The Rice Thresher

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September 30, 2005 > Opinion > IT: Keep more staff on campus during crises

IT: Keep more staff on campus during crises

For better or worse, e-mail is the primary communication medium at Rice. So during an emergency, when communication is crucial, we need Owlnet e-mail to be operational, not dysfunctional as it was last weekend. (See story, page 1.)

The insidious replication of e-mails was annoying, but the enormous time lags — which resulted in some e-mails being delivered days late — were hazardous. Masters trying to communicate with students in their colleges were delayed or silenced by the technical problems, and had to resort instead to posting signs and pounding on doors.

Thankfully, the IT staff fixed the problems Monday. But we think last weekend showed that in the future, IT should have more staff on campus during crisis situations, and Rice should provide food and housing for these employees.

Basically, IT should be considered an essential department — in the same category as Facilities, Engineering and Planning, Housing and Dining and the Rice University Police Department. IT has a staff of 120, so some could certainly have evacuated, just as some H&D and FE&P staff members left campus last week. But the Crisis Management Team should require enough IT staffers be retained as essential personnel to keep our lines of communication open, especially when the campus suffers no substantial power outages.

Luckily, Hurricane Rita was a dud in Houston. Had we been less fortunate, the inability to communicate in a 21st-century fashion could have prevented some students from doing what they were supposed to do. IT and the Crisis Management Team should establish an emergency protocol that does not compromise students’ safety.

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