It is impossible to walk down the Academic Spine without spotting a poster telling you to "Get Connected" because "UB Professors Expect IT." Internet technology has become the essential accessory to every computer and is the irreplaceable connection to both work and play.
But what happens when a student's electronic link to the university breaks down?
The Computing and Information Technologies Help Desk is the university's answer to most computer crises. As part of the Academic Services sector of CIT, the help desk runs and maintains many of UB's services, including the phones and the network.
"We get about forty-thousand questions a year," said Dr. Richard Lesniak, director of Academic Services for CIT.
According to Lesniak, the most common problems the help desk receives are "connectivity issues" with the local area network and finding necessary software for various services.
CIT's roots run as far back as the 1960s, when its main focus was to help students, faculty and researchers access the larger mainframe computers, which were located in the Computing Center.
Although the purpose of the CIT Help Desk has shifted since its establishment, the goal of helping students and faculty with their computers has not been altered.
"The essence of the help desk hasn't changed in thirty years," said Lesniak.
Its objective, as stated in its mission statement, is ".to aid the University at Buffalo in its mission of instruction, education, and research.in information technology support.in the most timely, accurate, and courteous manner possible."
In short, CIT is the place to go when you need help setting up your internet connection, using the CIT tech-tools CD, accessing your UB central e-mail account, running software, or getting connected to any of UB's central services.
The CIT Help Desk is composed of about 160 students, fifteen consultants, and a manager. The students are paid between minimum wage to $12 an hour for their work with raises given for experience and merit. All wages are covered by UB's technology fee.
"It's pretty hard to find people . at the wages we can give them," said Lesniak. "You can go flip burgers. It's a lot easier on the brain."
Those students willing to take on the challenge, mostly computer science, engineering and management majors, must have moderate computer savvy and be prepared for some training.
"We're not going to take somebody who's never touched a keyboard and turn them into a consultant in six months," said Lesniak. "We're going to have people who already have good skills . and try and build on that. We do a lot of training."
These trained students carefully track problems to make sure each one is solved.
"If [a problem] needs three days, we work on it for three days, if it needs ten minutes, then we give it ten minutes," said Mark Ferguson, manager of the help desk. "The reason we track problems is to make sure we answer every question that we get. I'd say ninety-nine percent of our problems are resolved in the same point of contact."
Students who have been aided by the help desk agree.
"Within five minutes I was reading my e-mail," said Scott Silverman, a sophomore anthropology major who was having trouble with his UB e-mail account.
Besides being there to fix various computer problems, the CIT help desk also runs free workshops on varying topics, including how to use UNIX, Mulberry and HTML editing.
For those students in need of assistance, the CIT help desk is located in room 216 of the Computing Center and can be reached at 645-3542. Problems can also be e-mailed to cit-helpdesk@buffalo.edu.
The help desk also offers personal service by sending a student employee directly to residence halls or apartments if a problem could not been resolved by phone or e-mail.
Frequently asked questions and other information pertaining to the CIT help desk can be found online at www.helpdesk.buffalo.edu.
For those interested at working for the CIT help desk, job openings are posted in a newsgroup located at www.news.buffalo.edu/sunyab.jobs-offered.
