CITES Survey - 2004 - Faculty Comments from Support Survey

What additional communications or computing support would you like to see CITES offer?

Help with new email system and more virus protection options.

Until recently I was unaware that CITES had a computing help desk, which I used to establish a VPN from home for access to the University network.  Until I took this survey, I was unaware that CITES had a communications help desk.

Improve Macintosh familiarity of consultants.

larger mailbox quotas

support for easy backup and archiving of old mail

More people trained on Mac computers.  There only seems to be one young man who knows anything about Mac computers.

Often have trouble getting into CITES when away form Campus?? Even at computer shops??

stop changing the systems!

online chat help

Spam filtering would be nice.

High-speed cable support for faculty at home, or support for encouraging cable use.

More knowledgeable Mac consultants. The call in people often don't know Macs well.

Simple web-training. Just the basics so that everyone can get online to fiddle with and update web pages. Most of us don't need complicated courses. We can figure out how to use web design software, more or less, according to our needs. But a 10-minute lesson available to anyone on how to get onto the system would be great.

I mainly use CITES for software licensed at the university level. The billing process is a bit convoluted. CITES is sometimes slow to update the licenses to the newest version of the software and it can be very difficult to find out when we will have access to a newer version.

Install DVD machines in ITS classrooms on a permanent basis.  Computer DVD programs are NOT suitable for projecting cinema images.

Surely there must be a way for you to filter out much of the spam we receive through the network.

High spped service outside the university campus.

CITES level spam/junk filters on e-mail.  A lot of my productivity is lost dealing with the mess spam and junk e-mail causes.

Assistance about what kinds of programs are compatable with current computer configerations or that have worked well on the U of I system.

More help in small, but critical problems with computers. I find the telephone help desk the worst service that CITES offers. I find the services for teaching (like Black Board) and the coordination of classroom use to be very good. Perhaps greater CITES support of area administrators, and more comprehensive check of equipment, programs, needs of faculty on an annual basis. (eg. we get a computer and softward package to use perhaps once every 4-5 years and the updates required to keep up with the system changes are often many times that with little support to help us navigate these changes and maintain good, fluid reliability of our hardware and software.

Requiring complicated password changes is really outrageous. Your password requirements on cases, numbers etc are totally inappropriate

Insitituion-wide site license for a robust bibliographic management tool (e.g. EndNote).

wireless

It would be very helpful to receive more communication about:

1) who is responsible for what kinds of computing support at the U of IL

2) what kinds of computer software and services are available

For example, I learned about netfiles accidently in a different forum.  More information would help make me aware of the tools available.

Improved ability to wade through the system to establish passwords, set up accounts, etc.  Current system is cumbersome to the user and with all of the changes lately it is tough to keep up.

Online tutorials would be perfect.

wireless internet coverage for more campus buildings

personalizing the service.  Everyone seems to thrive on anonymity.

dfghjdfg

Better SPAM control ... the virus spread and spam volume is terrible

FIX the SPAM problem!

Limited amount of storage for important files

Provide the capability to send large datasets/presentations across campus. Right now I cannot do my work, unless I send a student/secretary across campus with a disk or flash memeory key. Repeated requests for more diskspace on E-mail account are ignored or reversed without consultation.

don't know

Regio-freeDVD players in all CITES classrooms

Linux

Consultants who are knowledgeable in the software that is commonly used such as Outlook and Corporate Time and their interface.

More Mac service

e-mail announcing 'events'

Explanations of how systems work---particularly e-mail

Support by people who understand Macs.

Please add any additional comments—suggestions, complaints, etc.—regarding this survey or about CITES Help Desk Support.

(1) CITES is outrageously expensive for the level of service.  CITES pushes network costs to the individual units on campus, when CITES should have the responsibility for these costs, as part of overhead sent to the university.  

(2) webmail is outrageously slow and buggy, and is outrageous that it took years for CITES to fix the problem.

(3) CITES repeatedly gives bad network advice to units on campus, and repeatedly tries to sell out-of-date network equipment to individual units that are not on their 'preferred list'.

I have received far too many email viruses through the university server.

The availability of the CITES help desks and the nature of the problems and questions they will tackle should be made more available to faculty and staff.

Quite easy to follow.

There seems to be a lot of turn over, I guess they are students.  More permanent staff would be good.

Fine needs to distinguish assists from thosa available in local college. we have 11 people in our CS staff

1. The new e-mail system is much inferior to all previous ones.  Bring back PINE, please.

2. Stop changing the systems!

CITES has been very helpful in keeping me informed regarding virus updates and security problems. I've been very impressed with their quick action on viruses infecting university systems and providing security solutions.

I usually ask the network administrator for our buiding first before I contact CITES for help.  I know there's a list of CITES labs on campus with information about the software and hardware each lab offers, but it is difficult to find from the CITES website.

The Help Desk CD I went to pickup was not ready.  I had to wait for it to be burned.  When I got back to my office it was blank.  You should have this information at your website for download.

It would be very helpful if the coumputer services would notify people that their passwords were about to timeout.  Or just let us decide when if ever the password needs changed.

I called help desk during nrmal hours twice and NO ONE ANSWERED. I finally hung up after 20 rings.

I would like to compliment ... for her friendliness, kindness, patience when she helped me get my password set up the first of the year.

Very helpful and considerate when I went in person to get some of the free software copied onto a CD.

Your virtual network product was full of bugs.  Preventing me from accessing the courseware disks so that I cannot do my job properly is an abuse of power.

CITES help desk is always extremely slow to respond to the phone and when they do they are rarely helpful and usually suggest coming in in person.  When you call back after having performed some action suggested by the CITES adviser you invariably have to go through the whole problem with a new person, who suggests something, ad nauseum.

Very frustrating using the Help Desk, when this is the only resource available to retirees.

fghjfg

CITES seems to have little understanding of the needs of the modern day research environment in engineering. Last year someone called me back and still could not be helpfull.  These surveys do not seem to be very effective in addressing problems.

I've had very negative experiences with the departmental CITES representatives, (such as their use of spyware, entering and logging onto computers without my permission, unwillingness to explain why IP addressses have to be a certain way, their threatening to 'unplug' compuers from the internet if ceratin of their requests aren't met within very short timeframes - 24hours)and they no longer will provide any support. It has given me a very dim view of CITES.

I was originally worried about the switch to express mail since I had become very accustomed to the old system, and I am familiar with Unix.  However, I found the transition very smooth and I really like the new system.

I use the ALS help desk our our departmental person (...) for computer assistance and, therefore, do not need such assistance from CITES.

I hate the fact that 1) our quotas are rigid and 2) that pine is going away.  I understand the reason -- it's just much faster and I'm busy and don't want to waste time.

I find the forced move to CITES 'express' email to be objectionable.  

I think it's a shame that ux6 is being retired.  This leaves me with no alternatives for statistical analysis.

no complaints

Question 2 omits my usual source of tech support:  the systems experts within my own unit (the library).  They rock!

More helpful in person than by phone/e-mail.

The CITES express e-mail system has given me continual grief.  Problems arise and do not get fixed.  The older cluster system almost never gave problems.  I hope you have enough people working on the problems (despite budget problems this is clearly an infrastructual matter).

Except for very rudimentary requests, like asking about the quota on my email account, I have had terrible luck with the CITES help desk people being able to help me or giving me the right information when I ask a question. I continue to call because there is no where else to call, but I have almost never received the answer that I needed to solve the problem. It is usually the tech support from Atlas-SOS who ends up helping me out, but they are not available by phone.

I have had a virus on my computer for three weeks, and I have filled out report after report, and gotten no help.

 

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