Death by Policy and Procedures

Just when I thought it was safe to come out of the woods - bang, archaic procedures have struck again.

This time around it relates to that most ubiquitous of items in a Computer Science Dept - a PC. It transpires that because I'm not staff (or as yet a PhD student), I am not entitled to use the staff network and thus literally had the PC that I was using taken off me. This has instead been replaced by a standalone PC with access to the physical network so that I can use the Internet, but no access to either the staff of student networks. In one fell swoop Sys Admin have taken away access to printers, file shares and indeed back-up routines. To top it all off, I have Admin rights on the XP boot, but virtual lockdown on the Linux boot - what use is this? I cannot even install custom Java libraries, which are essential for my research.

To state that I was annoyed when first presented with this situation is an understatement, but I must confess that the situation is becoming rather amusing. What will the Sys Admin team throw at me next?

I believe creativity is needed. The first step is to talk nicely to my old chums in the Biology Dept and get the necessary Java libraries installed on their PCs; although my summer placement is in Computer Science, it may be far more efficient to go back to Biology and squat in their PC labs. The second step may be to buy a laptop and side step all this nonsense entirely.

This University prides itself on being within the top 10 of the UK, and the Computer Science Dept within the top 5. Again I will ask the question - How is this acceptable?