Scholarship Winners Share Unique Experiences

Sharie Sprague
Planning & Budget, Office of the Chancellor,
Office of the Provost
sasprague@ucdavis.edu

When Sharie Sprague changed jobs, she carried her TSP experience with her. Sprague joined the Technology Support Program when she was with Human Resources, where she worked for seven years. She now works in Mrak Hall, supporting 23 people in Planning & Budget, 18 in the Office of the Chancellor, and 18 in the Office of the Provost.

Sprague spends a good deal of time inventorying systems, troubleshooting, and readying her departments for DaFIS and Network 21 cutover. The TSP has been a useful resource, and the listserv has been particularly helpful for sharing information. She says the CAUSE conference presented her with some new perspectives.

Patricia Peacock saw a need and decided to fill it. After reading about the Technology Support Program in a campus flyer, Peacock approached her program director who, realizing the network connections and various computers that span several campus buildings needed tending to, allowed Peacock to join.

As TSC for the expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, Peacock troubleshoots, performs hardware maintenance, repairs older machines, installs software, provides software training, and fields questions from the departmentŐs telecommuters.

Peacock is seizing new training opportunities. For the past six or seven months, she has attended University Extension courses as part of a certification program in Computer Science.

"The inspiration came directly from the TSP program," Peacock says, "that ordinary people could attain advancement in computer science without being computer science engineers."

As a Computer Resource Specialist for the Campus Events and Information Office (CEIO) Nancy Capitanio provides technical support to a staff distributed among four different locations. It is a job that keeps her moving between her office in lower Freeborn, the Beuhler Alumni Center, the Conference and Events Services office on First Street, and the Campus Box Office. Capitanio serves nearly 25 people in her role as TSC. The job entails maintaining and upgrading the department computers, NT network, and Oracle database. She also administers the department Web site.

Capitanio, who earned her B.S. in computer science, keeps current on computing. She attends as many TSP classes as she can and frequently posts questions to the TSP listserv. When her schedule allows, Capitanio attends Special Interest Group meetings. "The TSC classes do a good job of introducing general concepts," she says, "but I would like to see more in-depth classes that get into the real details."

Roderick Paulino's computing experience has given him an opportunity to expand his job responsibilities. Originally hired by Student Programs & Activities to oversee student receptionists and do graphic design, Paulino was soon asked to act as Technical Support Coordinator. Now his job entails general upkeep of the network, maintenance of the department server, and computer training for staff.

Paulino would like his department to develop in-house graphics capabilities, expand the use of the server to act as a home base for all student organizations, and augment his departmentŐs training program.

TSP classes, he says, have taught him much in a short amount of time and have helped him to pass on that knowledge to the members of his department. The CAUSE conference exposed him to new products being developed for higher education and gave him the opportunity to meet like-minded people from around the country.

"The TSP program is a really good concept. I wish I could be relieved of a little time to fully take advantage of it," says Kathy von Rummelhoff, an administrative assistant for the Academic Senate.

In her job, von Rummelhoff plays many roles. She serves as a payroll and accounting representative for the DaFIS system, liaison for Staff Assembly, and Technology Support Coordinator. Until late 1995, Mrak Hall had its own computer programmer, and each department had its own contact person for computing needs and problems. Because von Rummelhoff served as the computer contact for Academic Senate, the transition to TSC seemed a natural one.

She attends TSP classes as her schedule permits, and implements the concepts she learns about when possible. Extensive off-campus training is difficult for her small department, so von Rummelhoff was pleased to receive the scholarship to the CAUSE conference.