PC’s staff is full of South Carolina’s brightest minds and most dedicated employees who use their days to better the lives of Presbyterian College students, but one thing must be said: sometimes they have the most awful timing.
I’d tell you to imagine this situation, even though you probably don’t have to. Envision it’s the night before registration, a fast-paced event where students jump to their computers at 7am with one goal in mind- get into their classes before other students do. Each student has, or should have, a planned set of classes they must enter or else their plans for the next year are trashed. This creates a very competitive time for PC students who are simply trying to secure their desired next semester. It’s the night before all of this and as you set your alarm for 6:55 am, you receive an email. Another bannerweb maintenance scheduled for tomorrow. You respond the only way you know how – “Again?!?” This year, PC students received emails involving bannerweb maintenance or the systems being down on August 25th, 27th, and 30th, September 6th, 7th, 9th, and 25th, and October 27th and 28th. If this seems like a lot, that’s because it is. There is no one person to blame, but an entire system that is not seemingly running on efficiency, especially during hours very important to the student population.
If this were a one-time occasion, PC’s student body wouldn’t have an issue with it. Afterall, things do happen. However, this identical situation also occurred during the first week of school. While students are setting up class schedules and employee timesheets for the first time, maintenance on Bannerweb is scheduled to take place. It doesn’t make sense, and certainly hinders Bannerweb’s efficiency.
What can they do that is different? Nobody on BlueStocking is a computer know-it-all, but we certainly have some ideas. PC needs to take advantage of the many computer science majors on campus and provide more expansive internship opportunities so that a team of tech lovers are consistently ready in case anything goes wrong. Before important weeks like registration, PC should dedicate days to ensuring that the website will be secure enough to withhold the amount of increased traffic to their site, as well as schedule maintenance while Bannerweb will not be used as much, such as weekends and holidays.
