On campus today, it’s hard to find anyone without a laptop. But not everyone is capable of fixing his or her computer that they use on daily basis.

Most people turn to a well-known tech-support group such as “Geek Squad” from Best Buy. But did you know that Shippensburg University has the help desk that functions as its “Geek Squad” right on campus.

The helpdesk is a part of the Technical Support Center at Shippensburg University where all students, faculty, and staff can stop by to receive support for their technical issues.

“We provide technical support to all students across campus for any of their electronic devices or technical questions. We specifically help with e-mail configuration and setup, software installation; including Microsoft Office and university-provided Sophos Antivirus software, system cleanup and virus removal, as well as some basic hardware diagnostics and data backup,” said Isaac Lopp, the technical support center manager.

“We provide technical support to the faculty and staff across campus as well, supporting smart carts, on-site pc troubleshooting and repair, as well as new system deploys and setups.”

The helpdesk assists students and staff on campus and has become a vital part of the daily university operation.

The helpdesk was not as significant as it is now when it started in the basement of McLean Hall. The audience they helped was also limited to the students living on campus.

“The department, at the time, was known as ResNet and handled between 50 and 100 tickets per semester” said Lopp.

“With the proliferation of technical devices on campus, it became necessary to expand our support offerings on campus to all students.”

Lopp confirmed the growth of the helpdesk with the increase of the tickets solved.

“With the increase in support offerings and hours of operation, we are now handling roughly 1,000 tickets per year.”

As the ResNet operations expended and the number of student techs increased, the basement of McLean became too secluded and small for the operations.

The department was then relocated into MCT computer lab where it operated until this summer.
With the recent move to the library, the helpdesk seeks to interact with the students further and extend its services even further.

According to Lopp, in the future, the helpdesk is “looking at the ways people contact us to make it easier and quicker to find answers and get resolutions to common questions.”

Lopp also pointed out the areas that he wants to work on since the move to the library.

“The current setup is still new to everyone involved in the help desk operations. Things have been working very well thus far and our turnaround time has been at an all-time high for both faculty tickets and student tickets already this semester,” said Lopp.

We are currently looking at how we are utilizing our new space, and what changes could be made to help improve our service offerings to campus,” he added.

The helpdesk on our campus has a fantastic group of employees to address many of your technical support needs. The services provided by the helpdesk are all offered free of charge, so why not use their services whenever there’s an issue with your machine?

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