November 9, 2007

Late-Night Stress on the IT Help Desk

By DAN CARNEVALE

Pressed to provide technology help in the wee hours, many colleges turn to outside vendors

It is just after 2 a.m. on a Tuesday here when a frantic student calls Brian P. Woodward from a college on the West Coast. She cannot log into her online course, and she has an assignment due by midnight, Pacific time. That's in less than an hour.

"If I don't turn it in by midnight," the student pleads, "it doesn't count."

Mr. Woodward is a customer-service representative at

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