Steen says he has reorganized his staff inorder to make them more efficient and better ableto cope with the daily demands placed upon HASCS.

Because keeping the network and systems up is a24-hour a day job, being a HASCS employee can bemore stressful than any other position in theUniversity.

Last year, staff complained that morale waslow. Ouchark said he began his workdays aroundnoon and didn't leave the Science Center until 6a.m., when he got breakfast at MacDonald's.

But he says that HASCS and his sleep have bothimproved under Steen.

"Are there some days when I go to MacDonald'sfor breakfast?" he asks. "Sure, but much lessoften."

Instead of working 80 hours in good week,Ouchark says he now works 50 to 55 hours a week.

"In general, we're functioning," Steen says."We're working hard, getting something done."

"I don't believe morale is low," he says. "Ithink in some cases people aren't 100 percenthappy, but we have to keep an eye out for the badnews and deal with that."

Ouchark agrees that morale is better.

"Things have definitely improved. The peoplethat are within the group now are the same buttheir [responsibilities] have changed," he says.

"We are a service organization," Steen says,indicating that HASCS is shifting its focus to bemore responsive to users' concerns.

"Personally I'm impressed with the changes theymade," said David A. Sherwood' 95, a former userassistant (UA) for HASCS. "I think they becamemuch more responsive to the Harvard community bothin terms of attention they pay to user assistanceas well as the overall upgrading of the hardware."

Steen says HASCS has chosen to place a lot ofemphasis on its user assistance.

"We are trying to offer better round-the-clocksupport," Steen says.

Steen says that HASCS has increased both thetraining and the number of UAs.