Sean's Blog

“No, I just know what I need to check on and where it is.”

That was, more or less, the question I was asked, and my response, on Thursday while I was working on a young lady’s computer. She was a foreign exchange student and was having issues connecting to the network. Mentally, I don’t believe I even paused when the computer woke up from sleep mode. Sure, the keyboard had extra characters, and most of the names of icons and menus were in Japanese, but I knew what I needed to check, where it was located, and other possible issues that could be causing the issue.

I’ll admit that even now, I’m not sure what was wrong with the computer, but there were a number of things I could point to that were probably the cause:

• an issue with McAfee Security Center, which I had already seen during move-in, or
• region specific software that I would not be familiar with using or configuring

The computer itself was able to see the registration network, get an IP, and even begin the registration process, but would only go so far. Since she had agreed to the usage policies, but had been unable to progress further, I manually registered the computer on the network, and after that, it was smooth sailing. That option came to me rather quickly, but I tried to find out what was causing the issue, but alas, I did not find it.

What it comes down to is don’t just do what you need to do to get a job done, but know what it is you are doing. If I had relied upon having to read the menus, buttons, et cetera, to get the job done, I would not have been able to even troubleshoot the issue as I did.

It was getting to the point where I was almost stressed about it, but staff training, move-in, and the beginning of the semester was not that bad. Sure, I’m on day 18 of work straight, but this work week is only 19 days long, so I’ll soon be able to sleep in with no work responsibilities to worry about. The first weekend I worked was to finish prepping items for training, including getting equipment ready, creating PowerPoint presentations, and figuring out how the staff were going to be working during move-in. Aside from the snafu with the self-help page, where students thought that they needed to fill out the form to use the computer (ok, and the VPSA as well), and thus created more tickets than people who actually needed help, move-in went well. Now to just finish dealing with the fallout and creep closer to the weekend.

One of the more amusing situations was when I was going through e-mail and saw one of the many device registration e-mails for an Xbox. However, the student did not supply much information, so I shot off an e-mail listing what he needed to reply. He did reply back, but could not provide the number I was asking for because he didn’t have an ID number beginning with the letter P. Not only was that odd, but his location was listed as West A Living Center. That’s not on the BGSU campus that I know of. Then another e-mail came in from someone else that listed an odd building. A Google of “West A Living Center” revealed that the students asking for help were from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. I eventually found a .pdf document that had the steps for finding the hardware address on a Xbox 360 on their site, but it had a link pointing back to our device registration site, which happened to be done and said just to send us the info. Before I passed that info on to the GVSU helpdesk, I receive 2 more e-mails asking for assistance. I know 5% of my time is supposed to be for “other duties as assigned,” but I think supporting those students falls outside of that time.

This year my role as a supervisor is more direct, so it’s interesting to see how that will pan out, as in the past there have been other levels of internal hierarchy that existed between me and the staff. Along those lines, my staff did a great job with handling move-in and the extra work that occurred. For the most part, I likened it to being a commander of a force that paid attention to the bigger picture, and assisted where I could or needed to, but those working for me knew what needed to be done and took care of it.

This week, something came up at work, and I felt I need to put my opinion out there in a public place without forcing on anyone, such as by e-mail. So here we go.

Plausible deniability is the word of the moment. It’s not the best stance to take on something, but sometimes it is all you have. For example, my employees are college students, so that would but them in the 18 to 23 age bracket, with occasional outliers, which makes them “of age” with regards to voting, serving in the military, and being accountable for their own actions, but still “minors” in regards to their drinking age.

I’m employed at Residential Computing Connection, which is part of the Office of Residence Life at BGSU, and as a result, I’m supposed to make sure that the students on campus abide by the rules and regulations that the university has in place. Fortunately, I’ve never been confronted with an issue such as a fight or other altercation in which, as a member of the university, I need to make sure is resolved, either by contacting campus security or stepping in myself, and with any luck, I never will. If I am ever in a student’s room or walking across campus and witness something, I need to make sure the correct people know about it. While I may sometimes have issues with particular things at BGSU, I have buy-in to the university itself, so it’s what I feel I must do.

This is where the fact that I have student workers comes in. If they happen to be talking about something while at work, while not eavesdropping, I am prone to hear snippets of conversation; it’s just something that happens. The issue is if they happen to say something like “I was in my friend’s dorm room last night…” and the sentence then continues by listing some activity that is in violation of the residential living agreement, or some other federal, state, or local law, I technically must do something about it. While they may have some right about self-incrimination, it puts me in a situation I’d rather not be in. The same thing goes for events that happen off-campus, such as parties. While they may not be violating a residential living agreement, those federal, state, and local laws didn’t stop existing. In fact, their possible to have a harder time off-campus, as there isn’t the benefit of being caught by an RA, but by an officer. That’s not saying you won’t be confronted by an officer on-campus, but the changes come up off-campus.

