Energy, synergy, responsibility
By Randy Dillinger
Ask Jan Schmidt BA ’74 to describe a typical day at work, and she might respond, “Can there be a typical day at work?”
As student information services coordinator, Schmidt is confronted daily with computer issues affecting students and faculty.
“Each day presents new challenges,” adds Wayne Bruzzese BA ’83, network administrator, who deals daily with problems affecting the campus network.
Bruzzese and Schmidt are part of the Anderson University Information Technology Services team that keeps computers humming from Admissions to WQME and every hub between. They are a team proven in their ability to react to the problems of the day, confidently armed with the knowledge and skills necessary to combat network gremlins, hard disk failures and other computer issues that tend to raise one’s blood pressure.
“Anyone who has seen a computer misbehave would agree that it can become frustrating,” says Noel Nitecki BA ’98, “but our department is very service-oriented, and our goal is to keep our customers happy.”
And the ITS team at AU is very familiar with their customers. Nine out of 14 staff members in ITS hold degrees from AU. They represent class years spanning four decades and degrees in majors as varied as marketing, sociology and computer science. Some came to their current positions with corporate IT experience; others brought experience in banking, management and teaching; and two — desktop support manager Stuart Hilbert BA ’02 and programmer/analyst Alex Aved BA ’99 — never left the university.
The ITS team functions a lot like its counterpart in the corporate world. Most problems they encounter are relatively harmless, says James Gray BA ’92, network engineer, but occasionally “they can be large, such as a campus-wide outage.”
When such problems occur, ITS staff members quickly mobilize to find a solution. Such teamwork is characteristic of the department. “It’s synergy,” says Bruzzese. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. That’s the way we work.”
An underlying current to this synergy is that so many of the staff called AU “home” during their college years. But also contributing to this synergy is ITS Director Cindy Smith’s management style: a hands-off approach that allows individuals to take ownership of a particular issue or project, while at the same time encouraging the unique collaborative environment that encompasses the department.
“Because we are a tightly-knit staff, working in a comparatively small IT shop, our actions can make a significant impact,” Smith says.
Even on the busiest of days, ITS support is just a phone call away. User support manager Ronda Reemer BS ’01 often answers calls to the Help Desk. “With every call or visit, I try to make people feel welcome and know that their question or concern will be dealt with promptly and accurately,” she says.
“One could say that we provide a layer of services that facilitate other people’s support of the university’s mission,” adds Aved.
These services are not limited to computer and network issues alone. “Sometimes the solution is not just technology, but providing organization, coordination, analysis and improvement of policies and procedures,” says senior systems analyst Rick Campbell BA ’73.
Hilbert works directly with student workers, who provide the majority of desktop-level support for individuals and departments campus-wide. Hilbert sees these students as IT professionals in the making. “I view my time with them as a lesson in social interaction and training for the business world,” he says.
Student workers also have the opportunity to experience a positive IT environment that is rarely found in the corporate world.
“The bottom line in the corporate world is valued in dollars and cents,” says Nitecki. “Here at AU, there is much more to the equation. Performance and functionality are as important here as anywhere, but the human and spiritual elements are clearly more valued than one would find in a majority of corporate environments.”
Salaries can be significantly higher in the corporate IT world than in higher education. However, there are profound differences between the two environments — differences that led Bruzzese and Marc Etchison BA ‘93 to leave corporate careers to return to their alma mater.
“The environment and benefits of working at Anderson University far outweigh the monetary gain,” says Bruzzese. “Although I have a lot less money working at AU, I have never been happier and I truly enjoy going to work and working with my colleagues.”
Etchison agrees. “Work is so much better when you enjoy the people around you.”
