Wilkes University students from the biology and earth systems sciences (BESS) and civil and environmental engineering (CEE) departments met with administrators to voice concerns and discuss solutions after losing years of geographical information system (GIS) data in a drive failure.
“The importance of communication was definitely emphasized there and working together to try to solve the problems and concerns that they have as well as ours,” said Caleb Edwards, a junior environmental science and biology double major who attended the meeting.
Prior to the meeting, students sent administrators a letter containing eight pages of student testimonies regarding technology concerns at Wilkes. Students quoted in the letter were not just from the BESS and CEE departments, but from digital design and media art and beyond.
“It’s nice that we can actively make a change if we play a part in working towards it,” Edwards said.
The meeting primarily focused on the GIS drive failure and its resulting setbacks. The drive stored data, research, senior projects and course files dating back a decade or more.
Edwards lost foundational research for his senior project that builds upon 10 years of previous work.
“We had some scraps that we’re pulling together that we saved elsewhere, but a lot of the main work has disappeared, so it was kind of just starting from square one again,” he said.
Reagan Weldon Peri, a junior geology major who also attended the meeting, lost all her data for her senior project and two and a half years of lab work. More than a week of her classes were canceled as well.
“The mental impact it has had on my professors has been hard for me, especially with my one professor, Dr. Karimi,” she said. “He has lost 15 years’ worth of work as well as $20,000 worth of aerial photos that he’s been collecting.”
Dr. Karimi previously said he has been staying up late and sacrificing his personal time to remake lectures, assignments, exams and labs. He also has been trying to figure out how to progress his research after losing much of it.
“Because this is such a small community, we really get to know each other, both classmates and the professors, so a win for one is a win for all and a loss for one is a loss for all,” Edwards said. “This failure definitely impacted a lot of the community, not just professors, but students alike.”
Edwards and Weldon Peri said that they felt administrators heard their concerns and answered their questions at the meeting.
“I do genuinely think that they did really hear what was in the letter because they were referring to the quotes that they had read previously,” Weldon Peri said.
Kerianne Geist, associate vice president of marketing communications, said in an email, “We appreciated the students’ time and thoughtfulness in presenting their IT concerns and remain committed to open dialogue to address various issues.”
However, the students also felt that some of their concerns were not fully understood.
“Overall, I think they were sensitive to the issue, but I just don’t think that someone who hasn’t done this type of research can fully understand the gravity of this loss,” Weldon Peri said.
They were dissatisfied with attempts to minimize the impact of the loss and reduce it down to a routine technological failure.
“The hardware of the server breaking is routine, but what wasn’t routine was the failure of the backup system,” Edwards said. “So, the server failing isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary, but the backup system is really what was concerning.”
The students and Dr. Karimi said the drives were sent to a company that specializes in data recovery. It is not yet known if the data can be recovered.
“Myself and Faith, my senior project partner, have already had to redo work because of this,” Weldon Peri said. “It’s not like we can just pause and wait for this all to be recovered. We have to continue working on our senior projects.”
Administrators and students developed a plan to help mitigate future technological problems. They put an emphasis on improving communication.
“Importantly, it was agreed that the university would reinforce guidance that students should contact the IT Help Desk (#HELP) to report issues such as slow Wi-Fi so they can be specifically addressed,” Geist said in an email. “Changes have already been made to the portal and web graphics, and communications about the Help Desk will be more frequent.”
Gerald Korea, ITS executive director, sent out an email to all students a few days after the meeting. Korea reminded students to use the “Colonel” network and to contact the Help Desk with any problems regarding internet connectivity or software updates and licensing.
“An important outcome of the meeting is that we can be part of the solution,” Edwards said. “Students can actually contribute towards improving technology at Wilkes.”
