It’s a year full of changes on Simpson’s campus—that’s obvious. However, we feel that the Simpson students have negated the hard work that the faculty and staff have put in to get these changes rolling.

Yes, the lines outside of Pfeiffer Dining Hall suck around lunchtime, but Chartwells is still trying to acclimate to our campus. We are the smallest college that they have worked with so far. They have also started to offer the Hopper Grab-n-Go option, which shows that they are willing to listen to students’ needs and requests.

Email migration was a headache, but Information Services was working non-stop to get things up and running. When we leave late at night afterediting The Simpsonian, there’s typically at least one person still in Information Services hard at work.

When email went down last week, that wasn’t their fault—Microsoft’s server crashed, and they were on the phone with them until the problem got fixed. And it got fixed a lot faster than most technology issues get fixed.

If you have a problem with your email—go talk to them. Don’t just post on Facebook about how frustrated you are. Just sitting around and hoping the problem gets fixed won’t do anything—come down to Information Services in McNeill and talk with them. We promise they don’t bite. They’re really nice, and they’re all willing to help you. Just be patient with them, you’re not the only student that needs their assistance right now.

Now, the majority of students have migrated to the new my.simpson.edu in Outlook and the opportunities are endless. We’re able to interact easier, access Microsoft Light and we don’t get the pesky “Your Inbox is Getting Full” emails every other day.

Our new registrar, Jody Ragan, and her staff have been working tirelessly all summer to reformat the degree audits for students and faculty. The old degree audits? Hard to read, and who the heck knew when they were supposed to graduate—let alone if they were actually going to graduate. The new degree audits? Stoplight your way to the finish line—it’s easy to read and you know what classes you need without having dozens of questions. 

If you get the chance, go and thank some of those people who have been hard at work making your life at Simpson College easier this year. They will appreciate knowing that somebody on this campus understands the difficulties they’ve been experiencing to make Simpson a better place.