbia University are very complex organizations, and IT is no less so. So it is worth detailing who the players are:

• CUIMC IT: Centrally-funded IT group at the Medical Center. IT is responsible for our e-mail, P drive and network access.
• NYP Core Services: The group responsible for the network equipment – the data ports in the walls, the data closets in our buildings, and all the Wifi.  Any equipment over which our data flows. This team is a joint collaboration between New York-Presbyterian Hospital and CUIMC IT.
• CUIT: Columbia University IT – no relation to CUIMC IT or Mailman IT. CUIT manages the Uni system, and all resources accessed via the mycolumbia.edu portal. Mailman IT also leverages their Zoom videoconference service. In general, however, we have little dependence on their services.
• Mailman IT: The Mailman-funded IT group within our School. Independent of CUIMC IT or CUIT, we are:
  • Subject to various central IT policies
  • Dependent on the network infrastructure and central services, like email. 
  • Your primary liaison with CUIMC IT, CUIT, and NYP IT. 
• Reach out to Mailman IT by emailing msph-tickets@cumc.columbia.edu

Personal work file storage

• OneDrive: Our Office 365 accounts come with 1 TB of data storage (in plain terms -- a LOT). OneDrive is perfect for storage of your personal work files, but it also enables users to share documents with internal collaborators (restricted to CUIMC at the moment). The expansive storage space also makes it an ideal space to back-up your data generally (make sure to confirm with your Mailman IT tech that it is setup). All Office 365 Apps are found here: CUIMC Office 365 Login.  Use your CUIMC e-mail credentials to login.
• Legacy Storage: Long-term faculty and staff may have project files on CUIMC IT's "P Drive". Access to the “P” drive is limited to users with UNIs. To request access to your department's P drive space, please email msph-tickets@cumc.columbia.edu. Notes: 1) Access requires DA approval. 2) P drive files are backed up nightly, with 2 data “snapshots” during the day. 3) The storage is certified HIPAA compliant. 
• External Hard Drive: If you like to keep your files local, you always have the option to purchase a standalone external hard drive. Consult with IT for advice on which device may fit your needs best. Note: External hard drives must be encrypted at all times.
• MSPH Amazon Web Services or Systems Biology on-campus storage: Contact Rebecca Yohannes at ry111@cumc.columbia.edu for information.

CUIMC IT offers a number of collaboration tools, primarily for those operating within the CU community. “Guest access” for people without a Uni can be granted via assignment of a temporary uni. Open a ticket by mailing msph-tickets@cumc.columbia.edu with your request.

Collaboration Tools

MS Teams/SharePoint available via your Office 365 account: Both applications enable you to setup document respositories and provide access to one or many collaborators as needed.

Sharepoint: According to the experts, SharePoint is good for:

• Hard-core document governance (versioning, metadata classifications, doc templates, restricted libraries/documents)
• Storage and management of docs with a lifecycle 
• When you want to implement Document Management System i.e. policies and procedures
• Create automated business processes on libraries and lists i.e. forms and workflows
• For more static content. 

Teams: According to the experts, Teams is great for:

• Conversations/discussions, organizing meetings, private chats and files/knowledge sharing 

• Constantly changing updates, daily tasks, sharing of related documents or links, announcements, emails. You can use channels to discuss different topics. 

Due to data security concerns, CUIMC policy requires that all multi-user application and data storage servers be registered with CUIMC IT’s Information Security Office, and maintained by either an approved host or CUIMC certified IT group. 

CUIMC IT has established a robust registration and certification process, details can be found here: System Registration. Please be advised that CUIMC IT charges a certification fee for systems that it deems higher risk. Please visit the registration site for more details.

Registration Scope

• Registration requirements include any servers or application that is accessed by more than one person internally, or any software or server that is publicly accessible (available over the Internet). 
• The policy includes servers/applications run from on-campus hosts as well as cloud based applications, such as those hosted with AWS.   

First Step if You Need Application Hosting

Reach out to our Director of Servers & Applications, Ed Arnold-Berkovits, at ea2124@cumc.columbia.edu to discuss your needs and possible options. Re

• CU HR provides a license to LinkedIn Learning for all employees free of charge. LinkedIn Learning is an excellent source of online tutorials for a lot of the software that we use, including the Office 365 suite of software.
• Also Microsoft has introduced “Microsoft Learn” to provide in-depth training on their full suite of software products, including everything provided with Office 365.

• Support for Moves: Most moves at Mailman are a collaboration between Mailman Operations, IT, and NYPs Core Resources (needed to establish new network connectivity). If you are planning a faculty/staff move, please reach out to Mailman Operations Dora Gonzalez at ag418@cumc.columbia.edu to kick off the process. They will loop in any additional parties needed.

• MailChimp is the preferred vehicle for mass e-mail communications. Reach out to Anne Foulke-Toner to learn how you can use MailChimp for your department.
• Historically, faculty and staff used CUIMC IT's List-Serv service to send mass e-mails. If you are still maintaining lists with CUIMC IT, you can reference their new List-Serv user guide for "how to" guidance. (Requires Uni login.)

The CUIMC IT Website provides links to all the IT-related policies in play at CUIMC. Anyone who works at the Medical Center is expected to be familiar with them.