I should also stop to say that I think that when college students gather together, they’re up to no good. Far from it, actually, but sometimes things happen. Hell, in my mind, my employees are angels compared to the other students that are out there. Okay, maybe they’re each 99% angel; it’s that 1% of each of them that I’m talking about. That 1% where they end up talking about a party they went to on the weekend and had a couple beers with their friends and everything was cool and then they went to a movie and then played Wii sports or whatever it is those kids do. That 1% where I know that they are 19 going on 20, and they mentioned at work that they partook of libations of which they are technically not supposed to. They weren’t bragging or boasting or anything of that manner, but just talking with a fellow employee about their weekend; that’s the weekend rundown I don’t want to hear.

At the same time, I don’t want a work environment where the employees feel that they need to tight-lipped for fear of getting themselves in trouble. Despite being a supervisor, I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble, but I do have to hold be accountable for their actions. I want my employees to have a sense of camaraderie, as that way, they’ll work better as a team. In fact, I know that many of them do things together on a regular basis, and that makes me happy.

How do I know these things? It’s simple: Facebook. That alone cause an issue, as I’d like for everyone who comes through RCC to add me as a friend, something that none of the students seem to have a problem with. However, what happens if I get invited to an event through Facebook or read something about an event that is similar to the one above? It is quite the conundrum. Personally, I make sure not to go looking for that information, even if they share the information with me via the news feed. The same goes with blogs, which, while not currently prevalent with my staff, will become more common as time goes on. If my staff want to share that information with me, it shows some sort of trust exists between us, which I would not go out of my way to abuse.

While writing that, I realize that it’s quite the opposite stance that I would take while in the office or on campus and heard something that might be questionable. I’m fine with that; as I said, it’s a matter of trust. When I’m in the office working, I’m fulfilling my contractual obligations with the university and due what I must; that’s why it’s my job. However, Facebook is not an extension of my job, but is instead an extension of my personal life, and as such, that’s how I determine what I must do. My website is personal, as are my instant message accounts. My BGSU e-mail is for work. Those are the distinctions I make, and they are mine alone, as there is not set rule regarding them.

In regards to being invited to a party or other event, such as through Facebook, I’ve sometimes wondered if they actually want me to attend, or if they simply invited everyone in their list. My knee-jerk reaction is to decline most invitations that are sent to me through Facebook, especially birthday parties, as I’d rather not put myself in a situation where I would have to be the responsible adult. However, there are those times when those restrictions (self-imposed or otherwise) tend to irritate me more than anything.

I feel that I should include that if I ever hear of anything the is self-destructive or may harm others, I would step in. That’s not an obligation of work or anything; that’s just being human and caring for other human beings.

If I happened to find out about something happening to or with students on campus, especially my students, I’m not saying that in every case it would be something that I would go tattle on to a department; it may be something that simply needs to be talked about in passing. As a supervisor, I feel it’s my responsibility to assist in the education of students who work for me. If that’s as simple as occasionally talking to them about any number of issues they may face as a student, so be it. If it means that they need an “adult” to talk to about something, I’m there.

So, what’s all this mean? Well, it’s something I had to get off my chest as I’ve been mulling it over since I left work. Some of this, especially being more than just a supervisor, I’m considering for the first time, as I realize that this job has the potential to turn into a career field that I enjoy. It’s also to mention that the camaraderie that my employees have is something I personally like to see, and makes me feel that, as a supervisor, I’ve done something right, even if it is to make sure they have a gathering that “is for RCC employees (THIS EVENT IS NOT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM EXPLICITELY OR IMPLICITELY SANCTIONED BY RCC, BGSU, RESLIFE, OR ANYONE LIVING OR DEAD) and their friends.”

Touché.

… is part of the Office of Puppy Life. One of the best kept (until now) secrets is that we have puppies brought in when the students aren’t here. That’s because “Puppies” is actually the 6th Core Value of BGSU.

The situation was that one of the secretaries had her boxers’ two week-old puppies in for a little bit on Tuesday. If having puppies at work cannot be considered a change of pace, then I really don’t know what qualifies as such?

The only thing that would have been better is if there were puppies in the office today/now. In fact, that statement will always be true.

Update:

I got it. This can be part of our new anti-p2p campaign…

When you use p2p on the network, a puppy gets wrapped in a tortilla and sold at Chipotle or Qdoba (randomly determined). So please, before you p2p, 7|-|1|\||{ 4ß0µ7 7|-|3 pµpp13$!!!!!1

Almost a month ago I interviewed for the job I actually have. I made some mistakes in regards to that interview, mainly being my lack of preparation. In retrospect, I really should have gone to a mock interview while in college. My references helped me out a lot with beating out my competition (and believe me, it was a competition). It is nice, though, to have a job that is going to keep money coming in, as I was/am the current “bread winner” in our house of two. Now that I’ll also have real benefits, it already feels more like a “real” job than it did before.

Now, more than ever, do I feel cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.

The fools!

