University Events Calendar System

New University Events Calendar system

Information Technology Services (ITS) at Florida State University has launched a new public events calendar. Synchronizing with department calendars and adding events to calendars is now a streamlined process.

The new calendar offers greater functionality as it ties in with the university’s email system (Microsoft Exchange), mobile app (FSU Mobile), and web content management system (eZ Publish). The calendar also allows sharing of events through social media and provides email alerts when events are changed.

The team of university stakeholders, led by ITS Web Services, determined criteria for the new calendar system and evaluated several systems to meet the needs of the university community. The project was funded by government stimulus funds for 2010-2011.

Departments can promote events from their calendars to the university key events calendar, which shows highlighted university events.

For more information on requesting a department calendar see Frequently Asked Questions below.

To view the new university calendar, go to calendar.fsu.edu/.

To find out more about FSU Mobile, go to its.fsu.edu/mobile.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• What is the University Events Calendar and what is the University Calendar link?
  It is a calendar system that allows departments to maintain their own public events departmental calendar which will feed into the University Calendar.  The University Calendar at calendar.fsu.edu is a calendar of highlighted events on campus.  It is not an all-inclusive list of all events on campus.

• How do I get an event posted on the University Calendar?
  You cannot add an event without first having access to a calendar. Please request a calendar for multiple events, or for a single event, find a department (with an existing calendar) that is closely aligned with your event and send a request to that department to request your event be added to the calendar. ITS Web Services maintains the calendar, however they do not maintain the content of the calendar. If you need to know who a department's calendar contact is, please send a request to us.

• How do we get a calendar created for our department within the University's new calendar system?
  To request the calendar please fill out this form and include the following:
  1.) The calendar name
  2.) Names (and FSUIDs) of staff who will need access to edit the calendar.
  ** Note:  Please be prepared to populate and maintain your calendar once you have requested it.  We may remove calendars that are not continually populated.

  Please use the same form to request a change of calendar editors for your department too.

• What options do we have for displaying our department calendar?
  FSU's Web Content Management System.  
  Using an External Calendar object you can bring in your departmental calendar.
  See instructions for adding the FSU Calendar widget, similar to the one used on this page.

  FSU Mobile app.
  When your departmental calendar has been requested, created and populated, we can schedule a time for your calendar to be posted on the FSU Mobile app.

• Department Websites (other than FSU's CMS).
  Posting to a website.
  A link for your website can be generated from the University Event's Calendar system for posting in your website. A FSU Calendar widget can also be provided similar to the one used on this page. Contact ITS Web Services for more information.

  Outlook and other calendars.
  You can add any of the University Calendars to your own calendar by adding it using Outlook Connector or copying the link and posting it as an 'other' calendar.

• How do we get our department events highlighted on the Key Events Calendar?
  When you create or edit an event, you may request the event be promoted to the University Calendar by checking the appropriate box in the editor.

• Why was my event request rejected?
  All event requests go through an approval process. Please check the following:
  • Event time
    Allow 24 hours for approval.  Although we strive to approve events quickly, same-day submissions and requests made around holidays or weekends may experience delays.   Event times must be current or the request will be rejected.
  • Image Size
    Images must be 520px (or less).  If your event is linked to an image, that image must be properly sized or the request will be rejected.
  • Description
    Please provide a brief description at minimum.  Requests with no description will be rejected.

  • Contact
    Please include a point of contact with phone and email address of contact so viewers of the calendar can get more information if needed.

    Contact Examples: Jane Doe (jdoe@fsu.edu)  or  John Doe (850)123-4567

    Requests with incomplete contact information will be rejected.

• Why won't my events show up on websites like my.fsu.edu?
  The next 5 events on the Key Events calendar show on sites where we present the University Calendar. If you have posted an 'all day' event (starting at midnight), it will no longer show at 12:01am, when the event has 'started'.  The basic rule for the calendar system is “remove an event when the current time is after the start time of the event”. 

  If your event repeats 'all day' over a couple days, like a weekend, it will no longer show after it starts.  Please do not enter a multi-day event as separate days to get them to show. Web Services will use our judgement on all calendar entries in order to give everyone a fair chance of having their events posted on these prominent pages.  Unless your event repeats incorrectly, or is a duplicate, we typically don't delete events from Key Events and we make every attempt to contact the editor before removing events, so they can be corrected.

• Why am I unable to sign in to my calendar using Firefox on my MAC?
  MACs using Firefox 30.0 or later will not be able to sign in to the calendar due to a deprecated security protocol. (More Information) There are workarounds mentioned in the prior link.  You may also use another browser (i.e. Safari or Chrome), or access the calendar using a different link:  https://secure.calendar.fsu.edu/default.aspx

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For updates on Calendar system, join the list at:  https://lists.fsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/univ-calendar

The public's guide to using the calendar can be found here:  calendar.fsu.edu/Documents/University Calendar User Guide.pdf

The University Events Calendar system is a collaborative effort of various staff within the FSU Community working closely with FSU's Information Technology Services.