She's only been here a few months, but she knows the ropes better than most 'old-timers'. Patricia Fontaine has certainly put in her hours during September. She's been so busy helping out in the Connecticut Hall Network Center (CHNC) organizing the campus-wide troubleshooting procedures that she nearly missed her fifth wedding anniversary. "I'd been putting in so many hours - I realized I hadn't actually spoken to my husband in days!" she explains. Luckily, her husband was willing to put up with the hectic first few weeks of the academic year, and more importantly, so was Pat.
Hired this summer to be boss of the mighty Computing Assistants, Pat was prepared for a frantic first few weeks. "I'd been warned that the beginning of the year was always crazy. But I've gotten plenty of support from Phil Long (Director of Academic Computing) and all the rest at ACS. Besides, I'm pretty sure that my twelve-hour workdays will come to an end soon enough, as we finish resolving the problem connects on campus." Recent comments that Pat has made may more truly reflect her intentions, though. Once networking problems have been resolved, Pat will take on the job of restructuring what members refer to as 'CA-dom'. With more CAs than ever before trying to address the problems of an increasingly sophisticated collection of users, there are changes in CA structure and training that need to be made. No one doubts Pat's commitment to working with the CAs both on the individual and group levels to come up with a system that will lead to a more helpful and efficient computing environment for students.
The CAs have no complaints. How can you argue with anyone who regularly sends you positive-reinforcement mail filled with smileys - even when you've done more than your share of complaining for the week? Whether she's organizing and running CA meetings or lending a hand in the CHNC, Pat can be counted on for her helpful responses, upbeat disposition, and quick administrative thinking. Well, I guess it's hard to complain too much when you're a dead ringer for Courtney Cox - without the new hairdo, of course.