From: ellis@nova.gmi.edu (Stew Ellis)
Subject: UNIX Sysadmin, GMI (Eng. College), Flint,MI (tight deadline)
Keywords: UNIX, Sysadmin, Academic, TCP/IP, SE MI
Organization: GMI Engineering&Management Institute, Flint, MI
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 17:46:18 GMT

Thu Aug 20 09:16:22 EDT 1992

The following is NOT an official posting of GMI.  The job was advertised in
the local Flint paper and on a bulletin board in the Campus Center lobby at
GMI.  I was told that the job was to be advertised in Detroit, Ann Arbor and
Lansing, but I do not know whether it was.  I am posting this as an
individual concerned faculty member and 10-year member of the Academic
Computer Committee.  I am also President of the Faculty Senate.  I apologize
for the tightness of my publishing this to the deadline, but I have been
extremely busy.  Better late than not at all.

For people out of the general southeast Michigan area, you may have to make
a case for why you should be considered for a position that was posted
locally.  This may include willingness on your part to present yourself for
an interview with no hope of reimbursement.

GMI Engineering & Management Institute, 1700 W. Third Avenue, Flint, MI
48504-4898 has the following open position:

JOB TITLE:  Programmer Analyst
JOB CLASSIFICATION:  Professional IV
DEPARTMENT:  Computer Center
SUPERVISOR:  Walter Arntson

The closing date for the position is 4:30 PM, tomorrow, Friday, August 21,
1992.  The application requires that hardcopy resumes or applications be
submitted, but I have been told by someone in the personnel department that
FAXes received by that time, followed by hardcopy as quickly as possible
will be accepted.  For more information contact:
  Ms. Sandra Abbe, Coordinator of Employment (313)762-9891

The mailing address for applications:
  GMI Engineering & Management Institute
  Personnel Services Department
  1700 W. Third Avenue
  Flint, MI  48504-4898

The FAX number is (313)762-9807
  Please note that this number serves all administrative offices at GMI, so
  you must make it attention to the personnel department.

I have typed the following job description verbatim from the job posting
that was up on campus.  The ad I saw in the FLINT JOURNAL classified ads was
much less specific.

--------------begin job description ---------------

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

-Manage UNIX System; install, test, maintain system and user software.
-Responsible for hardware uptime.
-Document all installed hardware and software setups and problems.
-Assist faculty, staff and students on the Unix System.
-Develop and present training classes for users.
-Train a backup system manager.
-Assist with PC and Novell support.
-Perform other related duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

_REQUIRED_

-Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field.
-One to three (1-3) years experience with Unix, preferably as a system
   manager.
-Ability to work independently and resolve problems in a timely manner.
-Excellent oral and written communication skills.
-Ability and desire to interact effectively with users.

_PREFERRED_

-Internet experience
-Experience with SUN Unix and DEC and HP Unix.
-Teaching/training experience.
-Experience with I-DEAS software under Unix.
-Novell system management experience.
-Experience with Autocad, Wordperfect and Borland Software under Novell.

-------------end job description-------------

Again, I must stress that this is not an official posting.

Some of the faculty believe that the job should have been posted at a more
senior level.  My own preference would have been for 5-8 years of UNIX
experience, at least 3 of sysadmin, including advanced TCP/IP capabilities.
I have been assured by the Assistant Dean that if a suitable candidate with
better qualifications applies there is a possibility of appointment even at
the Associate Director or Assistant Director level.  At least Senior
Programmer Analyst is possible, because that is the level of the person who
left.  I will very likely be involved in the screening process, or will be
working with (an)other faculty member(s) who are.  Although salaries are not
even public by levels, I have strong reason to believe that a person who
meets the minimum requirements in the ad would receive c. $25,000, plus very
good health benefits and retirement plan (TIAA-CREF) after a probation
period.  GMI employees also are able to enroll in the graduate programs that
we offer.  One Senior Programmer Analyst received his MSMM in June, and the
Director and a Programmer Analyst are currently enrolled.  For someone with
an engineering background, the MSE would also be a possibility.  I believe
the person being replaced was paid in the low to mid $30's.  If a higher
level is possible, I am not really sure what that would be.  High $30's to
low $40's??

