The Many Contributions of OIT

UTK has always been a great place for football, education and southern hospitality. But what most students don’t realize is that UTK offers a great many other events and help-centers that have not been as well-advertised. When asking students of one aspect of UTK that they felt was underrated, the reply was resoundingly “the OIT department!” And let’s be frank, OIT has not been given the credit it deserves. It is only mentioned a few hundred times at orientation, when it should be mentioned at least a few hundred thousand.

In past years, UTK has updated their website to include not only Tmail, but Volmail as well. Older students now have the benefit of receiving multiple copies of the same email in entirely redundant accounts. Newer students lack the benefits of these redundant accounts, but when asking a freshman what they thought about this, they replied that “they hardly ever check their Volmail account, so it wouldn’t really matter.” This apathy is a problem that OIT is working to resolve. The information technology workhorse is currently creating a new Tmail service for newer students, so that they too will be incessantly reminded to check their email and not miss what just might be the next important shooting in Fort Sanders or the next robbery on the strip.

However, when asked what the biggest contribution to the UTK community that OIT has given students, many people replied that Blackboard had to be the biggest improvement. Blackboard gives students a chance to completely skip class but download all the relevant lecture notes. This is truly revolutionary. This reporter has used this site herself a few times and have found that, once you get past a few loading errors and the random days that it caves in on itself and explodes your internet, Blackboard can be a very useful tool. Teachers can put up their writing assignments right on the site, and not even have to explain or answer questions in class pertaining to its material. Through interviewing teachers on their thoughts on Blackboard, one teacher, Professor Kurk Bancock, responded that “Blackboard saves me so much time and effort. With it, I don’t have to deal with students or silly questions. Plus, they can even submit the file on there, that way I don’t have to handle a bunch of papers that have been stuck in a book and crumpled to pieces. Whether Blackboard is down or out of commission, it isn’t my problem. There’s no reason to even teach at this rate!”

OIT also allows students to call them for help or visit them during certain hours to help fix a computer or some other technological device issue. The person that answers the phone is genuinely helpful and usually suggests to bang the device up against the wall a few times. If that doesn’t work, they suggest downloading Windows again, even on a phone or iPod. If none of their suggestions work, they ask you to come into their office. The students that work during office hours have been through a rigorous full hour of training, and are about as helpful as industry leaders such as Comcast. Needless to say, you can rest assured that your laptop or mobile phone will be treated with the sincerest care. Just make sure you don’t need to install any programs, or need help getting a computer to turn on, because this is clearly too advanced for even the most capable of students.

by Slim Shay Tee