Opinion: outdated technology frustrates students
By Elizabeth Sekkes
Comment Staff
As the spring semester draws to a close, students are completing paper assignments and preparing for final exams. With a minimal amount of available computers, outdated technology and unreliable printers, however, they’re reporting some technical difficulties.
Finding an unoccupied computer on campus can be a difficult and frustrating task. With a limited number of computers in the Maxwell Library and computer labs, finding a computer to work on becomes a process, much like finding a parking spot. Students circle the computer area in the hopes of reaching a lone computer, only to find other students claiming seats they were not quick enough to grab.
The aggravation isn’t resolved once a computer is found, though. The computers’ lack of updates sometimes make simple activities impossible to complete.
Shay Leigh, a freshman, undecided major said one of her professors frequently has problems with the computer, and that each problem is always different. Brooke Barre, a freshman Criminal Justice major has had a class in the Maxwell Library canceled due to problems with the classroom projector.
Officials from the IT department could not be reached for comment.
Another hassle students deal with is the fact that they are required to change their login passwords every 180 days. If a student forgets to do so, attempts to log into a computer once it is secured will be futile.
As if the computers themselves weren’t enough of a problem, one very depended-on printer in the Rondileau Campus Center hardly ever seems to cooperate properly. Nearly every day, students are frustrated to find that homework assignments cannot be printed due to one problem inflicting the printer after another. When it is working, however, students are sometimes surprised to find that the printer is finally printing documents of other students’ which would not previously print, rather than their own.
Joanna Frageorgia, a senior English major who is also a former campus center building manager has been frustrated by the printer’s lack of cooperation.
“I have had the experience of not being able to print my papers online,” Frageorgia said. “And I’m an English major, so I write a lot of them. In the past I had problems with the printer at least once every two weeks or so.”
However, Trisha Germain, a sophomore Business and Marketing major has experienced far more printing calamities, and said that sometimes, two office assistants have to be summoned at different times to tend to the printer.
“The printer here is always an issue,” Germain said.
Germain said as a commuter, not having the printer work properly is frustrating, because she doesn’t have a printer at home. Germain said since the RCC printer is the only one that does not immediately charge students, going elsewhere is a hassle.
Elizabeth Sekkes is a Comment staff writer. Follow her on Twitter at @handymansgirl22 or email her at lsekkes@student.bridgew.edu.
I many comments in this article about this issue from students, but it appears that the journalist failed to even try and and get a comment from the University’s IT department. One-side reporting is not journalism. And reflects poorly on the comment.