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News
The Clarion | Dec. 14, 2007
Network problems frustrate campus
by Ben Goff
News Editor
Slow internet service, network
drive outages (including O
drives), and email difficulties
continue to be a source of frus
tration on campus. The frustra
tions are becoming an obstacle
to everyone from students all
the way up to Vice President
John Hardt.
The general sentiment last
Wed. morning when the net
work went down at approxi
mately 10:20am wasthatoffrus-
tration. This was the second
such outage of the week and
disrupted students who were
preparing important papers and
faculty who were giving lec
tures. At this time of the year
when many people have as-
sigimients to complete the net
work problems have reached a
new high.
All faculty and students ac
knowledges that the recent
computing problems have nev
er been experienced before.
Professor Janie Sue Brooks
Stated that “This fall for the first
time IT problems have nega
tively impacted my ability to do
myjob.”
While several faculty ex
pressed frustration with the
slow internet while trying to
conduct research through the
online databases. Brooks
doesn’t “Mind the speed so
much, but it needs to be reli
able.”
For Information Technology
professor Alyse Hollingsworth
the slow downs and outages
have made it difficult for stu
dents in IT classes to complete
their work in class, and for many
professors who use power
point or other computer re
I
source in class the outages
have disrupted lectures.
Students and faculty are in
structed to use their O drive
space for document storage
instead of saving files to com
puters, and are instructed to
use their campus email to com
municate with professors.
Many students and faculty ex
pressed displeasure at being
instructed to rely on a network
that is not rehable.
Brooks also raised concerns
about a new mass email policy
that will likely be put into ef
fect soon. “There are some fac
ulty that will be very unhappy
if restrictions are placed on the
ability to email students.”
Brooks also expressed frus
tration at sometimes not being
able to access web mail from
home, which is compounded
by the fact that it has become
necessary for her to work form
home at times because the com
puter in her office is not able to
handle the demands of software
she uses to do research.
According to Brooks “Our IT
department is wonderful. Our
network is not.” Similarly, Holl
ingsworth stated that “This is
a difficult time of the year for
things to go wrong, but...I
think IT is doing all that they
can” and that we should all
“Strive to be patient...” as IT
addresses the technology
problems.
The opinions of students
were similar, with many express
ing their frustration. One stu
dent stated that “For $26 thou
sand a year they need to get
some decent computers in
here,” or at least fix what we
have.
Professor Jim Reynolds
Geology professor
continues research
in Patagonia
by Ben Goff
News Editor
Associate Professor of Geology Jim Reynolds, better known as
JR, is entering the second half of his year-long sabbatical to con
duct research in South America.
Reynolds, who has conducted research in South America for
many years, received a Fulbright Scholarship to travel through
South America studying the uplift of the Andes mountain range
and other features.
Reynolds began his travels on August 16, first traveling to Salt,
Argentina, where he remained for the better part of this semester.
This month Reynolds travels to Patagonia where he will complete
the second half of his research.
As he wrote on his blog at the start of his trip, “This is my 26th
trip to Argentina. I travel here as a geologist studying the uplift of
the Andes.”
For more information on Reynolds’s travels, visit his blog at
http://www. travelpod. com/travel-b log/mage llanic/
argentina_200 7/tpod. htm[