 "Photo: Aaron Gould/The Olympian")
Questions dealing with services from the information technology department at Olympic College have been given attention following department-changing events including IT director Jack Hanson stepping down into a lesser role.
As part of an open forum, OC President David Mitchell spoke to a room of IT employees, college faculty and staff Nov. 16.
Grievances voiced by staff members included skepticism towards the necessity of filling Hanson’s role while other IT positions remained empty.
“Some teachers really want change at the top,” said Ted Baldwin, chemistry professor and faculty union president. “Others don’t care who run IT and just want more foot soldiers.”
Satisfaction in regards to the performances of IT employees themselves was unanimous and instead, criticism focused on the number of available workers.
According to IT customer services manager Tom Jacobs, more than four IT positions have been cut over the course of the past three years.
“Because we are down some and we have a record number of users we don’t have enough people to serve as many people,” said Jacobs.
Despite unexpected budget reductions, according to Mitchell, plans to hire a new IT director are still in process. According to Jacobs, a nationwide search is being conducted and the open position should be filled in early 2010.A yet-to-be-assembled committee comprised in part of cabinet members and faculty will manage hiring procedures.
According to Mitchell, the hiring committee should be assembled and posess a written job description before the end of fall quarter.
“We are not going to be able to hire four full-time people,” said Mitchell. “But we plan to restore the service level.”
Upon being hired, the new IT director will be granted freedom to reorganize the department.
“Basically the president is giving the new director the ability to organize his or her department in whatever way they need,” said Jacobs. “Whether or not our current organization is appropriate.”
In an effort to accommodate for the unfilled positions, IT workers have been taking on extra assignments.
While already maintaining servers and networks around OC, Director of Instructional Technology Charlie McWhorter also took on the task of covering instructional technology.
“Charlie had a small increase in his salary,” said Hanson. “He took over a job which saved the college $75,000 to $80,000. By taking extra jobs we help the college cover the budget deficit.”
According to Jacobs, there are currently 22 technical support employees, 18 of which work full time. Jacobs said along with a new director, two more strategically placed employees are also needed.
As part of a development program, students are frequently hired as IT workers. According to Jacobs, OC is the only college in the state of Washington to use student employees in the IT department, which has emphasized developing students for more than five years.
Student IT employees have anywhere from a few weeks to a few months of experience. According to Jacobs, nearly 100 percent of student employees are placed into a job after graduating from OC.
“They are the ones that usually troubleshoot for the first time if there is a problem,” said Jacobs. “If you call in saying your computer is broken, chances are one of our students is going to be the one answering the call.”
According to Jacobs, IT receives roughly 70 calls per day. Workers attempt to resolve all problems within three days, and most are taken care of within two hours.
“In retrospect one of the biggest mistakes made was not promoting what a great job our team does,” said Hanson. “Our goal has always been to be in the background and be quiet. I am very proud of our team.”
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