An important issue confronting UCI is the provision of adequate computing and electronic communication support to faculty, staff, and students. Below I summarize NACS’ view concerning the relative roles of central and departmental computing support.
NACS provides electronic communication infrastructure (the campus network, as one example) and basic computing and communications services to all faculty, staff and students. Two examples of the latter are the student Educational Access (EA) computing cluster and the E4E electronic mail service for faculty and staff.
NACS also provides expertise and services best provided by a campus-wide computing organization, such as contract UNIX support, and network management consultation. NACS provides a help desk for NACS services, common campus-wide questions, and to make referrals to other support resources where appropriate. NACS staff are also available to assist departmental computing personnel, and coordinate campus-wide discussions on technical issues.
However, with the rapid expansion in network and computing utilization over the past decade, it is neither possible nor appropriate for a central organization to provide the majority of direct user support. As is the case at most major Universities, UCI now relies on departmental and school support personnel to maintain local computing services and administrative systems and to provide direct assistance to faculty and staff. The common wisdom is that the optimal support strategy involves a combination of local and central staff, working in harmony, and following campus-wide computing standards.
Even with the combined staff of departments and central support organizations, UCI does not currently have sufficient staff to meet all UCI technology demands. The current support situation is under review, as it creates a fair amount of frustration on campus and slows UCI’s efficient use of technology.
The document referenced below contains NACS’ draft recommendations on local support. We invite your feedback on support issues, via e-mail to NACS@UCI.EDU, or directly to myself, to Dana Roode (NACS Associate Director), or to Jan Vescera (NACS Departmental Support Coordinator).
William H. Parker
Director, Network & Academic Computing Services
Draft Local Support Recommendations:
http:// www.nacs.uci.edu/support/local-support-recommendations.html