SailPoint to midPoint: IAM Team Delivers Seamless Transition
Campus Solutions
In collaboration with Enterprise Platforms, Campus Solutions, Collaborative Platform Services, Emerging Technologies and Architecture, Libraries, Mainframe and Administrative Systems, Networking, and Support Center
Protected Users Group Implementation Establishes New Security Baseline
Campus Solutions
In collaboration with Engagement & Experience, Infrastructure teams
Enterprise Technology Campus Solutions completed the University’s Protected Users Group implementation project, moving all 2,560 department user accounts into a more secure authentication model and fully addressing a 2022 Privileged Access Management audit requirement. Protected Users membership became the standard security configuration on July 28, 2026.
The project strengthened privileged account security for 2,560 department user accounts, including more than 300 Center users, by reducing credential exposure and limiting authentication methods that could be exploited by attackers. The implementation established Protected Users as the required baseline, with ISO approval now required for exceptions.
What began as a 2022 audit finding remediation evolved into a multi-year enterprise security initiative. ET Campus Solutions worked across teams to remediate authentication dependencies, implement AD LDS services, update applications, support stakeholder testing, and transition the University to a more resilient privileged access model.
Infrastructure Lifecycle Replacement Project Nearing Completion
Infrastructure
The Enterprise Technology Infrastructure team is nearing completion of its summer equipment lifecycle replacement project ahead of the fall semester. The effort included replacing or decommissioning network equipment across campus to improve reliability, security, and operational efficiency.
Upon completion, the team will have replaced or decommissioned nearly 1,000 pieces of network equipment across 120 buildings. The upgraded infrastructure provides greater capability to support the University’s mission while reducing risks associated with aging equipment and security vulnerabilities.
The Infrastructure team has been advancing improved lifecycle management practices for several years in partnership with University leadership and campus stakeholders. These efforts help ensure technology investments remain secure, sustainable, and aligned with long-term operational needs.
Visit the Wi-Fi Optimization Initiative to learn more and check out the building tracker.
Rejuvenated AI Champions Network Expands by 80+ Members, Accelerating Campus AI Adoption
AI Platforms & Innovation
In collaboration with Engagement & Experience
Enterprise Technology relaunched the UT.AI Champions Network and delivered a two-part Claude training series. The network added more than 80 members in July and engaged faculty, staff, and students in peer-led learning, demonstrations, and knowledge sharing across campus.
More than 110 people registered for each session, with 102 attending the first session and 100 attending the second. The series engaged faculty, staff, and students from more than 15 units, including the Office of the Registrar, Parking and Transportation Services, Facilities Services, Dell Medical School, McCombs, Moody, the iSchool, UT High School, and Athletics. Eighty-two percent of first-session attendees returned for the second session, participants averaged more than 80 minutes of engagement, and the series earned a 4.9 out of 5 value rating. The Champions Network now includes more than 175 members after adding more than 80 new members since July.
The training series introduced University AI policy, data classification, AI fluency, Claude capabilities, connectors, skills, and Cowork. Champions shared deployed tools and practical use cases that improve advising, accessibility, automation, and operational workflows across the University.
UT Links Simple Syllabus to Official Course Syllabi Repository
Enterprise Platforms
Instructors use Simple Syllabus, a tool in Canvas, to build syllabi from templates. Until now, Simple Syllabus wasn't connected to the University's official syllabi repository, so instructors had to export a PDF and upload it separately, and any later edit in Simple Syllabus wasn't reflected in the repository unless someone repeated that step. The Registrar IT team has built a direct integration so the repository stores the published Simple Syllabus link instead of a separate PDF upload, keeping the two systems in sync and giving students one place to search for any University syllabus.
The integration removes a manual export-and-upload step for every instructor who publishes through Simple Syllabus and closes the gap between what's in Simple Syllabus and what's in the repository. It also replaces static PDFs, which frequently fail WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility checks, with Simple Syllabus's structured HTML output, which includes its own accessibility checker before publishing. Staff who compile HB 2504 compliance reports gain one current source of truth instead of reconciling PDFs against Simple Syllabus records by hand.
Simple Syllabus lets instructors build syllabi from templates inside Canvas, but it was never connected to UT's official syllabi repository, the system that satisfies HB 2504 public disclosure requirements. Instructors had to export a PDF and upload it to the repository separately, and the repository could fall out of date whenever a syllabus changed in Simple Syllabus afterward. Static PDFs also carry accessibility risk, since they commonly fail WCAG 2.1 AA checks that Simple Syllabus's HTML-based syllabi are designed to pass. The Registrar IT team built on Simple Syllabus's public API and predictable syllabus URLs so the repository now pulls and stores the published link automatically, removing the export/upload step and aligning the workflow with UT's HOP 3-3014 accessibility policy.
ET AI Users Group Launches Peer-Led AI Knowledge Sharing for Non-Developer Staff
Enterprise Platforms
In Collaboration with AI Platforms & Innovation
Enterprise Platforms and the AI Studio launched a new biweekly ET AI Users Group as part of Enterprise Technology's push to make AI adoption safe and effective for staff outside of engineering. The goal is to connect analysts, project managers, process owners, and other non-developer staff so they can learn from each other's experience and settle on shared, responsible practices with tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot.
The group's reach grew quickly. Attendance climbed from 23 non-developer staff at the July 15 kickoff to 128 at the next session two weeks later (July 29). The sessions are already surfacing concrete, adoptable practices, through guided conversations and live demos, including a UT Directory lookup skill built for Claude and a working example of using Claude to auto-generate a daily briefing from calendar, email, and other connected sources, giving non-technical staff a lower-friction path into AI-assisted work.
This effort fills an AI enablement need within ET, giving process owners and analysts a dedicated space to trade prompts, workflows, and skills. The group meets every other week, backed by a dedicated Teams channel and shared Box folder for artifacts. It extends Enterprise Technology's AI enablement work, which focuses on helping staff adopt these tools rather than mandating them.