Ok, Peeps. Looks like we have our Provost’s attention. How you doin’, Kojo! (You said we were on first name basis back at that FDW when you were introduced, so I’m just following your words. I’m on first name basis too, just like Madonna and Bono.)
It also looks like he’s got to check with OIT about dem settings on his blog. (Makes me wonder if his academic voice is being screened. If so, I’m very concerned.) Since this here blog has no pre-screen settings and we appear to gather at this Lounge with frequency (duh!), I thought I’d introduce a post called Kojo‘s Korner to discuss matters that he can assist us with. I ain’t runnin’ it as a regular post and if any other author feels the need to run the post before I do, for whatever reason, have at it. (I felt so PhiloDave when I wrote that! Stop! Don’t think that! He be him and I be me. I only wrote that ’cause I like phD’s sense of community, which is more than I can say for our district leaders!)
So here is the first official Kojo Korner post. Feel free to share what you think is of major academic concern. He is ‘The Academic Voice’, right?
Toss a question out to Kojo. Let’s see if he comes back to reply. Maybe run contest to see how long it takes to get a reply? (Just kiddin’, Kojo. I told ya I know how busy you are, and for good reasons.)
OK. Let me start this here thang with a question:
Dear Kojo, why would you need to check with OIT about fixin’ them settings on your academic blog? Are you told what you can say? Do your posts have to be approved at the District level? Does District suggest/recommend/persuade/lobby your posts? I thought your post was independent of District’s clutches?
The Harold Lounge 
Kojo,
You said that you were “completely unaware” of the copy and printing issue. Maybe I missed this when the changes came down the pike, but he initiated the change from department copiers to shared copiers. While we’re at it, this one’s for everyone, when did copy limits begin? By copy limits I mean both maximum copies in one “copying session” (10 copies) and maximum copies in one semester (500 copies). Is this really the most efficient way to cut costs? I had more freedom as an adjunct at Loyola with respect to copies than I do at HW. Back in those days, I made my HW and Truman copies at Loyola. Today, I needed to wait for my locked up quizzes to be liberated from the file cabinet on the 11th floor. Let’s think about the process to make 35 copies of a quiz. 1) I write the quiz quickly in order to ensure that it is up to print 24 hours in advance. 2) I wait 24 hours. 3) I make my way to the 11th floor (stair or elevator, take your pick). 4) I wait to get someone’s attention since the quiz is not kept in “gen pop” (which is fine). 5) I get my quiz, make sure everything is there and head back downstairs. I prefer the alternative. 1) I leisurely write my quiz. 2) I print it. 3) I spend the next 20 hours thinking about what I’m going to do in the classroom rather than having nightmares about copies not being done. The end.
On a positive note, the option to scan and e-mail from the copy machine is nice. It’s just a shame that I need to walk 3 miles to do so. Maybe I’ll spend my own money on a scanner or perhaps I can spend my union funds for that since reimbursements are so simple. D’oh!
Kojo’s Response:
Just to be clear: are you saying “he”, Kojo initiated the change from department to shared copiers?
Oops. The sentence above should read as follows.
“Maybe I missed this when the changes came down the pike, but who initiated the change from department copiers to shared copiers?”
Kojo’s Reply
My comments are not being censored. I just needed to know, from OIT, the options I had in terms of facilitating access to my blog.
Who initiated the change? Please note that copiers and printers are not within the purview of Academic Affairs, so I believe it was a Purchasing decision.
Kojo
I think that they should enter your sphere of influence given the impact this Purchasing decision is having on teaching and learning. I assumed that there was some communication among the throngs at DO.
I will investigate further.
Kojo
In regard to copy machines. Is it really that difficult to plan ahead? Is planning ahead not in the best interest of everyone? I’m not defending Kojo with this post but simply applying logic to the situation (strange thing District Wide I know… sue me).
The choice to go to a shared copier is mainly Facilities and partially OIT. Yes you can complain about having to wait but you’re not the only employee in the District that is duplicating tests, especially during midterms or finals. The District purchased high volume printers capable of handling the demand since departments were often exceeding the limits of walk up copiers.
Walk-up copiers (the small ones..) on average can handle a monthly volume of a few hundred copies. That isn’t a very high number and can be hit rather quickly especially when doing multiple copies of multi-page documents. Now when machines exceed their part’s limits they begin to break. Page jams become more frequent and the machine stops working. Now to fix this is going to be expensive and going to take even more time than it will to go somewhere and fill out a form and wait.
