Invasion of Privacy: CIT help desk manager Rose Mournighan

Photo courtesy of Rose Mournighan

As finals season approaches, be sure to utilize the newly opened library for study sessions, and feel free to see Rose Mournighan and others at the CIT help desk with any questions!

Rose Mournighan is the Helpdesk Coordinator/IT Support Professional at SUNY Geneseo. Mournighan has worked at Geneseo since May 2023. She explained how she first got involved with computing & information technology (CIT) at Geneseo: “I went to the University of Rochester, and part of that was managing a student IT help desk for the IT department, but that was for $15 an hour.” Mournighan continues, “During my time at the University of Rochester, I fell in love with Student Affairs and working with kids.” A friend and fellow manager at the University of Rochester scouted for the CIT help desk job and told Mournighan she would be a perfect fit. 

I asked Mournighan if she believed the campus had welcomed her as best as possible, “Oh, absolutely. I love it here. The campus has been very, very welcoming.” Mournighan explained, “I am from rural Georgia, so as someone who is as visibly queer as me walks into a small town such as Geneseo, it can, you know, be a little uneasy, but nothing but open arms.”

A large part of working at Geneseo is the relationship with the student CIT workers. “I get to teach my students how to become good, not only in customer service but also in technical skills that have just been really, really rewarding.” When asked Mournighan if she would consider herself an educator, she responded, “Yes, very much. I mean, I'm getting my graduate degree in higher education. I'm not a teacher, but I am an educator.”

Though Mournighan appreciates all of her staff, she reflects on the overwhelming majority being women. She stated, “Working in IT and having an almost entirely non-male staff is unheard of, like even on a campus like Geneseo, where the gender of balance is skewed, that is still wildly out of proportion, most of the people who applied were like women, and so that has honestly been a great part of the experience.” This was not intentionally done, of course, but it is important to celebrate women in the IT field, as they are often underrepresented.

Mournighan explained that helping the faculty and staff can be a bit different than helping students: “When you are working with a lot of faculty and staff on a college campus, sometimes the user base skews a bit older, and all of us have had to help.”  Mournighan jokes, “You know, ‘help grandma set up her iPad.’ And sometimes that can be difficult, but just like any other customer service position, it's something you have to come in with empathy and understanding.”

In many cases, IT is more complex than a broken computer. “You're trying to fix this person's computer. This is their life. Just coming at it from that angle, IT really helps calm down the situation.” Mournighan says, “I’m an educator, so when I'm fixing someone's computer, I'm not just like, ‘Oh, here's your fixed computer.’ Let me explain what I'm doing. You won't be able to do this on your own, but at least you understand what's going on, so you don't feel left out, and there's at least a little bit more context there.”

Now that the HelpDesk has been moved to the new Milne building, Mournighan remarked that “I love the view. Even if I don't have a direct view of the outside, I don't think I'll ever get sick of just looking over the Genesee Valley like that.” She believes IT is very important to have a fully functioning library available to students and staff, especially since COVID-19,  “Just having a nice centralized place is very, very helpful, because ever since COVID-19, there's been, I feel like, across the world, a cultural shift where people have become a lot more, like isolated, like insular, and I feel like [the new library] really brings the campus community together.”

For Mournighan, the relationship between her and the students has been critical; whether these students move on to doing IT later in life or not, they still have these experiences. “I don't see working in CIT as training anyone to be in the tech field in the future. This is very much customer service skills. It helps to build that relationship with these students when you get to know them on that personal level and helps facilitate these connections because these skills translate nearly everywhere. So just knowing how to have this good connection with your students, your peers, even your boss, like, with them, to me, just really helps set you up, no matter where you end up going.” 

Mournighan wants students to know that they can feel free to reach out. “I feel like one of the things that a lot of people know CIT for is fixing, and then also renting out laptops.” While this is true, CIT also has temporary laptops that people can borrow while doing repairs, and they provide access to various other services and technologies. “We also do so much more than that. We have a bunch of adapters, projectors, cameras, and microphones.” If you are looking for something, feel free to ask! Mournighan explains, “I feel although a lot of people are very intimidated to talk to CIT, the worst we can do is say ‘we can't do this, but these other places that can help you with this resource.’”

“We're here to help. And so I feel like people knowing that we are just a bunch of friendly faces and not a bunch of basement-dwelling nerds is very important.”