As we begin the spring quarter, I’m pleased to share highlights of our recent progress. These efforts reflect significant collaboration across campus, and together, we’re making meaningful strides to modernize and secure our digital environment. For a more detailed view of each initiative, you can refer to the IT Executive Dashboard.
- FACET is moving steadily toward full implementation of Bruin Financial Aid, with aid offers now being processed for newly admitted first-year students in Undergraduate Education, Law, and Nursing — building on earlier processing for Graduate, Medicine, and Dentistry students. Upcoming milestones include processing for transfer students in April and for all students, including those receiving summer 2025 aid, in May. This represents a major step in delivering a more responsive and efficient financial aid system to better support students.
- The Bruin Connect & Secure team has successfully collected signed security compliance confirmations (Trellix attestations) from all departments currently meeting the UC Office of the President's mandated requirements. Efforts are actively underway to consolidate known university devices and systems into a centralized inventory—an essential step toward achieving full UCOP cybersecurity compliance by May 28, 2025. In parallel, the final stages of vendor selection are in progress to support UCLA’s future network infrastructure, laying the foundation for a modern, unified, and secure campus-wide network.
- The Email Unification program is now focused on helping all UCLA departments enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on their email systems. This added layer of security is required by UCOP and must be in place by May 2025. Our central IT team is working closely with local IT teams to support both MFA implementation and related system updates to ensure full compliance.
- As part of UCLA’s exploration of responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) use, we are wrapping up a set of pilot projects using ChatGPT Enterprise licenses. We are now evaluating how widely these tools are being used across campus and reviewing other AI products already available through existing agreements. This will help guide decisions about future AI offerings to support teaching, research, and administrative needs.
Thank you for your continued collaboration as we work together to enhance the digital experience for our Bruin community. I’m excited about what we’ll accomplish in the months ahead.
Best regards,
Lucy Avetisyan
Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer
