Tom Shakely said things at the Lion 90.7 radio station run like a "three-ring circus." That could be because he has had to jump through some hoops lately -- obstacles Shakely said have been set up by the Division of Student Affairs Information Technology (SAIT).
Shakely, an on-air personality at the Penn State radio station, said he has been after SAIT since August to activate Ethernet ports, put 10 to 12 computers on a single network and activate the 100-member station's usernames and passwords, to name a few tasks.
As of now, if one of the 100-member crew wants to log onto one of the five computers located in the actual station, one of four officers has to log them in.
Officers are also the only ones who can add music tracks.
The station currently has 15,000 tracks. Advertisements made in the production room must be transferred to the station with a USB drive instead of automatically being moved over the radio station's Intranet network.
Regardless, the station, located by the HUB-Robeson Center fish tanks, has continued to service its community and uphold its FCC obligations to the best of its ability. So what's the problem if the station can still operate?
The money -- about $20,000 -- to pay for some of the new equipment that is now collecting dust, came in part from the student activity fee.
"This is the student activity fee at work," Shakely said.
A portion of the $68 activity fee that every student dished out this semester goes to UPAC -- the University Park Allocation Committee. UPAC, in turn, distributes that money to student groups for equipment and other supplies.
Other members of the station and Shakely have been in an e-mail correspondence with SAIT to activate the equipment but with little success, Shakely said.
James Moore, SAIT director, said "some of it" has been addressed -- but not much more than an office computer that was activated before Thanksgiving break.
"If there's something that hasn't been done, they can send me an e-mail that says 'A, B and C isn't done,' and we'll work on it," he said.
Shakely said that hasn't happened. He and other members of the station have been in an e-mail correspondence with various SAIT workers and the general help@sa.psu.edu address to have these problems alleviated; however, little progress has been made, he said.
IT said this is because the e-mails sent about these requests were not sent from a psu.edu e-mail address and went to the junk folder.
But Shakely said he doesn't entirely believe that.
"It's disingenuous of them to say 'the reason we didn't get back to you is because you're not sending mail from a PSU account,' " Shakely said.
Michael Walsh, a Lion 90.7 alumnus, still helps the station through the alumni interest group. He said he has sent IT e-mails for the past four or five years since he's graduated from a hotmail account and his own domain and received replies at both addresses.
"As far as I know, that's something they made up on the spot," Walsh said. "They're just picking and choosing."
Shakely said people in the IT field told him these operations, namely activating Ethernet ports, would take about 15 minutes to complete.
"All they'd need to do is flip a switch," Shakely said.
Moore said his office, which is located directly across the street from the HUB in Boucke Building, has received e-mails from station members, but that he wasn't personally "privy to the conversations."
