So, IT&S has been a pain recently. With Hobbs issues, network problems, and the worm incident at the beginning of the school year, this has been quite a trip for the IT&S staff.
Like everyone else, I’ve been feeling the repercussions of our technology problems – my Lotus Notes hasn’t worked all year, I’ve been cut off from the Internet more times than I care to count, projectors don’t work in my classes … the list goes on.
Yeah, I got sick of Leah Kraus’s voicemails last semester too.
I gripe about not being able to check my email or open up AIM. It ticks me off that I can’t print anything on any printer except my roommate’s because of our network problems.
Still, there’s something I try to keep in mind before I start blaming IT&S for all the problems with campus computers: a good portion of the staff are students, just like me. I happen to talk to a couple of them on a regular basis, and their job isn’t any easier than anyone else’s.
Matter of fact, their job is a lot harder. Last semester, my suitemate had to quit IT&S because he was working so many hours that his schoolwork suffered.
Most IT&S people work longer hours than anyone else on campus, between 10 and 20 hours per week on average, and all they get for all that work is complaints.
If any other work-study student slacks off at his job, it doesn’t make an enormous difference on campus. Things go on as usual; nobody’s really affected.
If an IT&S work-study student slacks off at his job, the whole campus could be affected. IT&S staff are working with incredibly sensitive and complicated machinery; if it screws up, campus e-mail goes out, or we stop being able to access the network altogether.
IT&S staffers aren’t computer programmers – they didn’t write the software that makes all these things go wrong on campus. Except for the supervisors, most of them are just college kids who have to worry about writing papers and doing homework in addition to trying to get your computer fixed. They’re people, like you, like me, who make mistakes and can’t devote every second of their lives to fixing the campus computer problems.
I want to make a request of you: when your computer starts blinking error messages at you and you call IT&S to come and fix it, just remember that they’re people, too. Cut ’em some slack, will ya?