“I’ve been waiting for an eternity . . . !”

That’s what it can feel like when you’re working in the Commons and waiting on a computer to log-on. However, there’s a very good reason for the wait. We recently spoke with OIT representative who let us know that the long log-in times are caused mainly by all of the profiles that must be built when a student logs-in, plus the 120GB of software that must load. “The profile issue happens because the computers are running security software that puts the machines back into a ‘clean’ state as if no one has logged into the machine (similar to setting up a new machine and logging-in for the first time). OIT is trying multiple strategies to improve everything about this process, and we hope that students will see these changes as they are implemented over the next few months. As for the quantity of software, OIT is currently working on solutions to move some of the larger applications to the Apps server, which will reduce the amount of software loaded locally.”

We know this won’t alleviate the frustration of today’s slow log-in. But now you know why there’s a wait and that OIT is working on a solution.