The one person who’s single-handedly responsible for keeping eCampus running smoothly is Brant, our I.T. Technician. If there’s a “Most Popular” category in the department, Brant is the winner. His dog, Jackson, is runner-up.
A: I provide technical support to students, staff and faculty, and support any of UAF eCampus’ technical needs. This includes our modest server infrastructure which runs a variety of operating systems such as VMware, Linux and Windows. I also maintain the services that run on those servers such as websites, backup servers, file servers, and some servers that run scripts that help improve our needs at eCampus, which in turn hopefully helps others.
Q: How do you work with students?
A: I can provide them technical support in person, email, phone, Zoom, Teamviewer and other remote tools if needed. I prefer to set up an appointment at the student’s convenience so that I can provide enhanced support. This is when we are able to take the time to either use Zoom or Teamviewer to view what’s actually happening (see what they are seeing) on their system. I find that this is the most efficient and effective way to get to the bottom of what could be the issue and the fix if possible.
Q: How can students connect with you?
A: I can be contacted at bkschalk@alaska.edu or call 907-455-2085.
Q: What do you like about working at UAF eCampus?
A: I love the diversity of work I am exposed to. All within the same day, I can remotely help a student who is located outside of Fairbanks or even Alaska with their tech issue, or build a server that could fill a special need within our department.
Q: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: Plop me in New York City with a limitless credit card and tell me where the best pizza places are!
Q: What are your hobbies, and how did you get into them?
A: I like skiing, bike riding, 4-wheeling and snow machining. I enjoy getting to places less traveled out and around Fairbanks. I recently have been trying stand-up comedy. I got into comedy because my friends convinced me to give it a try. I love tweaking the joke by adding or taking away from it. All in the hopes of cracking myself up but others as well of course!