In other news, my iPod decided that it didn’t like my mp3s, so it “forgot” them. I must say, it kept the mp3s for just over 7 months. Stupid iPod.

I’ll conclude with congratulating Sarah on getting engaged this weekend.

I have a moment or two this morning, so I just wanted to get some comments down on screen about Facebook, namely the profile for “Sidney Ribeau” and the “RCC sucks” group.

First, there’s the profile for Sidney Ribeau on the BGSU portion of Facebook. The biggest issue I see with this is that the contact info includes an e-mail that is not Dr. Ribeau’s at all, but instead belongs to one Aaron O’Neill. How odd… I didn’t know that was Dr. Ribeau’s secret identity. One might be willing to say I’ve uncovered the crime of the century, but as this has nothing to do with the theft of peoples’ garbage, I highly doubt it. I did the only thing I could really think of: sent an e-mail to the Office of the President. While the profile wasn’t defamatory to Dr. Ribeau, I thought they should be aware of it. After all, I doubt there are many people in the upper echelons of the any university who use Facebook (or MySpace, orkut, etc) with any regularity, and only know what they have heard from others or seen over the shoulders of students and young professionals that may work for them. And who am I to say that Mr. O’Neill isn’t making the profile for Dr. Ribeau, and would cause more problems by reporting the profile as fake? I doubt this is the case, but the Office of the President can look into it and do what they will.

My other comment on Facebook is a group near and dear to my heart: RCC Sucks-their taking all of the bandwith away from students. It’s not that I have a problem with a Facebook group that is opposed to networking policies of the university, it’s just more that I don’t expect much to come from this group. We’ve been telling students a phrase constantly over the last couple years about what they can do to work on getting the policies changed.

We would encourage you to take any concerns or suggested changes in policies to student government organizations such as the Undergraduate Student Government, or Resident Student Association.

Has anything happened as a result of this? The answer is a simple no, and I think that is the part that is frustrating. I’d like to think that the Facebook group will change this, but at the moment, I truly doubt it, despite the description that they have.

all students need to complain so we can get bandwidth back.

lets make this a group effort

us gamers need our internet to be fast

lol i spelled bandwidth wrong in the group name. o well

Yep, they did misspell bandwidth, used the wrong spelling of “they’re”, and haven’t heard of capitalization or punctuation. That, as a member of University, makes me feel that the institution has failed. Can you expect anything from a group that the creator fails to communicate in the mutually agreed upon language, that is, English?

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Three of our staff joined the group and posted unofficial messages on the group’s wall, as well as did one of our alumni. What happened to their comments, which offered helpful information about RCC, the network, and what they can do, or the post someone (not an employee) made commenting on their spelling? Dust in the wind. But do not worry, the comments about the sexual orientation of RCC are still there, in case you were wondering.

I’m not saying I’m not sympathetic to their issue. How does one protect a network that is for a business (BGSU) but still have it usable as a network in a home (the residence halls)? That is one hell of a gray area, and difficult to manage. Then again, from a professional standpoint, that is what makes universities an interesting place to work.

One thing we’ve been doing at work is updating our website to the same software that runs the ever-popular Wikipedia. You should check the RCC page out. Some things you can find currently are:

• how to re/install Windows
• how to setup Windows automatic update
• use Spybot
• find the MAC address for a game console, like an Xbox 360 (which, ironically enough, comes up as #1 in google with the keywords “xbox 360 mac address“)

I’ve ended up doing most of the work on this, content wise. [?external:http://www.teamjd.net Joe] took care of the installation of the wiki, and about half the cotent was already done, it just needed to be migrated and revised.

And by “it”, I mean 11 days of work before I finally get a three day weekend because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 16th. After that, the next day of vacation I get is May 29th for Memorial Day.

The only issue with that is that the Letter of Non-Student Appointment I am on ends on May 20th, which means I need to see if I actually have a job at that point. I’m thinking that I will probably try and take off from May 20th until June 1st, as even if I get to sign a real contract, I will not have any vacation days. Currently, any days I want to take off from work that are not national “school is closed” holidays require me to work hours above and beyond what I would normally work. Fun. I guess I should also say that I wouldn’t be taking May 20th through June 1st “off” as much as I should say “I won’t have a job at those times”. Hey, whatever it takes to keep my sanity.

I need to review my website this evening. There seem to be a couple errors that are popping up and I’m not sure why, but I don’t have time to check on it right now.

So, aside from 11 days until I get a day I don’t have to be at work, other important numbers are:

• 4 days until training
• 5 days until my birthday
• 5 days until the students start moving back in
• 16 days until I get paid (yes, I’m practically broke again)

Another thing I need to do is create a delicious tag called “seanward” and add all the “Sean Ward” sites I’ve found. Ok, it is only about 4 or something low like that, but I think that’s just another interesting aspect of the Web. I could also ask them if they ever had kids in school make fun of their name by saying “hey, have you seen Ward?”