Many a prospective Marathon player has skipped happily through the corridors of the UESC Marathon, until they reach the dreaded bottleneck of Jason Jones' switch puzzle torture, and they never pick up the game again. Ive seen it happen too many times. To remedy this, I present to you an easy guide to timing the switches so you can get through this level easily. Do know that you should have a stopwatch on hand, in order to properly time the switches.
TLDR: For the first three pillars take the number of the pillar and keep the switch on for that many seconds. For the last three pillars do (in ascending order) 15 seconds, 14 seconds, 13 seconds, and shoot the eastern wall switch to raise pillar 4 when standing on it.

Located on the lowest control center, throw on the switch and let the pillar ascend for just one second before hitting the switch again.

Located on the lowest control center, throw on the switch and let the pillar ascend for two seconds before hitting the switch again.

The first control center you will presumably come across, and located in the center height and width wise. Throw the switch for pillar 3 for (you guessed it) three seconds.

When you have all the pillars in place, ascend the steps till you stand on pillar four. Look to the eastern wall and you will see a button on the wall, which you must hit with a charged fusion shot or a grenade. When the pillar goes up enough, continue your stairway climb.

While still in the central control room, throw the switch on for pillar five, allowing the pillar to move for 15 seconds before switching it off. The pillar should ascend completely and then begin descending in this time frame.

In the highest control room, throw the switch on and imitate the procedure for pillar five, but this time wait for 14 seconds instead of 15.

Still in the upper control center, repeat the procedure for pillar 7 but this time wait 13 seconds instead of 14.

After ascending the stair case, clear out the bugs and then stand on the grated stairwell looking thing. Fire grenades at both switches on the wall that has the opening you entered the room from, and the stairs will move up, and you should move to the doorway above. When you reach the elevator to the terminal, if you wait too long itll go through its raising and lowering sequence already and remain on the floor. If it hasnt moved after 30 seconds, hit the switches from the grated room again.

And there you have it! You have now successfully completed the most difficult and annoying puzzle that you have to beat in the game, and successfully passed the bottleneck so many have tragically failed to squeeze through. Now go and kill more Phfor for Durandal Leela.