For people who are not familiar with GMI, it is a private college previously
owned by General Motors, independent since 1982.  We offer bachelor's
degrees in ME, EE, IE, MSE (Manufacturing Systems Engineering), Management
and Applied Mathematics, plus a video-based Master's of Science in
Manufacturing Management (over 600 graduates in 10 years) and Master's of
Science in Engineering (first graduates this past June).  The undergraduate
students are, as much as possible, all employed with several hundred of the
top corporations in the US and Canada.  Some students are employed in
Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Germany, ?.  Ideally, modulo economic conditions,
all of our undergraduate students alternate 3-month terms at work and at
school from the beginning of their Freshman year until they graduate.  There
are c. 2,600 undergrads, with half on campus at any time.  There are c. 130
faculty and a total of 400 employees.

Our academic computing environment consists of:
  Sun 4/490 server with 8+G of IPI disk, planned upgrade to 4/6xx
    2-processor, and 4G more disk
  One terminal lab with 40 vt{3|2|3}00 terminals and HPLJII printer
  Xyplex terminal clusters (mostly E-net, some linear coax) tying the
    terminals to the server, providing print spooling to the HP and 6 dialup
    modems (currently only 2400 baud)
  Two public general purpose PC labs with about 14 or 15 386 VGA PC's each,
    served by an Everex cube server running Novell Netware 3.11
  One 486 lab (16 machines) with video distribution system for displaying
    the instructor's monitor image between every two student stations.  This
    lab, while not completely dedicated to teaching Autocad, has been
    optimized for that purpose, including its own Netware server.
  One public Sun workstation lab that currently consists of 8 SS2GX's and 2
    IPC's.  Purchase orders have been signed for 8 or so SS10's for the lab
    so that by the start of our Fall academic term the lab will have 16 SS2
    or better machines, half with GS(?) graphics.  The IPC's will most
    likely be made available to UNIX support staff in the CC, only one of
    whom currently has an IPC or anything except a PC or vt220.  This lab
    has a SparcPrinter.  The PO also included a head for the 4/490 which
    would probably be the workstation for the person who gets this job.
    (How about that, a 4/690 workstations with 12G of disk!).
  Faculty Development Workroom with one SS2GX and one IPC, with
    SparcPrinter, HPLJII, HP E size plotter, and small CalComp color
    printer.  There is also a faculty member's personal SS1+ Mono
    workstation in this room.  There is PC system in this room that is a
    mirror of the PC's permanently installed in the three Computer Aided
    Instruction Classrooms listed below.  This system also has attached to
    it a Sony VHS deck, a video copy stand, a laserdisc player, a
    slide-to-video projector and a video monitor.  We had a 486 and HP
    Scanjet stolen from this room two months ago, which have not been
    replaced, although the replacements have been authorized.
  Three CAI classrooms, one our main auditorium (3-400 seats?), with Sony
    1271 projection systems.  Each of these has a lectern with a 486 PC with
    Cardinal Snap+ video card (video capture and out, with control for the
    Sony VHS deck), Sony VHS deck, video copy stand, and additional inputs
    for an additional video source, VGA, Sun workstation, Macintosh.
  One EE lab with 3 IPC's and a SparcPrinter.
  Personal faculty workstations:  1 SS1+ already mentioned, 2 IPC's, 1 ELC,
    2 DEC 5000/240's, 1 HP color 68040 of some sort.  Several others of us
    are scheming to get our own office workstations.
  Numerous secretaries and faculty and staff with PC's.
  We are currently installing a $270,000 fiber-optic backbone with 10base2
    distribution to all academic offices.  The fiber backbone will stub to
    the administrative phone closets and the freshman dorm to allow future
    expansion of the enet and possible video distribution.  This should be
    up by the end of September.  It was designed and is being installed by
    EDS.  While all of the above-mentioned labs and most of the offices are
    currently networked, the new network should make a major improvement to
    our network's reliability.
  There is also a VAX 8530 used by the administration to keep student
    records.  This is tied to the Sun 4/490 with Sun's DNI product for email
    and remote logins.
  The PC's can connect to the TCP/IP network with CUTCP over packet drivers. 

