March 5, 1999 Calvin College Chimes
IN OTHER NEWS: Open house extended on Friday BOT approves Vice President for Student Life The core: final proposal Economics student earns graduate scholarship		NEW WEBMASTER TAKES THE TECHNOLOGICAL REINS Former webmaster Kyle VanderBeek moves on to California, Jeff Greenfield moves in to fill the vacancy By Nathan Vander Klippe NEWS EDITOR photo by McGarey Jeff Greenfield, the new webmaster, postmaster and systems engineer, calls his job “the perfect opportunity to get into the UNIX atmosphere.” Sitting in a cubicle straight out of the comic strip Dilbert, Jeff Greenfield relaxes behind his desk. Looking like the typical information age youth, Greenfield sits comfortably surrounded by three computers. Sporting a goatee, his energetic face is illuminated by a set of bright, confident eyes and an easy smile. A senior computer sciences major, Greenfield is Calvin’s new systems engineer, webmaster and postmaster. He took on the positions three weeks ago, after the departure of former webmaster Kyle VanderBeek. Twirling a whiteboard marker as he speaks, Greenfield details the various aspects of his job. The title of systems engineer is “basically a license to tinker with everything,” he said. “As webmaster, I take the standards and behind the scenes part of the website ­ all that jazz.” In his role as postmaster, Greenfield is in charge of the entire e-mail system on campus. Speaking about the various aspects of his new jobs, Greenfield admitted that “there is a much wider scope of stuff that falls inside my court than what I thought was going to be.” Even though he has had to drop all but one of his classes in order to make time for the full-time job, he was quick to add that “I’m loving it already ­ this is really a fun job.” The former systems engineer, webmaster and postmaster, Kyle VanderBeek, left recently for a new job in California after working for three years at Calvin. VanderBeek outlined several of the projects he worked on or coordinated while at Calvin. “For the web effort, I did all the programming necessary to add functionality to the site (like the online People search). In addition, I helped coordinate the layout of the site and direction for it.” He was also responsible for the maintenance of the majority of the software on the unix server, including the pine e-mail program. “I was kind of the designated ‘crack filler.’ This means that any really odd projects that popped up usually landed on my desk,” he said. “Like any system administrator, I hope I’ve left something of a mark on the systems and people I worked with, a legacy,” said VanderBeek. Asked what his motives were for leaving Calvin, VanderBeek responded: “Three years is a good amount of time to spend at any company, really. I had accomplished a ton and learned even more during my work at Calvin. It’s a marvelous place to work. “The core of my descision was that I needed an adventure,” said VanderBeek. “I’d spent too much time in one environment and had yet to experience working in a true business environment. So, I figured that while I was still young and mobile that I’d try something new and different.” VanderBeek is currently working for a startup company called Extricity, based in Redwood Shores, Calif. He described his new job as “a two-man version of all the functions that CIT has at Calvin.” Speaking about VanderBeek’s departure, Vice President for Information Services Henry De Vries said, “I think Kyle is missed for his professional skills and personality. He was a notable character.” De Vries explained the difficulty of holding on to skilled labour. “It’s typical in the information technology business that the biggest challenge is finding and keeping qualified employees ­ whether you’re a college or a business or a bank. There’s a tremendous market out there for people with those kinds of abilities,” he said. In order to find a qualified person to fill the gap left by VanderBeek’s departure, Calvin put advertisements in both the Grand Rapids Press and the calvin-news e-mail listserve. Three applicants responded, two of whom were interviewed. De Vries said that three main criteria were used in the selection process. “By virtue of the responsibility, we needed someone who had all the technical expertise ­ this person’s activity really depends on all the stuff behind the scenes.” The second criterion was to have someone who understood the college and how it works. Finally, De Vries said, “we needed someone who could work well with the rest of the community ­ this jobs has lots of interaction with students and faculty.” These criteria in mind, “we were really fortunate that Jeff brought all those skills with him,” he said. Greenfield has worked in the information technology sector for much of his life. Since his freshman year in college, he has worked at the Calvin Information Technology helpdesk. During the summer, he worked for a company in Minnesota as a Network Consultant for UPTime Computer Services, a position which involved “taking care of lots of small companies and their networks.” He also spent some time working for a retail computer store. Looking forward to the next few months, Greenfield said he is working on many projects. One of the more major projects on his agenda is switching over the e-mail package currently used by professors. The current package is so outdated, said Greenfield, that in a few years it may no longer work on the system. He also noted that “the home page might be changing in look soon.” VanderBeek, who worked with Greenfield for several weeks before he left, said, “When his name came up as a possible replacement, I was encouraged. He has always shown a curiosity about how things work that was encouraging; that will be a necessary skill in his new spot. It’s almost erie to think how much he is like me when I started.” Asked for any parting sentiments he might have, VanderBeek responded, “like any system administrator, I hope I’ve left something of a mark on the systems and people I worked with, a legacy.”
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