Frequently Asked Questions | Maricopa Community Colleges

This page contains answers to several popular questions. However, it may not contain answers to questions that are more specific to your college or location.

If you need IT support at your location for telecommuting and remote work or have more questions, please visit the Maricopa Help Center to (a) submit a help desk request for your location (District Office and college-specific help desk information listed on the site); and/or (b) to obtain contact details for the IT help desk at your college or location for assistance.

Click any question below to expand the answer.

What is Maricopa’s telecommuting policy? How do I get approval to work from home?

Please refer to Maricopa’s Temporary Telecommuting and Remote Work statement for more details.

Many students, faculty and staff members may be working from home or elsewhere over the next several days and/or weeks and may need internet service to remain productive. Are internet service providers and carriers such as Cox, AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon Wi-Fi offering Wi-Fi services for those in need for free or at a reduced cost in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Several major internet providers are offering a range of service options and packages to provide support and relief for customers and communities in need - - for example, support for telecommuting and remote work, school assignments, online and remote learning, and entertainment.

Useful links - visit these sites for the latest details on how to sign-up and leverage these services.

FCC Agreement: states that providers will waive late fees, not cutoff service for lack of payment, and open hot-spots.
Cox Communications: offers a range of services and packages for the next 60 days (for ex, free access to over 650,000 Wi-Fi hot spots; residential customers in the company’s Starter, StraightUp Internet and Connect2Compete packages will be automatically upgraded to speeds of 50 Mbps).
Comcast COVID-19 response: offers free WiFi for 2 months to low income families plus all Xfinity hot-spots are free to the public during this time
Charter Free Internet offer for 2 months
AT&T COVID-19 response: offers open hot-spots, unlimited data to existing customers, and $10/month plans to low income families
Verizon COVID-19 response: no special offers, but following the FCC agreement.
Sprint COVID-19 response: follows FCC agreement, provides unlimited data to existing customers, and, starting Tuesday, 3/17/2020, will allow all handsets to enable hot-spots for 60 days at no extra charge.
T-Mobile COVID-19 response: follows FCC agreement, plus unlimited data to existing customers, and, coming soon, will allow all handsets to enable hot-spots for 60 days at no extra charge.

How do I get back to the main COVID-19 page to see the latest updates?

If you browsed directly from that page you may use the back button on your browser. Alternatively, please click here.

How can I reach out to someone to get help with a technical question?

Colleges: Help Desk Support

If you have questions and/or need IT assistance at your college, please contact your local help desk for assistance.

District Office Locations: Help Desk Support

If you have questions and/or need IT assistance at these District Office locations (District Office building, Emerald Point, Wood Street, Maricopa Public Safety), please contact the Maricopa Information Technology Services help desk, 480-731-8632 or helpdesk@domail.maricopa.edu

I will be working remote and I want to be able to collaborate with my peers who are either also remote or at a Maricopa location. What tool can I use to setup a meeting with video conferencing support?

All students, staff, and faculty have access to Google Meet to setup a conference. Please refer to the Webex Quick Start Guide to get started.

I heard that I may need VPN. What is VPN? What does it do?

While most of Maricopa's applications and services can be accessed remotely and from anywhere, some applications, services and functions are restricted to the Maricopa network.

VPN access will be required in these cases. VPN is a technology that enables secure, encrypted connection between your computer and resources on the Maricopa network.

Note: VPN access and instructions may vary by location. Please contact your local help desk for assistance. 

I heard that I will need VPN access to access some services from home. Can you provide more details about that?

Colleges: VPN Services

As applications and services differ across the District, please contact your local help desk if you have VPN-related questions and/or need assistance.

