In December 2010, UEA experienced a significant network failure (dubbed by many students the ‘Techpocalyse’), an issue that affected students and staff across the University. Non-functioning wireless and printing, however, are problems that extend beyond the Techpocalypse – they are issues that affect UEA students every day.
It is Week 10 (by the semester dates most students follow), and we still have printing that works only intermittently. This is not acceptable. Students trying to print work for submission regularly have problems and then have to wait in the IT Helpdesk queue for a solution that is often only temporary. UEA has wireless printing, but this is not something most students know about. I would work to raise awareness about this, so that fewer students need to use the library computers to ease strain. However, it is also crucial that whatever technological issues that keep occurring are fixed. If elected, I would work to ensure that these problems do not continue.
Poor wireless affects many students. It is unreasonable that a large organisation has such unreliable internet service. When it’s not cutting out completely, it is often so slow that it is impossible to load pages on Google Books, for example, download articles or load videos. One of the issues here is that it does not seem that IT systems and issues are managed effectively. There are industry-specific management training courses available (such as ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library) which would help IT services at UEA, in enabling IT staff to recognise issues and put into effect the right processes to counteract these issues.
If you have any questions about this policy or others, please email me (academic[AT]kirstycallaghan[DOT]com) or write on my Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/KirstyforAcademic
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