Mansfield University’s IT Doesn’t Respect Students
It all started with an issue in a computer lab in room 216 of Elliot Hall. Over the summer, the IT staff at Mansfield University decided it would be proper to disallow mansfield.edu access from this particular lab, citing “security” issues. This is all fine and dandy, since the people who use the lab are Computer Science majors and know the power of proxies. Proxies are less than ideal, but are necessary if we feel the need to do any school work in a state-funded computer lab. Never mind that the Computer Science Club cannot even access their own server from the lab. Never mind that we cannot check class cancellations, campus news, or even put in our work hours without memorizing an outside URL. Never mind that there are tutors, including me, who need to access the mansfield.edu site from inside of the lab. What kind of twisted rationale would allow the university to block its own network from a location inside of its campus?
Until now, we have dealt with it. We have realized that Mansfield thinking is backwards and the bureaucracy controls the university and there is nothing us lowly students can do about it. We dealt with it until one day I had enough. The internet access in the lab had slowed to a crawl. Our department head cited that it took him 6 minutes to load his slides from inside of the Elliot 216 lab (which he must have hosted outside of his faculty account on mansfield.edu). His students were unable to complete their lab that day because the internet access was unusable.
After this, I decided to write an e-mail to Alan Johnson, Associate Director of Campus Technologies. Alan has helped me in the past when I have had issues with the Mansfield network. This time I decided to not only ask for a fix on the internet speeds, but also for access to mansfield.edu. Alan didn’t get back to me by the next business day, so I sent a reminder e-mail to him. He responded stating he was out of the office and that he would look into it when his vacation was over. Ok, no problem. I understand that entirely and it is right that he should not have to work during vacation time. Less than five minutes later, I received a follow-up e-mail from Connie Beckman, Director of Campus Technologies. This is where things became interesting. Below is the text of her e-mail (unedited):
I don’t know what he is trying to do, but it is likely not the intent that he should do it in that lab. In addition, he is not Dan McKee – the Chair. Therefore, he should not be asking you to address anything. Don’t rush to do anything or feel you need to respond.
I know he is a dorm student who thinks he knows a great deal – except the rules.
Connie Beckman, whom I had never had any contact with before, nor did I even know who she was, had degraded me. I was outraged, and rightfully so. First off, I am not a dorm student. I do not know what she is implying, but I was certainly only asking for rightful and expedient internet access. Connie and I had many further exchanges, as I expressed my disappointment that she could feel such a way about someone who she had never even met or spoken to before. I will include the full text of all e-mail correspondance with Connie Beckman, including my initial inquiry to Alan Johnson, at the bottom of this post.
Connie Beckman should be exhibiting professional behavior towards both the professional staff and towards the students. She is the head of Campus Technologies and she should act as such. Her attitude towards me, other students, and towards the Computer Science department staff is unacceptable. She attempts to force people to adhere to bureaucracy (which is why she mentioned that I am not Dr. Dan McKee, the chair of the Computer Science department) and is generally disrespectful. Unfortunately, little will be done to reprimand her, as she is retiring in a month.
I wrote a letter to the editor to the Flashlight, our campus newspaper. I was told that my story would be published at the next release, but they never published it. I attempted to bring the matter to the president of the university but never received a reply back. Ashley, my fiance, spoke with the president and she claimed that corrective action would be taken against Connie Beckman, but I have not heard of any repercussions for this outburst. I also spoke personally with the provost of the university and he said that he would follow up on the incident, but gave no specifics. Overall the response from the university has been lackluster at best.
I have little to no hope of attaining mansfield.edu access in the Elliot 216 lab and I have very little hope that anything will change internally. The university has failed to hear my complaint and has failed to act on an unjust response from a professional. I have personally made my fair share of mistakes and I have been held accountable for them. All I ask is that Connie Beckman be held accountable for her actions.
The following is all correspondence between Connie Beckman, Alan Johnson, and me:
Connie Beckman E-mails (PDF)
What a bitch.. but that’s how a bureaucracy works. The people in charge don’t have to answer for anything, and won’t, until they stop getting paid.(which I think would take most of campus to protest/transfer to do).