District-wide Systems and Services: VPN Services

For the most part, faculty and students can access most systems from home without a VPN. Examples of services that do not need this information include:

E-mail
Google Drive
Google Hangouts Chat
Calendar Management/Google Meet Conferencing
SIS frontend
FMS/HCM End User Consumption
Canvas LMS
MyInfo
Public Website (www.maricopa.edu, my.maricopa.edu)
Employee portal
Maricopa Help Desk (SysAid)

The following systems will need VPN access (VPN access can be provided at the local college or district level):

Network Drive Access File Server (File1)
FMS/HCM Administrator Access
File Staging Environment
Remote Desktop to Computer
Database access to IRIS, IRIS lite, Data Lake, etc.
Cisco Softphone Access
Update Web Content
Old Helpdesk (Rio Helpdesk)

I will need VPN access to perform certain work-related duties and services remotely. Can you provide instructions to help me do that?

Yes. Firstly, you must be granted VPN access to use this service. To request VPN access, please submit a help desk ticket at your location. If you have questions, please contact your local help desk for assistance.

Please note that VPN client installation instructions may vary by location. For employees located at the District Office (District Office, Emerald Point, Wood Street, Maricopa Public Safety) that have been granted VPN access, use these instructions to setup your VPN client.

If you have questions, please contact the District Information Technologies Services help desk, 480-731-8632 or helpdesk@domail.maricopa.edu.

How do I forward my office phone to an alternate number (personal phone, home phone)?

Several telephones in use at Maricopa allow you to forward incoming calls to another phone using the call forward feature. Instructions vary by telephone model and different telephone models are used across Maricopa.

Colleges: Assistance with Your Phone

If you have questions on how to setup the phone you use at your college, please contact your local help desk

District Office Locations: Assistance with Your Phone

See User Guides for Several Commonly-used Phones for assistance. If you do not see your phone or need further assistance, please contact the Maricopa Information Technology Services help desk, 480-731-8632 or helpdesk@domail.maricopa.edu.

Are laptops and other equipment available for employees who must work from home but either don’t currently have a Maricopa-issued computer or prefer not to use their personally-owned computer for work purposes?

Colleges: Equipment Requests

If you have questions regarding loaner equipment at your college, please contact your local help desk for assistance.

District Office Locations: Equipment Requests

If you have questions regarding loaner equipment at District Office locations (District Office building, Emerald Point, Wood Street, Maricopa Public Safety), please contact the Maricopa Information Technology Services help desk, 480-731-8632 or helpdesk@domail.maricopa.edu.

If I do not have access to a Maricopa-issued computing device while telecommuting or working remotely, can I use my personally-owned computing devices (for example, laptop, smartphone, tablet) to do essential job functions?

If you do not have access to a Maricopa-issued computing device and need to perform essential job functions, a personally-owned computing device may be approved for use under certain circumstances. If so, the following conditions apply:

Maricopa’s Information Classification and Handling IT directive must be followed.
Anti-virus/anti-malware software is to be installed and functioning.
Colleges: Contact your local help desk if you have questions. District Office locations: Contact the Maricopa Information Technology Services help desk, 480-731-8632 or helpdesk@domail.maricopa.edu if you have questions.
Use your Google team drive for use, creation, editing and storage of Maricopa data online instead of storing it locally on your personally-owned computing device.
Please review the Personal Device Guidelines.

If I am taking my computer equipment home, what are the most important things to be aware of? What should I take with me?

Please discuss your take home equipment needs with your supervisor. If approved by your supervisor, please use the following guides as you pack up Maricopa-owned computing equipment to take home.

To be productive in your home workspace, there are several important items to be aware of if you are taking your computer equipment home. Please refer to the "Know Before You Go" guides for desktops and laptops.

Colleges: Property Loan Agreement

If you are taking Maricopa-owned computing equipment, a completed property loan agreement is required. Please contact your local help desk regarding property loan agreement forms to use at your college.

District Office Location Users (District Office, Emerald Point, Wood Street, Maricopa Public Safety): Property Loan Agreement

If you are taking Maricopa-owned computing equipment, a completed property loan agreement is required. Please complete this form and provide it you supervisor.