2008 Woodie Awards
Media Services facing staffing challenges
Lindsey Pogue
Issue date: 9/13/06 Section: News
As the size of SSU increases and the students and faculty members demand more Instructional Technology support, Media Services is trying to bring more efficiency to the department.
Among some of the IT contributions they are providing to faculty and students are Academic Computing for teaching and research, Administrative Information Systems to administration and staff for human resources, student records and finances. Another service that has been reopened is the Employee Workstation Refresh Program.
As student and faculty dependency of Media Services increases, Media Services has been forces to find ways to keep up with the high demand of assistance meanwhile maintaining the same budget and same amount of employees.
"Media Service Staff are temporarily spread thin. One staff member is only on campus part time while he is on paternity leave. The other staff member is helping out with the extremely important WebCT upgrade project," said Sam Scalise, Chief Information Officer of the department. He relies heavily on student recruitment at the beginning of the year and admits that it isn't until a week after the semester starts that he has all the employees he needs to operate completely proficiently.
Scalise also said that while the higher volume demand for technical support is keeping his small team busy, he emphasizes that the low budget and small group of employees have not decreased. He explained that there just aren't extra funds to solicit temporary replacements while employees are focusing their efforts elsewhere.
When Scalise began working for Information Technology in 1998 he made sure that all the data and statistics were documented and kept track of. Director of Instructional Technology services Bruce Carpe, created a bar graph to help illustrate the demands they are facing.
From 1998 to present there have only been 2 permanent staff members in Media Services each year. According to graphed data from the department the hours of operation increased from 44.5 hours / week in 1998 to 66.5 / week this year.. However, the real jump has been in the demand for their services. The amount of technology classrooms and labs with tech equipment has increased from 6 to 53.
Among some of the IT contributions they are providing to faculty and students are Academic Computing for teaching and research, Administrative Information Systems to administration and staff for human resources, student records and finances. Another service that has been reopened is the Employee Workstation Refresh Program.
As student and faculty dependency of Media Services increases, Media Services has been forces to find ways to keep up with the high demand of assistance meanwhile maintaining the same budget and same amount of employees.
"Media Service Staff are temporarily spread thin. One staff member is only on campus part time while he is on paternity leave. The other staff member is helping out with the extremely important WebCT upgrade project," said Sam Scalise, Chief Information Officer of the department. He relies heavily on student recruitment at the beginning of the year and admits that it isn't until a week after the semester starts that he has all the employees he needs to operate completely proficiently.
Scalise also said that while the higher volume demand for technical support is keeping his small team busy, he emphasizes that the low budget and small group of employees have not decreased. He explained that there just aren't extra funds to solicit temporary replacements while employees are focusing their efforts elsewhere.
When Scalise began working for Information Technology in 1998 he made sure that all the data and statistics were documented and kept track of. Director of Instructional Technology services Bruce Carpe, created a bar graph to help illustrate the demands they are facing.
From 1998 to present there have only been 2 permanent staff members in Media Services each year. According to graphed data from the department the hours of operation increased from 44.5 hours / week in 1998 to 66.5 / week this year.. However, the real jump has been in the demand for their services. The amount of technology classrooms and labs with tech equipment has increased from 6 to 53.