UITS workers see nightlife behind the tech desk

It's 2 a.m.\nA student is deep into his 10-page paper that has been put off until the last minute. It's due at 8 a.m. Monday. After the fourth cup of coffee, he approaches page eight. Suddenly, no matter what he types, the screen stays the same. \nPanic starts to set in. What will he do now?\nNo problem. Just call Andrew and James, who both asked their last names be withheld because of UITS policy.\nAndrew and James work the third shift as employees of the University Information Technology Services Support Center, a 24-hour computer service available to all IU students. \nAndrew, a senior and six-month veteran of UITS, and James, a two-year veteran and non-student employee, are two of the about 35 employees of the UITS Support Center. They work the phone lines late Saturday nights at the Main Library. \nOn a typical Saturday night, from midnight to 5 a.m., they take about 20 phone calls, answer e-mails and work on carry-in computers with software problems. \nMore than 60 computers were in the UITS office at one point in early September. After finally catching up from a busy beginning of the year, Andrew and James have begun to tackle the more typical troubleshooting problems.\nStudents find UITS to be extremely useful, even in the middle of the night.\n"During Welcome Week, I called UITS to solve a problem, and they were very helpful," said freshman Chris Mills. "I would not hesitate to call if I have any future problems."\nAnd besides the more usual calls, Andrew said one problem that tends to pop up during the middle of the night is intoxicated callers. \n"There's drunk people that call and just start rambling, and you're like, 'Well, I'm sorry. I don't think you have a tech problem, I'll let you go now,'" he said.\nStudents will also call to ask for a telephone number or directions. \n"It's definitely a challenge every night," Andrew said.\nBut one of the most challenging things about taking technical calls, is understanding what a caller is asking.\n"'MyInternet doesn't work' is three out of five calls we get," Andrew said. \nThis problem can vary from the Internet not being set up to having a virus. \n"A lot of people that call in just really do not know what they're doing," Andrew said. "It's definitely a skill you have to pick up to understand what people are saying."\nBoth Andrew and James feel computer maintenance is important to prevent problems. \n"People think this is a magic box. It just works," James said. "And when it doesn't work, they don't know why." Andrew agrees. \n"It's almost like having a pet," Andrew said. "It doesn't take that much monitoring, but if you want to take care of the documents on your computer and don't want to lose any information, you're going to have to spend an extra 10 minutes a week taking care of it."\nRegardless of the odd hours and strange phone calls, Andrew and James do their best to make sure each call gets the help needed and the caller takes something away from the experience.\n"Hopefully people get off the phone knowing more about handling their computer," Andrew said.\nFor more information about UITS, log on to www.indiana.edu/~uits.\n-- Contact staff writer Rhett \nUmphress at rumphres@indiana.edu .