Now someone will say “well why not buy copiers that can handle more”.. answer to that is cost. It is cheaper in the long run to buy a bigger machine that can handle everyone’s work than to buy a slightly bigger machine that uses more toner, has a higher maintenance fee and will get abused just as much as the smaller one. Thus costing us even more money. I mean.. how else are we suppose to pay for $20,000 raises at the District level.. c’mon!
OIT side of the spectrum. Support is the main issue here. Each of the copiers puts a load of the network and requires staff to support the copiers. Fairly simple. Fewer copiers per floor. More support staff available to answer calls from PhDs that cannot figure out why the cup holder isn’t coming out of their “box thingy on the desk.” For the last time, it is a damn DVD ROM drive.
Sorry to derail the hatefest but it irks me when someone can’t take responsibility for their own laziness and tries to shift the blame to someone else.
Wow. Such vitriol, especially the last paragraph. Is it really laziness? First of all, do you realize that anyone with a mac is incapable of printing a single page at this moment? Maybe you didn’t. That’s part of my issue, along with my other mac using cronies. Also, I think you’ve misread a bit. This is not a hatefest per se. Maybe it’s a gripe fest. Really it’s just a call for basic needs. You may have misunderstood part of what I wrote. My portrayal of the reprographics process was meant to show the silliness of it with respect to making 35 copies of a single page quiz. I send most of my exams upstairs. However, in terms of my personal logistics (and I take major insult to the claim of laziness), I am constantly adapting my curriculum (formative assessment you know). For that reason, I want to know that there is the flexibility to make enough copies for my class or an activity, or quiz, or in a severe circumstance an exam. There may be an internal solution to this problem. There are 1-hour photos. In fact my dad owns one, though does anyone actually print photos anymore. Reprographics has 24 hours turnaround but often the copies are done well before the 24 hours. Could there be a priority printing service in which copies could be done that day or that hour? This may alleviate some issues. As for the raises at district, I”m guessing that this was a joke, but I’m having trouble seeing the logical flow of the sarcasm in your post. Please clarify. I also don’t know about the “abuses” of these machines. Am I to believe that a copy machine can only handle a few hundred copies a month? I don’t know anymore. I’ve wasted far too much time griping about this.
Ok. A few more things and then I’m officially done.
1) Am I to believe that folks at district (task force members and others) couldn’t make last minute copies for meetings? What about our local admins? I’m sure there are meetings that spring up for which multiple copies of multi-page documents exceeding ten are required.
2) I’m still baffled by abuses. If machines are taken out of departments, isn’t it harder to see the abuses. If someone in my department is making 300 copies of his/her hand, I could make a comment to him/her about it. Now they are down the hall. It feels like micromanging to me. Let departments manage this process. Train department members to properly use the equipment. It would take all of 10 minutes. I resent the implication that faculty are inept. Perhaps some are due to a lack of experience using a particular machine, but others are very capable.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/copy-machine/1353535/
I don’t know if anyone is still reading this thread, but I thought I would throw my own 2 cents in about the copy machine problem.
Yesterday, I was happily reading the New York Times, as I do each and every Sunday, when I happened upon an oped about End of Life decision-making. “Aha,” I thought, “this is perfect for tomorrow night’s class on ‘End of Life Decision-Making!'” My next thought though, was one of utter despair as I realized that I couldn’t make enough copies of this one-page article for my class of 36 students, nor did I have enough time to get the original in to reprographics for the immediate turnaround. I considered stopping at Kinko’s which I have been known to do a LOT over the years, but decided against it because I shouldn’t have to go to Kinko’s to do something interesting with my class.
I also know that I could go and find a benevolent administrator on the 11th floor who would happily make the copies for me…. but again, I shouldn’t HAVE to. I also shouldn’t spend my Sunday afternoon worrying about copying, I should be thinking about how to engage my students with thought-provoking materials. I should not have my hands tied by policies that are designed to make us less creative and less innovative in our teaching.
I take exception at the anonymous post above that accused faculty of being lazy. Did anonymous spend her/his Sunday afternoon planning and designing course materials and adjusting teaching lessons to incorporate a timely article into her/his plans for Monday’s class. My lazy butt did.