Trenkelbach defends shut-down policy

By Melody Gustafson
EAST LIVERPOOL -- In an effort to cut energy costs and protect campus computers from viral invasion, KSU has instituted a "schedule task" that automatically shuts down all computers at 10 p.m.

According to Henry Trenkelbach, business manager, the university must comply with an unfunded mandate from the state of Ohio to cut energy costs by 20 percent by 2014. "We have to cut energy somehow, and we are wasting extra electricity with idyll computers," he said.

The newest crop of viruses that has been unleashed on the world are designed to begin destruction at a certain time, often during the night, and some even are information gatherers that report personal information and passwords back to the perpetrator, Trenkelbach said. He described a "configvirus" that is affecting users globally and professionals don't know how it works yet. "An idyll machine can contract a virus without the user surfing into a site," he said.

There has been some backlash from some faculty members about the change, but Trenkelbach dismisses the fuss as baseless resistance to change. Anyone who is working at the shut down time may simply restart a machine to continue working, and no one has reportedly lost any material because of it. "It doesn't make sense to leave the machines on," he said.

Trenkelbach reasoned further, saying: "We've had a rash of 20-30 power supplies go bad in the last year." It's a no-brainer to do the necessary steps to preserve the university's property.

Denise Fitzpatrick, computer lab technician, said that the mass power supply failure is probably due to the superfluous wear and tear from carelessly leaving machines on for no reason.