Within the past few years, technology has made life easier for many college students. However, when certain parts of said technol­ogy are not functioning exactly as desired, issues arise that cause complete and utter frustration for many users.

Luckily, at Wayne State College, there is a staff of 17 individuals who are on the job to take these issues into consideration and work to improve the technology of the college. An example of this improvement is WSC’s recent resource of providing email to smartphones.

About 15 years ago, eCampus was introduced to WSC in order to make the lives of students a bit more functional in the ever-chang­ing world. Ever since this time, the staff, located in the Campus Ser­vices building, Hahn, and Connell Hall, has been working to keep the site up to date and functional with device changes.

Each Spring, students are reminded to take the Educause Student IT Use Survey that helps the staff in this department know what devices they should be basing eCampus changes on and how they can estimate future improve­ments that may take more time.

Ac­cording to Chief Infor­mation Officer John Dun­ning, based on the last few surveys, WSC’s infor­mation technol­ogy (IT) services has decided it is time to work on eCampus’ responsive web design. In other words, the major change that will soon be coming about to eCampus is its ability to iden­tify the size of the device it is being used on and adjust the page accordingly.

This means no more zooming in and out and adjusting the page in order to read emails, assign­ments or anything else students may use eCampus for.

This improve­ment has already been applied to WSC’s homepage and has made the navigation of the site much easier.

Students also have available the option of setting up their student e-mail accounts on their smart­phones. Through the Network and Technology Services (NATS) help page on wsc.edu, the process is simple, pain­less and helpful in receiving email updates in an easier and more direct manner.

Wildcats On­line has also been updated to make the processes of registration, financial aid and other academic matters easier to deal with. The financial aid portion now has a communica­tions option that informs students of “to-do” lists, refund check no­tices and award notices.

Dunning said the informa­tion technology department has much more in store for WSC in the near future. He said that he has heard many con­cerns and ideas across campus and he assures every­one that these are taken into careful consid­eration, as they are trying to keep costs low while providing great technology.

“We must thread that needle re­sponsibly,” Dunning said. “It may not be the perfect solution, but it’s cost effective and we are meeting students where they’re at.”

At this time, Dunning also said that his department is welcom­ing input from students as to how they want to be interacted with. The idea has been presented of introducing a better way of sending notifications to students across campus, but they are unsure of the best way to go about this process as of now.

One of the best way students can communicate their technology needs to the college is through the Educause survey mentioned ear­lier. It may be a tedious task, but it has the potential to make a giant difference in the way technology at WSC is improved.

Dunning suggests that students take the time to explore the way that WSC’s technology has been updated and to ask questions if they have any. The technology at WSC is meant to make the college experience a better one, so it is important to take initiative and help campus to serve you, your peers and the generations to come even better.