South Campus Gets Some Help

As a result of changes made by Academic Technology & Networks, a satellite help desk opened Jan. 6 in the Hinton James Residence Hall computer lab. Students with computer questions also will have a new Web site to turn to for information.

Bruce Egan, associate director of the ATN Information Technology Response Center, said the main goal of the satellite desk is to make computer repair more convenient for South Campus residents and more accessible to the entire University community.

ATN is also trying to improve its services with the creation of a new help site, which went online Dec. 17. The Web site can be found at http:// help.unc.edu.

"The bottom line is to minimize the time students have to spend on computer problems," Egan said. "Anything we can do to minimize the disruption in their day is what we go for."

The satellite desk will be open from noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 5 p.m. Friday. Egan said ATN decided these hours are the most convenient for students, based on student feedback.

Egan said the reason Hinton James was chosen to house the desk is because its computer lab is open 24 hours a day. The lab also has an exterior door that allows students to enter without having to go through the residence hall's lobby.

Egan said students will make up a majority of the desk's staff. The desk will also have a full-time manager to help assist the student staff.

Camille Fisher, a resident assistant in Hinton James, said the help desk is important because South Campus has the largest population of students on campus. "I think it's a great opportunity."

ATN officials also hope to extend services through a new Web site, which was designed to make computer help information more accessible.

Increased calls to the help desk brought on by the introduction of Carolina Computing Initiative computers have meant a growing need for another resource to deal with routine questions, said Janet Tysinger, manager of UNC's Information Services Group.

"The old site was a combination of organizational information and technical support, and it was necessary to sift between the two to find the information people needed," Tysinger said. "This (new site) is an effort to consolidate technical help in one place."

New features of the site include a top 10 list of the most frequently asked questions, the ability to browse the site by topic and a breaking news feature to alert students to major events related to the campus network, Tysinger said. The site took about a year to develop.

Tysinger said she hopes ATN can continue to improve the site and other computer assistance with the help of feedback.

"We encourage people to make comments or suggestions," she said. "We're hoping that feedback from users will help us find new or different or better information. The quickest and easiest way to improve something is to get feedback."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.