I am offering a new workshop: Infographics http://web.stcloudstate.edu/pmiltenoff/info/.
The workshop is promoted through the electronic signage, but I would like to use also the old fashioned hard-copy posters and reach students in the dorms.
The student consultant on the second floor of Miller Center tells me that he does not live in the dorms, but the IT student workers on the first floor might.
So I head down the first floor. About 10 student workers are behind the c0unter. After I ask, one of them, apparently in charge asks “Why.” Although this is against the “culture of service,” I do not argue and explain why. One student jumps up and says, “I can help posting them,” but the same person, who is in charge says “No.” I wait for a while and since there is no explanation why, I ask. The person in charge responds: “Wait until Sam [Barhorst] is back from a meeting and he can decide.”

After all promises for “breaking silos” and “restructuring IT to become more friendly and service-oriented,” I am stunned to see the stagnation and ridiculous hierarchy (Friedman’s world is flat, but apparently SCSU’ IT department is not part of it) proliferating instead of diminishing.

I cannot imagine what would it take to collaborate with the IT department, if a SIMPLE question like distributing workshop flyers to student dorms turns into such a bureaucratic nightmare. I also am curious to see how creativity is fostered in an environment where student workers are sanctioning themselves, as the student worker in charge cut the student who volunteered to help.

I do NOT feel that the IT department has become any service oriented, but only keep deteriorating during my 15-years tenure at SCSU.