"Is the idea that most of those students won't be there in 2-4 years a big hindrance to this approach?"
Yes. That's always the excuse in my experience, even when it doesn't make any sense. At my previous university job, my department used an ancient—and I really mean ancient—shopping cart system. This thing had been written in ColdFusion during the mid-90s and they were still running it in 2009. It required all kinds of hand-holding and manual labor that should've otherwise been automated. Even though the original (outsourced) developer had long since disappeared, management refused to consider a new shopping cart. Why?
"Because we can't risk losing the person who sets it up."
There are no words. I chalk up the attitude to extreme, unhealthy risk-aversion.
I wish more people were required to take a logic course before getting to work at a university.
They've already lost the person who set it up - there's zero "risk" involved - it already happened. The world didn't end. But life is painful for many people because of the current system.
Yes. That's always the excuse in my experience, even when it doesn't make any sense. At my previous university job, my department used an ancient—and I really mean ancient—shopping cart system. This thing had been written in ColdFusion during the mid-90s and they were still running it in 2009. It required all kinds of hand-holding and manual labor that should've otherwise been automated. Even though the original (outsourced) developer had long since disappeared, management refused to consider a new shopping cart. Why?
"Because we can't risk losing the person who sets it up."
There are no words. I chalk up the attitude to extreme, unhealthy risk-aversion.