Academic schools usually allocate the resources to hire local staff. Some faculty spend a considerable amount of time not only setting up their own computing environment as needed, but helping fellow faculty as well. Graduate students are often pressed into service as computer administrators and consultants, as are undergraduates and staff with non-computing classifications. UCI spends considerably more on computing support than might be indicated by adding up the salaries of all support staff. The IST currently sponsors meetings among the computing support staff and another series of meetings among academic lab managers.
Help desks A critical support point is the help desk.
A help desk is intended to resolve routine needs quickly, be well informed regarding other support points, and be able to connect users with those support points when the issue at hand is not routine. Several units maintain help desks. These help desks work together to some extent, but it is not clear that such working together has been made a formal job expectation. Help desks are costly to maintain, and finding people with the right combination of interpersonal and technical skills is a challenge. Sometimes units choose to expand their help desk availability with student employees.