The Albright Help Desk

This past summer Albright's IT Department, located in the Computer and Mathermatics Building, underwent a pretty large change. Originally the entirety of the IT Department was located upstairs, and down in the lobby was a small team of students meant to supervise the computer labs. This new change, however, took that job and created the Help Desk.

The job of the mostly student-run help desk is to assist students and faculty with technology-related issues, including just about anything from being unable to connect to the wireless internet to a broken overhead projector. Since most of the employees at the help desk are students, this allows there to be two people ready to assist throughout most of the day.

Currently leading the efforts at the help desk is Jason Hoerr, the Network and Computer Support Manager at Albright College. Hoerr has been working at Albright for 14 years and is responsible for many of the recent changes that the help desk has gone through, however, the idea for the help desk itself came from a coworker, Brandon DeFernelmont.

Hoerr explained that while he does believe the help desk is running fine with student employees, they do need a sort of mentor in order to function more efficiently. One of the more prominent plans for the future of the help desk involves someone that could take Hoerr's place as the mentor/trainer, allowing him to focus more on other IT jobs. Hoerr explained that "We need someone to act as a sort of 'help desk management professional'. Someone with experience who could act as a leader or mentor."

More recently, the help desk has employed three new students to fill the gaps left by graduating seniors who work at the desk. Bryan Sotnyk, one of these new employees, explained that he was interested in working at the help desk because "it teaches me a few good skills to have in the future," Bryan has been working since last week and is learning how to assist students and faculty with technological issues.

Tommy Norris (left) and Bryan Sotnyk (right) working at the help desk

One of the most-used features of the help desk is the STAT phone. During any hours of operation, teachers can call the STAT phone if a problem comes up in the middle of a class. Rather than having to wait until the end of class, teachers can call the STAT phone at any time, and one of the technicians currently at the desk will come over as soon as possible. While not every teacher is aware of the STAT phone just yet, there are signs up in every classroom and the IT department aims to make the STAT phone the highest priority out of all of the help desk's duties.