Assumption College

1
Assumption College

• Small Liberal Arts School
• Private Catholic College
• Residential Area of Worcester, MA
• Almost 2200 Undergraduates
• 800 Continuing Education and Graduate
• Close Community Environment

2
Creative Staffing

• Temporary staff for helpdesk
• Start of each semester
• Agency vs. Internal
• Internships
• Computer Science Intern (undergraduate)
• Graduate student - project intern
• Students workers - key jobs
• Media Center - cooperative support
• Networking vendors
• 24/7 monitoring
• Timebank

3
Small is Beautiful -
4
Temporary staff

• We have used temp agencies about 5-7 times. Mixed
  results. Hourly wage getting higher.
• Some of the best temp workers were recent college
  grads so we took a new approach.
• We have been hiring someone we know (recent grad,
  employees child) for a whole semester instead of
  the budgeted weeks each semester. Lower pay rate
  means longer time they can work.

5
Internships

• Computer Science Intern (undergraduate)
• We have had 2 undergraduate students do a
  helpdesk internship with us (different
  semesters). They were given much more
  responsibility. They both already worked for us
  and knew much of what we did.
• They had coding and reporting responsibilities in
  our tracking system.
• It was an excellent experience and we hope to do
  it again.

6
Internships

• Graduate student - project intern
• We had a graduate (MBA) student from Clark do an
  internship for us. She was given a specific
  project. Evaluate our helpdesk compare it to
  other schools, survey our customers and make
  recommendations.
• Out of this work, we decided to combine our
  separate helpdesks and began tracking all reports
  of dropped calls.
• Would consider for a special project.

7
Special Student Workers

• Dell certified repair technicians
• Work on student and sometime college owned
  equipment. Gain great troubleshooting skills.
• We pay to get them certified.
• Classroom emergency response
• Have been trained
• Take cell phone with them
• Can handle more than 80 of calls

8
Collaboration with Media Center

• We take the classroom emergency calls regardless
  of technology
• We troubleshoot and attempt at resolution
• If we cannot fix the problem, we can dispatch one
  of them. In the evenings, they have an employee
  and if there is an issue, that employee
  supplements our evening staff.
• They run part of our student training

9
Networking Vendor

• 24/7 monitoring of core electronics and few key
  systems
• www, email, blackboard, ERP
• Know our network, have configurations, familiar
  with many of our products
• Started with them when we had 1 person managing
  the network and most systems.
• Timebank good for budgeting and to expedite
  getting help onsite.

10
Tangible Benefits

• Do more with less
• Desktop manager uses the helpdesk temp after the
  fall and spring rush
• Good will with Media staff and that helps all of
  us since we have overlaps and small staffs that
  occasionally (vacation, sick) need help
• New project for after hour and weekend event
  support, we can utilize any of trained IT/Media
  students to support a special event happening on
  campus.