Restoar the roar

[BadlandsGrizFan]

I suspect we are talking about the memo sent out to the entire staff on June 30 a year ago explaining how the "phones" and the Palmer Phones were being replaced with a new VOIP with an SIP overlay. It would save hundred of thousands a year.

Even my Kids have a voip system for their primary calling rather than buying "minutes" from a cell company (just data for when they are out of wifi) In the simplest terms its most like Skype. Apple has a built-in app for it. I chaperoned a group of special olympians last year. Every night they had a facetime session with their friends and or family at home............... Pretty simple stuff.

SIP is a very flexible protocol that has great depth. It was designed to be a general-purpose way to set up real-time multimedia sessions between groups of participants. For example, in addition to simple telephone calls, SIP can also be used to set up video and audio multicast meetings, or instant messaging conferences. In the university it is being used for "online classes"

75 apparently didn't get the memo, or load the app on his computer. Unlike most VOIP sytems the university managed to route the calls through an updates PBX system directly to the Proffs computers. pretty cool stuff. But then its apparent that most of you don't know that the old Computer science program was for the most part replaced by a new Information technology program in the business department which is also a testing center for microsoft among other tech companies. Its one of the best in the country....................

In any event their calls now come through their computer. It may not work on 75's abbacus

I suck with technology but I'm good with people....and I say Rolls Royce gots to go....he gots to gooooooo!

 

[UMGriz75]

I suspect we are talking about the memo sent out to the entire staff on June 30 a year ago explaining how the "phones" and the Palmer Phones were being replaced with a new VOIP with an SIP overlay. It would save hundred of thousands a year.

No. That's a joke, and underscores more of the gobbledygook that comes from this Administration. Aside from the fact that a desk and a phone for each faculty is part of the collective bargaining agreement, this is a prime example of "cuts" forced by Engstrom that don't in fact save the University a nickel. This regime is a Potemkin regime, pretending to reorganize the deck chairs, while the ship sinks.

Desk phones are going the way of typewriters and fountain pens at the University of Montana – due to recent budget cuts.

Come July 1, faculty in the History Department will not have their own office telephones, said Diane Rapp, who will have the only phone line in the department.

"I'm going to have to buy those pink message pads again," said Rapp, department administrator.

On second thought, she said, she'll probably use scrap paper to keep down costs – or send email. She estimates the department will cut 10 lines, and at $30 a month apiece, the annual savings is a chunk: $3,600.

Earlier this month, Dean Chris Comer said Main Hall is asking the College of Humanities and Sciences to make additional budget cuts he considers "on the high side, scary high," and amount to "several million dollars." Other areas on campus are trimming as well, and telephones and copiers are on the chopping block.

With the ubiquity of cell phones, availability of other technology, and previous budget crunches, the trend in retiring desk phones isn't new, according to Matt Riley, chief information officer for UM. With the campus pinching pennies, he's anticipating another wave of phone cuts this year.

The elimination saves individual departments money because they don't have to pay for the services, he said. But he said it doesn't help IT or the bottom line at UM.

"It's the revenue that creates the operational budget for IT," Riley said.

So IT has to find those dollars elsewhere, he said – from other university sources.

It's a little depressing because it seems like a phone is a pretty basic thing, and it doesn't seem like it's very expensive. But in a large department like ours, it certainly adds up," he said.

Lodmell plans to keep a phone line in his lab for safety reasons, but he'll have to find ways to pay for it himself using, say, indirect costs from grants.

He questioned the efficiency of the funding structure on campus for things like internet ports in particular. The infrastructure and wiring exist, yet one department pays another one for the service.

"It just seems a little bit silly that it's not just provided, and then we don't have to pay people to administer the bills," he said.

Bottom line:

The cut saves money for a department, but not for the campus as a whole, he said. It's an issue he said every campus with an IT department is facing.

http://missoulian.com/news/local/telephones-go-by-the-wayside-with-budget-cuts-at-um/article_75622003-bd1e-5191-bc60-483479d8f9ad.html

 

[UMGriz75]

This is representative of the kinds of defenses offered for Engstrom's culture of failure. While heated arguments rage about yanking out phones, and while the tremendous strides in enrollment, academics, retention, ACT and SAT score increases made under George Dennison falter, stagnate or reverse, endangering the integrity of the entire institution, fricken Engstrom is peeking in windows to see if the photocopiers or the telephones should go first, while adding to his list which junior faculty should be slaughtered on his altar of failure first.

Oh wait, after two failed outside recruitment firms -- the first of which sent the famous email blast to prospective students encouraging them to enroll at Montana State University, the perfect symbol of the Engstrom era -- we again reversed course and brought recruitment back to the same Campus offices that Engstrom thought was the actual problem in the first place. Well, what is it? The man cannot maintain a coherent thought about what to do. That's the textbook definition of "flailing."

 

[tnt]

So you are saying the Faculty (and their staff) is basically technologically inept and essentially stupid because they can't turn on a computer or access their voice mail????? And more importantly you really do know what happened to your phone or are you still looking for your typewriter? Speaking of photo copiers, they have been obsolete for 10 years or better. Maybe Royce should start looking for obsolete faculty........

 

[BubbleScreenBob1]

No matter how hard you try, its not going to change our opinions of you!

 

[UMGriz75]

Why does UM still use phones?

To communicate? Most faculty don't want the U to publish their private cell phones, so, after that, how do you think parents and students communicate as prospective students?

From the Missoulian:

In recent years, the administration has been placing more recruitment responsibilities on the shoulders of faculty members, and if that requires phone calls to prospective students, some teachers pay out of their own pockets.

According to Riley, only a handful of people on campus receive reimbursements from UM for using their cell phones.

 

[tnt]

Its pretty easy to access your voip account from a remote site, smart phone etc. even some landlines. Not sure anyone needs to use a cell phone or such. I'm Dead certain they should not be reimbursed for not learning how, or in the case of a few their passive aggresive "I'll show them - attitude" I'll do it the old way. Like it or not no matter what the career path students choose they will be entering an IT world. whether or not their professors stay years behind is another issue.