Residence Hall Consulting at Penn State

Name: Kathy Mayberry & Steve Pierce

Institution: The Pennsylvania State University

E-mail Address: kmm@psu.edu & sop1@psu.edu

Format: Paper presentation

Suggested Audience: Those responsible for providing consulting in the Residence Halls

Presentation Outcome:

1. Understand some of the challenges of providing Residence Hall ethernet connections and providing support for it

Presentation Content:

enn State has wired all of the Residence Halls to make ethernet connections available to the students who live on campus. This is a significant benefit to these students but creates a User Services nightmare trying to help the students successfully connect their equipment to the University backbone. One-on-one help in the Residence Halls is provided via two programs. The first supports student consultants who live in the residence halls and are available to help the students in their area. The other is an 'Ethernet SWAT' team that is a group of students who make 'house calls' to the residence halls when requested. The speakers will discuss the implementation of both programs, some of the technical difficulties and what works and what doesn't.

Outline:

• Description of the Penn State residence hall environment
  • Stats
  • Services offered
• Residence Hall 'Live-In' Program
  • How It Works
  • Restrictions
  • Advertising
• SWAT Team
  • How It Works
  • Requirements
  • Reaction Time
• Considerations
  • Training
  • Fulltime Staff Backup
• Most Effective Program
  • Why
  • Problems
• Technical Difficulties
  • No Name Computers
  • No Name Ethernet Cards
  • Human Error
  • Possible Solutions