My university forced me to switch back to PC!

[Chrispy]

Nice letter, if (and when) he replies, can you post that here?

His initial replay was..

Chris -

Thanks for alerting me.

It is the case that we have very few people on staff with Mac expertise, which makes it difficult for us to support Macs as fully as we do Windows machines.

It is certainly not *my* intent to keep Macs off the network, however.

I assure you, I will look into this matter. It would help me a great deal if you could tell me who made these unauthorized comments about Macintosh.

May I share your message with others on the EIS management team?

Thanks.

- Mike

I replied...
Professor ****,

I appreciate you looking into this matter and I know it is not you personally making the decision to block the Macintosh platform from use at ****** ******. I think alleviating these issues could help VU at becoming a more diverse computing environment. I feel this would greatly benefit students (especially those in the graphics arts and music realm) by giving them more options.

I do not recall the names of the people I spoke with as it was in the fall and spring semester of last year. It does, however, concern me that such comments are being made as it gives students the idea that they are using a dangerous platform when, in fact, this is far from the truth.

I would love for you to share this message with the rest of the management team. I hope it will help spark some changes for the better here at ****** ******.

Sincerely,
Chris

 

[Chrispy]

Did you (or someone else) say this in another thread recently? I hope so, because if not, I'm having some serious deja vu right now.. :shudders:

I had brought this issue up before in another thread but now it has gotten even worse than when I initially referenced the issue.

 

[DrNeroCF]

Um dude we have that clean access bull over here, all the macs need to do is sign in from a browser and everything works fine.

 

[dops7107]

His initial replay was..

... It would help me a great deal if you could tell me who made these unauthorized comments about Macintosh.

Unauthorized comments? Weird turn of language.

PS I'm not sure that blanking out the University's name with **** is much use if you put the professor's full name in your post.

 

[Chrispy]

Um dude we have that clean access bull over here, all the macs need to do is sign in from a browser and everything works fine.

Yeah it was like that at first but now they have added something else to it that I am not aware of that makes it so you literally have to trick the system by clicking on an accept button in less than 2 seconds to get the access. If you miss it then you go through the entire signup thing again (username, password, address, student ID and all). Makes no sense at all...

 

[Chrispy]

Unauthorized comments? Weird turn of language.

PS I'm not sure that blanking out the University's name with **** is much use if you put the professor's full name in your post.

Haha yep. Technically, since I work for the university I am not supposed to mention its name in any forums or the like but it says nothing about naming people Strange rule but I guess they fear I may give out access passwords and stuff...

 

[Chrispy]

I'm actually happy to say I am getting a good amount of response out of this It should be interested to see what comes of it at the university. Given the attention I am getting out of this I am going to take a previous posters advice and make the entire thing anonymous. I will keep you all posted!

 

[ohcrap]

I think you should protest, everyone likes to protest... if that doesn't work, start a riot.

 

[Chrispy]

I think you should protest, everyone likes to protest... if that doesn't work, start a riot.

Haha! I think it is very likely that the clean access quirk that is hampering people right now is going to get fixed. Also, I think I may have started a move for the staff to look into the lack of Mac wireless access. I will be interested to see what comes of this as I know at least a handful of people here suffing the same problem as myself.

 

[Linkjeniero]

Things like this make me really happy to be studying in a University where most professors hate Windows even more than I do... (well, at least in the Computer Science Department). The faculty's primary network is open for anybody to use, and to get in the department one you just need to mail them you mac address.

 

[skubish]

Unauthorized comments? Weird turn of language.

PS I'm not sure that blanking out the University's name with **** is much use if you put the professor's full name in your post.

And he referred to it as VU in the post. Kinda narrows it down quite a bit.

VU + Indiana = hmmm

 

[zap2]

get VPC

 

[Chrispy]

And he referred to it as VU in the post. Kinda narrows it down quite a bit.

VU + Indiana = hmmm

Very nice... now.. no need to say it in full But for those reading this... be warned! LOL

 

[DeepIn2U]

Yeah it sucks using windows. I literally have some type of update to intall every day. Another sick thing I remembered is that my desktop publishing class forces us to use PCs. We doing QuarkXPress design work and my prof is all against mac becuase they are not used as much... yes.. of course nobody in the design industry uses a mac ....

Well saying installing a windwos update daily - if refering to WinXP - may be pushing it if just a little BUT if you said weekly that is so accurate, Moore's Law couldnt be more precise!

Seriously though you should point out the recent Virus attack 2 weeks ago that hit CBCNews - sorry no link - or this
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/05/win2k_worm_flaw/
or
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/02/katrina_trojan_attack/
or this again affecting Windows Users
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/03/world_cup_virus/

there is PLENTY more you can introduce to the IT staff and challenge them to find fact that these virii that spread began on Apple Macs' or other OS based machine. Also challenge them to find Apples on Windows Networks that affected Windows Machines as a fact. Dont worry enjoy many dates with that hot senior you wanted to date before they get back to ya on that.

