Hopefully by the time you are reading this, the Oswegonian office will have three new computers. This installment will be the completion of a four month long back and forth between myself, Campus Technology Services (CTS) and the Student Association (SA).
After noticing that some of our computers were slowing down and glitching more often, I took it upon myself to look into the history of them. Through prior editors and pawing through old files, I found a contract, originally signed in 2019, between the Gonian and CTS with a plan to replace old computers every year. As we all know, COVID-19 put a halt on things, so this plan never took hold.
The office has 11 computers, all of which are Mac desktops. We use them to create the Oswegonian, mostly utilizing Adobe InDesign and Photoshop to make the pages before sending them to the publisher. Without them, we would not be able to function as an organization.
The computers we have were replaced on a bi-yearly basis starting in 2013, we have two computers from 2013, three from 2015, three from 2017 and three from 2019.
I first reached out to SA and CTS in early October and we finalized a time for a meeting on Nov. 10. At this meeting I was told that we could have these new computers by finals week, given that SA could find the funds to pay for them, as money for the computers is not available in our annual budget.
We agreed at this meeting that the two computers from 2013 would be replaced, as well as one of our 2015’s that no longer connects to our server, which holds all of our folders and files.
I was told that SA had found the funds for the computers and we were just waiting on CTS less than two weeks after the initial meeting. I had been in contact with CTS during that time, confirming that I was available before and during finals week to get the computers installed, and that other staff members would be available over winter break to oversee the process if it could not be done beforehand.
Between finals week and Feb. 1, I did not receive a single reply to an email I sent to CTS. It was only after seeing the person from SA I had been in contact with, who said he would personally call CTS, did I get a response to an email I sent more than a week prior. This email said that CTS was very busy and they were hoping to get to us soon and he apologized for not getting back to me sooner.
After one last, polite but slightly annoyed email where I expressed my hope that we would become a priority for them, I finally received a request for my availability to install the computers, almost exactly three months after our first meeting.
As a student leader, one thing I did not anticipate was how I would communicate with the SUNY Oswego administration. My interactions with them have been mostly positive, but I have felt a slight lack of respect when it comes to requests like this. I know that not everyone is the best at responding to emails or communicating in general, but I had hoped that on important issues I would not be ignored. And whether I was or not, it certainly felt like it. I did my part and I expect that others will do the same.
So, again, I hope that when you are reading this that we have three gently used replacements. It has been a long road and I look forward to its end.
Photo by Andrea Picaquadio via Pexels
