It takes a village of information systems staffers to keep EMU functioning. The six IS personnel in the foreground are, from left: Dan Marple, Jenni Piper, Michael Stauffer, Becky Brenneman, Dan Risser, HB Belay. The six in the middle rows, from left: Marty King (in red jacket), Justin Hershey (in black jacket), Steve Gibbs (in green jacket), Ben Beachy (in white shirt), Krista Nyce, Jason Alderfer. Four in back row: Andrew Crorken, Austin Showalter, Holden Byler, David Penner. Not pictured: Alison D’Silva. (Photo by Kara Lofton)
As a work-study student on EMU’s helpdesk in 1999, these were Jason Alderfer’s tools: “A telephone and a legal pad.”
A couple times a day, Alderfer or another work-study student would check the phone and write down the messages – who had called and what their problem was – and then either go fix the problem or relay the question to someone else.
Since then EMU has almost doubled its information systems personnel to 17 full-time employees who operate on three teams – “technology systems” headed by Alderfer ’00, “user services” headed by Jenni Piper ’92, and “student information systems,” which functions collaboratively.
Alderfer and Piper describe these teams as dealing with “everything from the network jack back,” “responsible for anything that plugs in,” and managing programs like myEMU and student records through EMU’s vendor-supplied software system, Jenzabar EX. EMU also has eight or so work-study students and a part-time evening helpdesk manager, Krysta Nyce ’14.
Remarkably, considering EMU’s liberal arts focus, all but two of the 17 full-time employees are alumni. Like Alderfer, most came to IT through their work-study position. “You come on and basically it’s like an apprenticeship where you learn by getting out there and solving problems that you haven’t seen before,” he said. “For people who enjoy learning that way it’s a great place.”
EMU’s diverse set of needs makes it a great place to learn, say several who have risen through the system. IS director Ben Beachy ’02 explained that the staff and administrators operate closest to IT corporate work, while students use the system much like one would use a home system, and faculty rely on technology as an important pedagogical tool. Each of these groups has different ways of using the networks and different requirements for smooth functioning.
One of the most challenging aspects of the EMU system is linking all the components so that one part of the system communicates well with another. There isn’t really a user manual about how to do this; solving IS problems often takes creativity, collaboration, and trial and error. “It’s an ongoing process,” Alderfer said. “Things are always in flux and require us to revisit or reinvent solutions.”
A recent priority for IS has been improving Internet speed, Beachy said. In a concentrated effort over the summer of 2014, IS tripled the amount of wireless access points in the dorms in order to increase bandwidth. “Eight years ago we just wanted to make sure everyone could get on with their one or two devices,” Beachy said. With students bringing up to seven devices each, though, the service in the dorms was no longer adequate.
When Jenni Piper was a freshman in 1988 there were only hall phones in the dormitories and no Internet connection. In fact, EMU had no personal computer technology at all until the year before, when the business computer lab received 18 “IBM type” computers with 2-5.25 inch disk drives. The dorms didn’t begin to become wired until 1995.
Almost 20 years later, IS has been heavily involved with the recent renovation of Roselawn and ongoing renovation of the Suter Science Center by overseeing and facilitating the installation of the wires, technology and resources necessary to provide an efficient technology system to the EMU community. IS staffers troubleshoot problems that may arise, install new technology into classrooms, and fix devices that suddenly don’t work the way they are supposed to. Despite the inevitable frustrations that accompany relying on and upgrading technology, IS staffers find that folks at EMU are understanding and patient as the IS teams work to fix things. “By and large people are very kind, supportive and appreciative of what we do here,” said Beachy.
That may be one reason why EMU IS employees stay so long. Beachy, Alderfer and Piper have been with IS for 13, 14 and 19 years respectively (Piper worked in other capacities at EMU for five years before joining the IS team in 1995). Others like Dan Marple and Marty King ’85 have been at EMU for similarly long tenures. “Everyone has made a choice to work here,” said Piper.
Alderfer agreed. “The reality in technology is that people who have good IT skills can make a lot of money in some places” (and no one pretends that EMU employees make the big bucks). “But,” added Alderfer, “for people who are motivated by service, who want to see their work go toward something larger, and have good technical skills, those kind of people enjoy working here and are successful.”
Other alumni who work in IS at EMU include Sam Sauder ’93, Michael Stauffer ’76, Andrew Crorken ’11, Holden Byler ’06, Alison D’Silva ’01, Steve Gibbs ’04, Dan Risser ’05, Austin Showalter ’13, Justin Hershey ’12 and HB Belay ’06.