Seriously Macs were meant to increase user's efficiency and productivity, and challenge the world on how we percieve & use computers. Today while at work supporting Windows Dialup for AOL its so difficult to get someone who's never done a hard drive search for a simple named file - screen name - if they've never saw it before. How is this with the 5th+ iteration of Windows OS when by default it should be set to look for files/folders NOT over the Internet if thats what Internet Explorer is used for??!!!! 10 minutes of talking & time wasted and more fustration for the customer! One of these days I'll tell them to get a Mac. Not one day this past month have I not gotten a call with a member complaining of a virus where their computer will not load Windows OS, lol.

Chrispy glad to see your challenging right, and using the Apple efficiency.

Cheers & godspeed.

 

[Chrispy]

Let’s just hope Mr. EIS will take care of the problems Mac users are experiencing here at good ol' VU haha. The interesting this about this college is we almost do a lot of things right. For the longest time Windows users here were plagued with viruses all the time yet now clean access has really helped with that problem. However, in fixing one problem they have created another... if they could just get both things right at the same time then we would be talking. That and the insane tuition prices and the lies about financial aid... but that is an entirely new topic. I have worked with the person I e-mailed my sophomore year and he is a good guy. I think that now that he is aware how some of these moves have affected some users he will honestly try to fix the problem. I am going to just keep my fingers crossed and try to keep in touch with him.

 

[SilverLight]

question

you sure this campus wasnt in Redmond Washinton?
that sucks thou

 

[Abstract]

Chrispy is learning at the Microsoft campus.

I'd provide references that state that as of a particular date, there have been no spread viruses in OS X.

I think that there aren't enough IT people who know about Macs or Linux, and so they choose not to bother with them.

 

[puckhead193]

my school as something like that, but it works for macs... If you have a PC you need to download this thing which is spyware and see if you have a virus and the lastest windoze patches and if not it won't let you on the network, but since i'm on a mac i just type my password in and go, its great!

 

[DeepIn2U]

An intereseting thing for you ... just read this on my break...


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/21/apples_big_virus/

highlights the joy of using a Mac sans virii.

 

[savar]

Yeah I was telling a friend of mine that it would be great to print this out after more people have made comment and then bring it to the admin people to show them how stupid they really are. It was bad enough when I had to deal with this at work but now at my college.. uhhh. If companies and schools would realize the potential IT savings of switching completely to mac then Apple would finally get the marketshare they deserve.

Not just the IT staff, but bring it to the president or provost.

I agree with what MdUser63 said as well...this college has totally the wrong attitude. If you're willing to support your own set up they should not be locking you out.

What school is it, by the way? It's absurd to block macs, but to block linux also? There must not be a computer science program there, otherwise those kids are especially getting shafted.

Besides, at most universities the majority of professors prefer macs...

 

[dejo]

I will NOT be recommending this place to anyone else nor will I ever give a dime to this place after I graduate.

Chrispy, what's the name of this place? So we can avoid it too...

 

[TDM21]

My school, also makes Students living in the Halls download and use Cisco Clean Access. Students also must download the Symantec Antivirus Corporate edition from the schools servers before they can get online. Thankfully, my school passes users with Mac or Linux through the sign in so they are almost instantly online. This year I work for the Residential Network (the people who take care of networking in the Halls) and from personal experience, it is harder getting Windows computers online with Cisco then Mac or Linux.



Just to put everything in perspective, Cisco Clean Access Agent is a program the sits on your Windows computer and every day checks to see if you have Antivirus installed and all the latest updates. This is done by reading some info off a server on campus which is updated once a week. If Cisco sees that you don't have all the updates on your computer then it gives you temporary access to Windows update website to get those updates. Once your computer has all the necessary updates then Cisco will let you have full access to the network again. Great idea in concept, but is hell to get working in practice with 4000+ students living on campus.

 

[Chundles]

Not just the IT staff, but bring it to the president or provost.

I agree with what MdUser63 said as well...this college has totally the wrong attitude. If you're willing to support your own set up they should not be locking you out.

What school is it, by the way? It's absurd to block macs, but to block linux also? There must not be a computer science program there, otherwise those kids are especially getting shafted.

Besides, at most universities the majority of professors prefer macs...

You should see the Arts department at my uni (Arts, not Creative Arts - never really seen the Creative Arts buildings) a shiny new eMac on every desk, it's just so *sob* beautiful... then you see the poor old guys in Commerce and Science (where I am, I love getting my iBook out in class) using old old old Pentium II's and III's with anything from Win98 to XP, they spend most of their time fixing the damn things.

 

[spinne1]

Hey everyone, I wonder if VALPARAISO will go to the NCAA basketball tourney this year. They had a good run a few years back.

Oh, and how is Denny Myers working out as athletic director over at VINCENNES? (side note: he was my college track and cross country coach at a different college)


Getting closer.....

 

[Chrispy]

It is Valparaiso University. I am good to discuss this issue since it does not pertain to what I do at VU. I would not recommend people attend this university at this point in time as they seem to be very money hungry and unethical in the way they treat the students. It has potential but blows it with really poor administration decisions. I also attended Purdue and IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) before VU during my freshmen year and I must say that IUPUI was the most pleasant experience... and they had a sweet Mac setup in the library.