COLUMN: USD website and technology pitiful
There are few things more infuriating to me than when technology fails to do as it is supposed to do. At the University of South Dakota, this is the norm, not the exception.
The most recent technology frustration I encountered was with the online program evaluation on WebAdvisor. This is the only tool the university provides to tell students what classes they are supposed to take in order to graduate.
While professors do their best to assist students in planning what classes to take each semester, advisers can’t be expected to remember every nuance of every catalog for every student they advise.
The online program evaluation is supposed to show students if they and their adviser miss something. The problem is that the evaluation isn’t always correct. My degree auditrevealed a class the online evaluation said I needed wasn’t needed at all.
I trusted the online evaluation to be accurate — a reasonable expectation. Instead, I took a class I didn’t need, and wasted over $800 and hours of my time.
My qualms with technology on campus don’t stop with my recent experience with the program evaluation. In my nearly seven years at this campus, I’ve had issues with the university’s firewall almost every year.
Last year, I couldn’t use wireless on campus unless I signed on as a guest. The wireless for students — the one I pay to use — insisted I was missing a critical Windows update and refused to let me sign on until I had downloaded the update.
I’m computer literate, so I checked for every possible update and downloaded all of the optional ones in addition to the required ones. The result? I still couldn’t sign on.
Information Technology Services offered to fix the issue for me if I brought them my computer, but I felt the problem was with the firewall, not my computer. The problem went away over the summer without having ITS touch my computer.
The firewall has also been an issue when it comes to my smartphone. The firewall refueses to let my phone stay connected to the Internet for more than five minutes at a time.
Maybe I’m unreasonable for wanting to use Internet on my phone on campus, but we’re in the age of the iPhone and the iPad. How does USD expect students to utilize the newest technologies when the network kicks mobile devices off every five minutes?
I’m not sure the university appreciates the growing role of technology in our society. USD has spent millions of dollars updating buildings on campus. We have a state-of-the-art wellness center, a new student center, business school and plans for a basketball arena.
So why do we have decrepit Gateway computers running outdated software in computer labs around campus? Why doesn’t the university spend some money updating something that nearly every college student can expect to use in their future career? I think the university doesn’t think about technology because it doesn’t get technology.
Look no further than our sorry excuse for a website and the equally-pitiful portal. Many things have changed on campus since I came here, but the website has the same outdated layout as it did when I started school. Sure, it got a face-lift, but the mechanics are still the same.
At least the regular website functions properly. The portal has lots of bells and whistles, but information is scattered all over the place, and the panels often fail to load properly.
Often, I use the regular site instead of the portal because I can’t find what I need on the portal. Shouldn’t the tool you have to log in to use be the better one?
Can anyone explain to me why identical search terms in the regular website and the portal yield vastly different results? At least the website finds what I’m looking for, the portal just gives me useless results.
The South Dakota Board of Regents and the university need to invest more time, effort and money in updating the physical technology on campus, the wireless capabilities, the website and the available software on campus.
We live in a time when we will be expected to know how to use the most current technologies, and the university should do its part to make sure we are prepared to do so.
Reach Columnist John Hines at
