UCCS

Cartoonist Sandra Boynton has captured in a single cartoon the dilemma faced by middle managers at all levels. The cartoon shows a bewildered, hapless cat standing between a large, pointing, barking dog on one side and a small, distraught yapping dog on ...

As a manager in User Services there is a constant demand on your talents and time. Believe it or not, managers higher up in the organization know that you cannot do all of them. They may not tell you, but they know — they know because they're faced with ...

A long time ago and far away in another world you discovered computing. It was fun and you enjoyed working with it. You felt comfortable using computers and software. Maybe you were a student or even a staff person when you decided to find a way to ...

When you become a boss to your former peers, many things change, because you have more influence, power, and authority than before. Some changes are obvious (new office, new phone number, secretary, different meetings, to name some) and others are more ...

Mainframe application systems are typically monolithic masterpieces of programming which respond slowly (if at all) to the needs of small clusters of users who need additional, unduplicated data tied into the primary system. Fully distributed computing ...

Computer Centers and Communications Departments (campus telephone people) are having to work more and more together because of the increased amount of computing and networking equipment found in today's campuses. Furthermore, the lines between what is a ...

Most Computing Centers organize their User Services staff around systems or hardware. Thus, there are for example, IBM mainframe support groups, VAX support groups and various flavors of personal computing support groups. This organization works well ...

A comprehensive study of academic computing at Baruch College was recently completed. The purpose of the study was to draw a baseline picture of current computing resources and needs, and to propose a five year development plan in order to improve ...

The organization of academic computing is complex and requires many different dimensions to be described properly. Each dimension is a continuum which extends between two models of academic computing. The models represent opposing views of how academic ...

Ever wonder why staff from other units of your computer center aren't madly trying to obtain positions in your User Services unit? Or why the turnover rate in your User Services unit is so high?

The obvious answer is working in User Services is highly ...

During the 1980s great stress has been laid on the rapid increase of workstations for student use and their ready accessibility. An experimental project funded by the “Computers in Teaching” initiative [6,7] of the UK Computer Board and University ...

The Computing Systems Department of the University of Scranton has been very successful in implementing a program utilizing student workers to staff its extensive lab facilities. This program was initiated in the early 1980's with a hand full of ...

To User Services people, networking the campus goes beyond laying cable and connecting hardware. We connect by establishing liaison programs, sending out surveys, and listening to feedback from vocal users, yet sometimes we still cannot get a clear ...

In 1984 the first microcomputer cluster was opened on the Syracuse University campus, joining established mainframe terminal clusters. One mainframe cluster was staffed with a full-time manager and student consultants keeping the cluster open ...

A computer center as a concept is in many ways in anachronism. Gone are the days when legions of students and faculty would march diligently to the building on campus that was the sole source of power for their research or instruction. In the building ...

The Computer Science Center at the University of Maryland at College Park provides user services functions to colleges by hiring discipline oriented consultants to place within the colleges. These consultants are known as Campus Computing Associates. ...

The spread of computer networks and microcomputers has lead to the rapid expansion of communication via computer conferencing, electronic mail, computer bulletin boards, and other forms of electronic communications such as on-line surveys. Many campuses ...

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro has operated one or more Digital VAX computers running VMS for the benefit of the academic community for about ten years. Currently we operate a VAX Cluster consisting of one VAX 8700 and two VAX 780s. We ...