Morning. I wake up. I check the night's e-mail. Friends have written to me to let me know about important changes in my schedule for the day. Opening Netscape and navigating to the Bio 345b home page, I download the key to the last quiz and confirm the time and place of the exam review. Later in the day, when I have a spare half hour, I connect to orbis.
Am I a cyber-nerd? I don't think so. I just have a not unusually busy schedule, and to keep the gears running smoothly I need my personal computer and my ethernet connection.
Morning. Again, I wake up. The floppy drive won't work. I can't print out that paper I wrote last night. A big wrench has been put into my formerly smoothly running gears.
Am I crippled? Yes. My life is slowed down.Will Yale's MCSC repair shop get me back on track fast? Certainly not. It is a great and unfortunate irony that a university as dependent on computing as Yale is cursed with an incompetent and inefficient microcomputer "support" center (MCSC).In mid-February I had the chance to test the quality of that support. I brought my powerbook and its apparently dead battery to the MCSC .
The MCSC began letting their incompetence shine the moment I dropped off my computer. Eleven days elapsed before my computer was declared "fixed". The technician dismissing my protests with a "well, you're dumb and I'm smart" look and charging me $31.80, ignored my protests that he couldn't have fixed the computer. I had done just whathe did and failed. Of course, the problem was not fixed.
But don't just take my word for it. A CAt brought in a computer with a malfunctioning switch and twice had it returned with a "no trouble found" report. A friend needed three repeat trips for service before the floppy disk drive on her powerbook was fixed. Another friend was assured that a powermac would be waiting for her when she arrived freshman year. She didn't get it until the end of October.
I chose to attend a university with ethernet connections in student rooms. Ihave made using computers essential to my academic life, and my own powerbook is the most important computer in it. I need it's capabilities like I need a pen to take notes in lecture.
Yale's computer repair shop should strive to keep pace with the life of Yale's students. Apple computer offers same day repair service; why can't Yale? If New Haven can't support a first-rate repair shop not affiliated with Yale, the Yale MCSC must provide first-rate service or continue to cripple its customers.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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