If you’ve ever made a call on campus or breathed a sigh of relief when your Teams meeting actually connected, there’s a good chance you’ve benefited from the behind-the-screens magic of David Mahaffey. David has been keeping Illinois connected since 2019 as a senior application support specialist, and in that time, he’s helped support everything from everyday Teams calls to one of the university’s most beloved traditions: Dial-a-Carol.
What do you do, and what impact does your role bring to campus?
I am a senior application support specialist. I am part of a team that supports all Internet communications for the U of I. We support chat, video conferencing, and telephone service for the university. One of the biggest accomplishments in my role has been the transition from Skype for Business to Teams. (Read about the 2023 Skype-to-Teams transition).
Best tech tip?
Have you tried restarting the application or PC? Restarting a PC solved a problem recently when I got a phone call at 11 p.m. saying the university contact center was down. Turns out the problem was the PC microphone wasn’t working. They had done all the basic troubleshooting except for restarting the PC. Restarting it did the job!
You support the university’s Dial-a-Carol. Tell us about it!
Open 24 hours a day, University Housing’s Dial-a-Carol gives anyone in the world the opportunity to call our campus and hear live people caroling any requested song.
Dial-a-Carol has been going on since 1960. I started working with them in 2020 when Dial-a-Carol began using the contact center software that I help support. We provide telephone service for Snyder Hall, which is the dorm that has hosted Dial-a-Carol since 1960. The students use our contact center software to receive and track calls. I work with their local IT person, Brett Poling, to get recordings set up for pre-season and post-season. And then, when caroling begins, the carolers are there to sing live 24 hours a day. Last year there were over 10,000 calls to Dial-a-Carol. The students do this during finals week; maybe it helps them to de-stress?
What does Dial-a-Carol mean to you?
When I first started helping with Dial-a-Carol, it was 2020 in the heat of COVID, they did not want to break the tradition that started in 1960. To keep it going, the students individually pre-recorded 10 of the most requested holiday songs so that callers could choose a carol and hear it being sung. It was nice to be able to help with a solution to keep the tradition going. Also, when I was a child, I remember calling up and hearing a carol. This was back when walkie-talkies were the only means of wireless communication, and every phone call had a cost, so being able to make a call was a big deal. Just few years later (NOT decades later), when I found out I would be helping support Dial-a-Carol, I thought it was kind of cool to be on the other side.
How can I dial this season, and which days will it be available?
The number is 217-332-1882. Dial-a-Carol begins at Thursday, December 11 at 12:01 a.m. and ends on December 17, 11:59 P.M.
Finish the sentence: I am an expert in…
Procrastination. I’ll explain after the holidays!
“Behind the Screens” is a series of stories highlighting a different member of Technology Services each month so that you can get to know who we are and what we do for our university.