Saint Louis University has seen a dramatic increase in computer technology over the past few years.

The school and its departments have all made an effort to keep up with this issue by creating their own staff and information technologies specialist, but some believe that this has left the school disorganized. Each department has been working with its own people, but they have not been able to coordinate effectively.

At a recent meeting, the Council of Academic Deans and Directors and the President’s Coordinating Council endorsed Vice President for Information Technology Services Thomas Moberg’s idea to create a new way of dealing with the information Technology problem the school currently faces.

This new solution has been named MIDSS (Managed, Integrated, Distributed, Support System), a program that will help make SLU’s Information Technology System more efficient and productive.

“It is managed in a sense that we want to manage all IT staff as a system, integrated as people who want to be part of an organization, and distributed, not centralized or decentralized, so as to work better,” said Moberg.

In University President Lawrence Biondi , S.J.’s February newsletter it was noted that the system has four features:

1. All SLU IT support staff will be treated as a combined University support system, led by ITS.

2. IT support staff will be managed consistently as a part of the overall University IT support structure.

3. IT support staff and functions will be integrated to provide reliable, comprehensive IT campus-wide support.

4. IT support staff will be equitably distributed in “zones” so they can work closely with the people and functions they support.

“It ties in all support that’s out there, and makes it more of an equal situation,” said microcomputing analyst, Thomas Hanley. “The program is not to reduce support, but to enhance it.”

Despite a feeling many people may have that this is a new and radical program, Moberg pointed out that this system has been developing for years.

“It was not until recently that we had given it an acronym,” Moberg said.

According to Moberg, the speed at which the program is moving is due to the pilot programs with which ITS was experimenting. However, MIDSS is now dealing with over 20 cases around campus. Slow movement is also due to the idea that ITS did not want to threaten any of the current support staff working for different departments around campus.

Staff has become one of the main reasons for the development of the program.

“A human backup system is very important as well,” Moberg said.

Often much of the IT staff is overworked and has problems finding times to take a break or vacation.

The new system is geared toward relieving pressure from the IT staff and also creating a good backup system for the IT community at SLU.