Bakersfield College is facing a crises, a crises many of the students who attend the college aren’t even aware exists.

BC’s IT Department the people responsible for the installation and maintenance of every piece of computer equipment and the computer labs on campus – is currently suffering from an employee shortage, which was determined by Tech II.

Tech II provided guidelines on the issue of support for technology on campuses throughout California.

For BC, Tech II determined that the college should have at least four network administrators (these are the people who keep the campus computer network up and running). BC currently has one.

Tech II recommended that BC have at least one system support person; BC currently has none. Tech II recommended BC have at least eight help desk people; they only have one. The IT department is currently lacking employees in other positions.

“You’ll find in my department people wear multiple hats,” said Jim McGee, director of the IT Department at BC.

When asked how this affects his departments morale, McGee was quick to say that “Moral is surprisingly high… moral isn’t suffering even though we do become frustrated… but by and large moral is high.”

Not only does this situation directly affect the IT department’s speed at which they are able to resolve a problem, but it also severely limits any new services that they can provide to increase the overall experience for the student at BC.