We are tied to the Internet at 56K.  Currently we have an almost saturated
class C address and are being told that we can increase our capacity by
adding additional class C network spaces.  While I believe this may be
possible, I am lobbying to get us upgraded to a class B because it will be
easier to administer.  We have had some security problems with outside
intruders cracking in and need some expertise to deal with all of these
issues.

Right now the amount of UNIX and Internetworking expertise in the Computer
Center is very low.  The director and two of the Programmer Analysts have
been to one intro to Sun class, one of the PA's has been to Sun's intro to
sys admin class but has not kept up with it because of other duties.  No one
has been to NFS or NIS or TCP/IP training.  I would say that I am the most
knowledgeable person on those topics, and I have not had any training on
those topics either.  I did help manage a lab network using OSI and Xenix
for several years, but I have learned everything I know about TCP/IP
networking trying to help the person who this job is replacing.  (He was no
more knowledgeable than the remaining staff).  I am the one who finally
figured out how to get DNS and NFS to work together, and how to get
sendmail.cf configured so that Internet, DNI and BITNET mail all get
delivered properly with their headers intact.  We are not currently doing
UUCP or SLIP.  We have one upperclass student in CS from UofM-Flint, who is
probably also applying for this job, who is very good at digging things
out.  He may be the only exception to the following statements:
  No one in the CC, including the departed sysadmin, thinks of UNIX as their
  primary operating environment, or even as a general-purpose computing
  environment.  No one in the computer center thinks of C as their primary
  programming language.  No one in the CC does any shell programming.  Only
  one of the PA's has done any significant C programming.  Only one of the
  PA's really would self-identify as a "programmer".  No one, including the
  departed sysadmin, has any experience in an Internetworked UNIX shop,
  particularly a college or university shop with those foci.  No one in the
  CC has brought up any network applications that I can remember ( I have
  installed nn, tin, xv, elm, jove, bootp, kermit, less, gnuplot, perl,
  mtools, gmake, tcsh, zsh, bash, mush, NCAR xgks, xlock as a getty
  replacement, cops, crack, a number of xtoys(roach, neko, engine, debt,
  sidtool); other faculty have done the same for emacs, ftptool, xvgr,
  olvwm, TeX, and a few others).

As should be obvious by the above statement, we are in need of a good
person, who in turn should have quite a bit of room to make his or her stamp
on the organization.  We have a long way to go, but a new president who is
very intent on increasing our computer and lab investments.  We also have
strategic relationships with EDS and an alum who is VP of Manufacturing at
Sun.

For those who have read this far, but who have reservations about Flint, a
few words.  I have lived in small towns in Oklahoma, in Charleston, SC,
Santa Fe, NM, Denver, CO.  On the whole I find the Flint suburbs and many
areas of Flint very livable.  We have several colleges, a very nice Cultural
District (library, planetarium, Sloan Museum, art museum, performing arts
school, large and small theaters), very affordable housing ($50,000 for 1500
sq.ft.  in decent neighborhoods in Flint, $100,000 for 1800 sq.ft. in the
suburbs).  We are 45-50 miles from Lansing, A^2, Port Huron, 60 to 70 miles
from Detroit and Saginaw Bay.  The south suburbs of Flint are increasingly
part of the north Detroit commuter zone.  We are closer to the Palace, Pine
Knob, and the Silverdome than many people in Detroit.

I know this is very late, but I hope something I have said here will push
someone over the edge to apply.

I would appreciate it if anyone who applies after reading this would send me
email that you have applied, so I can look for your materials when the
screening starts next week.


--
--                                                        ___________________
  R.Stewart(Stew) Ellis, Assoc.Prof., (Off)313-762-9765  /   _____  ______ 
  Humanities & Social Science,  GMI Eng.& Mgmt. Inst.   /        / /  /  / /
  Flint, MI 48504      ellis@nova.gmi.edu              /________/ /  /  / /
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