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Written by Steven Schwartz on August 7th, 2007
This is the blog of Professor Steven Schwartz, Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University. This is a moderated blog. Publication of responses is at the moderator’s discretion. As a guide, responses should not be obscene, offensive, defamatory, infringe copyright, or intended to upset others. Comments submitted for publication on this blog site may be edited.
20th Oct
Greetings Steven,
This is the only way I can get a message to you today, because once again our web-based email is inaccessible (otherwise I’d be emailing you). This is beyond a joke.
I am teaching tomorrow (Sunday), after which I will be away for nine days. I will be on duty (I am doing invited workshops and presentations in Perth, then research in Melbourne) and so will be expecting (and expected) to continue to contribute to CPD’s work while I am away. This will be rather difficult if there is no reliable email access!!
Really, the IT problems are having a huge impact on productivity here at MQ. Not to mention morale - the frustration of dealing with this system is just incredible!
The answer is not to outsource, as I believe has been suggested. The answer is to develop and support a reliable and secure system here, owned and controlled by the University. That way if there are problems, we’ll know who is responsible and have some power to hold them accountable.
Hrmpphhh.
Dear Kathy - thanks for your comments. The reliability of our email has been improved but it is far from perfect. We obviously still have work to do. Fortunately, students no longer have to put up with slow, unreliable email and limited storage. From July, all Macquarie students have been provided a full email service (complete with a Macquarie address) by Gmail. I use Gmail too. It is available everywhere, reliable and has many more functions than our email service. Best of all it is free. I do not know what you mean by “outsourcing” but there are better ways to use our limited human and financial resources than by wasting them on a not very reliable proprietary package when we can get a much better one free. - Steven Schwartz
VC,
Increasingly it is becoming obvious to me that you are on the wrong track with your Macquarie@50 agenda.
The University is top-heavy with Management. Countless hours are wasted with paperwork, with attending mind-numbing training sessions on this, that or the other, and on superficial Learning and Teaching seminars which for the most part are a complete waste of time.
There are two simple steps the University should take to improve productivity. First, slash the expenditure on management. Second, use the savings to make sure we have computing facilities, photocopiers and printers that work. If those two targets could be achieved, the quality of Teaching and Research, and productivity, would improve out of sight.
Roger Tonkin