By Donald H. Harrison
EL CAJON, California–Of course administrators and faculty members at Grossmont College are smart, but they aren’t always very technically minded. Some of them, you’ll forgive the expression, are “klutzes” when it comes to the computers and audio-visual equipment that are on the “smart carts” in some 150 classrooms on the campus. But no worry, that’s where David Steinmetz, the unflappable instructional media services coordinator, comes in.
Call him to fix a problem, even if it’s three minutes before a full-blown crisis, and he’ll come right over, check it out, and declare “it’s a piece of cake” — his favorite expression. According to Kerry Kilber, Grossmont’s dean of learning and technology resources, Steinmetz usually can fix a problem immediately. If he can’t, says Steinmetz with a self-deprecating shrug, there’s always the option of replacing the equipment with a spare and taking the defective equipment back to his shop for a full analysis. “It’s no big deal,” he says.
Sometimes the “defect” lies with the instructor instead of the equipment. Some of us (I teach journalism at Grossmont) haven’t learned how to work all the high-tech machines with which the classrooms are equipped. Some of us even forget that machines have to be plugged in, or that the power button on the “smart cart’s’ remote device is the only one that’s red and has the word “power” on it.
Steinmetz, however, makes no such mistakes. He says that since he was a child, even younger than bar mitzvah age, he’s been the one in the house who could make the TV work, or hook up the cable box. “I was always fooling with audio-video stuff,” he said. He came to Grossmont as a student in 1992 after graduating from Crawford High School, near the old 54th Street Jewish Community Center, and except for a year at San Diego State University taking upper division classes, he has never left the community college.
He was employed on a work-study program while attending as a student, and chose to work with audio video equipment. Initially, he was assigned simple tasks like delivering tapes and videos to classrooms, and checking equipment in and out, but eventually he became known around the campus both for his expertise and can-do attitude. He was hired on permanently. When the head of the department, Val Eskridge, retired in 2008, Steinmetz was chosen to succeed him.
“Dave is the guy” who gets called “when there’s some kind of crisis in the classroom or at an event,” says Kilber. “He comes right away, and he will be calm, and it will be a ‘piece of cake.'”
Asked about memorable moments, it wasn’t some high-pressure repair job, or mega-installation of audio-visual equipment that came immediately to Steinmetz’s memory. Instead, he recalled an incident when a skunk wandered into his work area while he and some fellow Grossmont employees were sharing some pizza. The skunk nonchalantly went into Eskridge’s office, and Steinmetz and his companions closed the door behind the critter. Then they went around the building to an outside window, climbed in, laid out a trail of “crazy bread” from Little Caesar’s Restaurant and got the skunk to leave the building through a back door without giving off its scent.
As of now, Steinmetz may have some other memorable moments.
On April 10, Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Chancellor Cindy L. Miles led a conga line, including staff members banging percussion instruments, through the campus to Steinmetz’s office to present him with a surprise employee-of-the-quarter award that recognized not only his ability to maintain campus equipment but also his prescience in anticipating audio-visual needs during the recent period of campus construction and renovation.
According to Kilber, keeping Steinmetz in his office for the surprise, instead of out on campus fixing someone’s machine somewhere, required a bit of a conspiracy. A fellow staff member made a specific appointment to meet Steinmetz at his office at the secret time for the ceremony.
When the conga line came his way, “I thought they were going to the graphics department,” Steinmetz said. “I didn’t think they were coming for me.”
On Tuesday evening, April 17, the trustees of the community college district took formal cognizance of Steinmetz, listening to a recitation of his accomplishments and congratulating him on his award at their board meeting.
The board meeting was an occasion when trustees might have served Steinmetz a “piece of cake.” The trouble is he’s diabetic and has to stay away from sweets.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com