by The Cowl Editor on January 18, 2018
Campus
by Sarah Gianni ’18
News Staff
With a new year comes the promise of change and improvement. There is no exception for the Providence College campus, which seems to constantly change no matter the time of year. However, 2018 brings completion to the changes made on the basement floor of Philips Memorial Library. The brand new iHelp Suite is now a fully functioning space where students and community members can go for technology support.
“The renovations for the new iHelp office began with some prep work a couple years ago in anticipation of the complete renovations,” said Helpdesk Manager Jim Rizzo. These renovations began in the summer of 2016, to avoid disrupting students taking classes or studying in the library.
“The purpose of the project was to bring the User Support group of the IT department together with Academic Media Services (AMS) in a single office to better support faculty, staff, and students by combining our efforts and avoiding duplication of services,” said Rizzo. The office provides assistance for everything from computers, mobile devices, and classroom technology to database research and PC prints.
“While the project was underway, AMS was officially merged under the IT umbrella, having previously been a separate department that reported to the Division of Academic Affairs,” said Rizzo. “The new office space, and the combination of multiple departments in one space comes with many learning opportunities and some slight changes to how we all manage our day-to-day activities, but it provides us with an opportunity to grow as a more singular unit to best serve the needs of the college.”
Members of the PC community are now enjoying the sleek and modern iHelp suite. “It’s been really great to work in this updated office space,” said iHelp student worker Meghan Brown ’21. “Most of my hours are now in this office because we only have one student worker working in the Accino office instead of two.”
Monday through Friday beginning at 8:00 a.m., anyone can call the iHelp Office to speak with an assistant at the “Helpdesk.” “If you are having any technology problems we first try to solve the issue over the phone,” said Brown, “If we can’t solve them right away we put in a work order and our techs come in starting at 5:00 p.m. to address the problems.”
Students and community members still have the option to address their technology issues in Accino as well. “There are still members of the IT department working out of Accinno, and we still maintain the four computer labs in Accinno 100, 101, 202, and 207,” said Rizzo. Both office spaces are open seven days a week for community use.