Zoom UC Davis update: No-cost accounts for students, plus other changes (revised 9/21)

Update Sept. 21: Zoom now says it will not enforce a previously announced security requirement that all meetings have passcodes or waiting rooms starting Sept. 27. Instead, the company plans to introduce an opt-in administrative setting in November that would "ensure that all meetings have a passcode, waiting room, or 'Only authenticated users can join' " requirement, and "highly recommends" that locations adopt this setting.

There’s news this fall about Zoom, the videoconferencing service that has become an essential part of learning, teaching and working at UC Davis during the pandemic.

• All UC Davis students can now obtain a licensed Zoom account at no cost to them. The licensed account has more features than the free version they’ve had so far, including the ability to host meetings with up to 300 participants and no meeting time limits. (Some faculty and staff already had access to licensed accounts through their departments.) To install the Zoom app, see these instructions.
• A project to consolidate most of the approximately 150 different UC Davis “instances” (collections of accounts) into one central instance is nearly done. If your campus Zoom account was previously managed by your college, department or unit, you should have received information from them about what the consolidation means for you. Most people merely had to switch to the new URL, ucdavis.zoom.us. Consolidation resolves a variety of technical, security, support and consistency issues. If you have questions, please contact your office tech support (directory) or the IT Express Service Desk.
• As part of the consolidation, the campus Zoom landing page will gain a new look (shown) starting the evening of Sept. 17.
• (this section was revised Sept. 21) Zoom has dropped a previously announced plan to require all sessions to have a passcode or a waiting room starting Sept. 27. Zoom disclosed the repeal in an email it sent to customers on Sept. 20, and will instead make a change described in the update at the top of this article. Zoom has been overhauling its security procedures after Zoombombing disrupted meetings and classes earlier this year. See Zoom’s FAQ (which had not been updated with the new information as of noon Sept. 21) for more information.

 Read more about Zoom in the IT Service Catalog.

Certain parts of UC Davis continue to have their own Zoom instances:

• UC Davis Health, School of Medicine, or School of Nursing, ucdavishealth.zoom.us/
• School of Law, intranet.law.ucdavis.edu/coursetools/zoom/
• Graduate School of Management, zoom.us
• Continuing and Professional Education, ucdaviscpe.zoom.us
• UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, ucanr.edu/sites/zoom/