Inside Campus Partners

Bill Witt
December 2003

Bill Witt
Network Administrator

Bill Witt, Network Administrator for Campus Partners, is a busy man who likes to stay in the background. Bill is responsible for providing support for our servers and our internal network, which includes administration of our two Web sites, myamsloan.com and amsservicing.com. Bill also designs and implements the server architecture for any new systems or software we deploy and evaluates software for possible purchase.

In addition, Bill creates drives or folders on our internal network, which allow staff to access information that they need while protecting other information, and he helps maintain our e-mail file system. He also maintains multiple test environments, which allows our staff to ensure any new software or changes will work in our customer’s offices.

On an ordinary workday, Bill reviews all server logs to make sure our IT infrastructure is still functioning properly, gathers statistics on Web site use by our customers, and proactively reviews information on the Web to obtain the most recent information about server enhancements, patches, and software upgrades. Occasionally, he might be called on to help staff with hardware or software issues if other efforts have failed.

What do all of these activities mean to our staff and our customers? Without Bill’s continued oversight, our staff members would turn on their computers and see a blank screen. Our customers would not be able to log on to WebConnect, and both our borrowers and customers would be greeted with “file not found” messages when they tried to connect to our Web sites. In short, there would be no way to access and share information.

Although his role is vital to our company, Bill has very little direct contact with our customers. However, he is always willing to talk to them if necessary. He prides himself on being able to communicate well with non-technical staff as well as IT professionals. In fact, his openness and down to earth communication style are probably two of his greatest strengths in dealing with staff and customers. He does not intimidate people who have questions, but limited IT backgrounds. Through listening and applying his knowledge, he is able to resolve their issues.

A generally self-deprecating man, Bill enjoys the challenge of “accomplishing the unaccomplishable.” He takes pride in delivering results within budget and meeting deadlines. Characteristic of his direct approach, Bill says he “likes things to work well” and is driven by this desire. “My goal is to work to the best of my ability. I may not be able to control many things in life, but I can control that. It makes me feel good about what I do,” Bill relates.

Bill has worked in the IT field for many years, first as a civilian employee with the Air Force and later as a Systems Engineer with both the New York and New England Yellow Pages. He moved South after tiring of long New England winters and came to work for our company in 1999. He is originally from California and has an A.A.S. in Electronic Engineering. He is also a former Marine.

That Marine training probably comes in handy at home. He and his wife, Dee, have four children ranging in age from 9 to 13. They home school their three sons and one daughter, and the family is very involved in the 4-H Club, which provides a social outlet for the children. Bill helps the club with their Web page and computers.

Beyond work and family obligations, Bill has little time for hobby’s or other interests. He does like to read, and the Lord of the Rings is one of his favorite books. He likes the Tolkien books because they deal with the struggle between good and evil and show how people respond to temptation. As a man who stays buried behind the scenes and struggles to maintain the integrity of our data, he can probably identify with those Tolkien characters.