Department Interviews - 1997

Interview with:  Ken Coskran, Chair
                 Cynthia Coleman, Ning Gao, Maria Hepel, Mike Morgan, Nick Zevos
                 Chemistry Department

Interview date:  4/2/97


   
1. How satisfied you (and your department) are with technology support and 
   services?

   The responsiveness from DC/TM to problems has been okay, but there are still
   delays it getting things done.

   Maria would like consultation-type help on a routine basis (e.g., monthly) so
   she could talk about potential products, ideas, concerns and get advice and 
   guidance on meeting her needs.



2. What services and support could be improved?

   Printing has been a problem.  It is recurrent and requires constant attention
   to make it work properly. The printer is a 16/600 and is approximately 1.5 
   years old.

   Need a way to back-up experimental data, perhaps just to another hard disk 
   or a large storage area on the network.

   Need help with keeping current on what virus protection is needed.

   It might be better to hold brown-bag presentations on Thursdays at 4pm.

   Need training sessions on backup procedures/processes, updating OS and 
   application software.

   Need regular updates on what's happening with campus computing.

   The department has no minimal competencies students should nessarily have.

   Color printing for faculty in a faculty area would be desirable.

   Stowell 211 projection improvement is a serious need.  The projected image 
   now is just too small and too dark.



3. Is your school considering any new technology initiatives for the next 
   year?

   Interested in software for animation.

   Interested in modeling software, but since the computers to use it have just 
   arrived the department has no experience with it and cannot determine what 
   might be needed for the next year, hope to have about 6-8 computers (Power 
   Macs) capable to use software

   More network connections are needed for the Stowell 303 (?) 
   lab/student-computing center.
   
   Replace lab 386s with Pentiums.


4. What are your most important concerns and priorities for the next
   year?

   1. Faculty computers

   2. Printing problems

   3. Stowell 211 projection needs.