The Office of Information Technology and Communication has become one more University department affected by the loss of $3.2 million of state funding.
On Jan. 7, ITC announced on its Web site that it will discontinue three of its free dial-up modem numbers Jan. 31. Of the discontinued phone numbers, 982-5084 gave students a 30-minute dial-up line at 14.4 kilobytes per second, 243-7673 offered a 60-minute line at 14.4 kbps, and 963-4625 provided a 15-minute dial-up line at 28.8 kbps.
ITC is also considering charging for printing from the University computer labs.
ITC will retain the dial-in numbers 296-8963, a 30-minute 56K connection and 963-4624, a 60-minute 56K connection through at least this semester, said Robert F. "Chip" German, director of policy and strategic planning for ITC.
But all the numbers will most likely be cut at the end of the semester, and students living off Grounds may have to pay for Internet service from an outside provider.
"We wanted to get the word out as quickly and widely as possible, but it was hard to reach students while they were on break," German said. "We know that the number of people who use the dial-in lines, including faculty, students and staff, is in the thousands."
He said students have been complaining about the reduction in service. According to an ITC customer survey conducted in 2001, about 60 percent of undergraduates use an Internet service provider other than the University.
"Some students don't like this being an additional cost when the emphasis is on [online materials] as an important academic" tool, he added.
Fourth-year College student Mohsin Reza is also not pleased with the decision.
"I'm disappointed that three dial-in numbers will be disconnected because it will make checking e-mail or researching online much more difficult at peak times," Reza said. "As it is, it can be very difficult to log onto the 56k lines in the evenings."
The new policy may cause more problems for graduate students because undergraduates generally appear to have outside Internet service providers more often than graduate students do, German said.
Chris Husser, third-year College student and chairman of the Student Information Technology Advisory Committee, said graduate students seemed to have more complaints about the reduction in services.
"I have been getting e-mails from students about this. One student questioned his ability to afford purchasing an outside service and that he might have to use on-Grounds facilities more, even though he doesn't live near U.Va.," Husser said.
He said other problems with the cutback in University dial-in numbers is that certain services, such as the libraries' Virgo service, are available only to people using on-Grounds connections or those of the University's preferred outside provider, Cornerstone Networks.
ITC is one of many departments at the University that is reassessing its services because of the state budget impasse.
"The total budget for ITC is over $21 million a year; now we are looking at every expenditure," German said.
ITC decided to cut the three low-speed dial-in numbers because it would save $60,000 a year. The elimination of the remaining three numbers would save ITC an additional $60,000 a year.
University spokesperson Louise Dudley said free dial-in services at colleges are becoming rare and the University is one of the few schools that still offers such services.
"We're the only major institution in Virginia that has free dial-in as far as I know," German said. "George Mason University offers or offered some free dial-in but it didn't include the Internet - only access to their university networks like e-mail."
German said ITC suggests that students who have the means should purchase Internet service from outside providers.
He said the University began providing the free dial-in services in the late 1980s, but their popularity skyrocketed in the early 1990s.
"I found that at the peak hours, in the evenings, the lines were jammed, so I went to an outside provider in 1992," German said.
He does not anticipate a further crowding problem on the remaining 56K lines because "it can't get any worse."
Faculty members also have had trouble dialing in to the University services from off Grounds.
"On weekday evenings, the lines are always packed," said Howard M. Singerman, associate professor of art history.
An end to free printing?
ITC also is considering charging students for printing from the University computer labs.
German said it would be difficult to predict how much students would have to pay to print, but some other schools charge students only after they exceed a quota of free pages.
Much of the interest in charging for printing has come from students who are concerned about the environmental implications of wasted paper, he said.
"There were technical impediments to [charging for paper] in the past, but it's more practical now," he said. "It's a University decision more than an ITC decision."
Dudley said the idea of charging for printing services is not a new proposal.
"ITC has been tracking the cost of printing for the last several years," Dudley said.
German said he did not know the exact figure for the cost of printing, but did say that it would be factored into any decision.
Singerman said he would probably reduce the quantity of materials he puts online if students had to pay to print them.
However, he said he does not think it would be a huge problem because his students do not currently complain to him about the cost of class packets.
"Buying a class packet from Brillig Books or the Copy Shop on the Corner costs more than printing," he said.
Stretching $21 million
ITC's $21 million budget comes in large part from state funds, charges for services provided to other departments at the University and research overhead funds from the University.
Like other departments, ITC is looking for ways to cut costs without firing anyone.
"Anything is on the table, but we are trying to protect the employees of the University," Dudley said.
ITC has been considering cutting programs for a long time.
"Early last summer, we imposed a hiring freeze at ITC, and now we are down 9 percent below full employment," German said.
ITC also is reevaluating maintenance agreements of machines and has put a hold on discretionary projects, such as those proposed by faculty members.
Other cuts being made throughout the University include halting faculty searches in many of the schools and some reduction in faculty travel and other discretionary expenses.
State budget woes
An estimated $1.3 billion gap in the state budget has to be filled by June 30, and Dudley said that further state cuts are expected in the future.
Former Gov. James S. Gilmore III had estimated a 2 percent cut across the board for state agencies, including universities, for the rest of this fiscal year. However, current Gov. Mark R. Warner expects the cuts to be closer to 3 percent - about $4.2 million of annual funding, according to Colette Sheehy, vice president of management and budget.
University officials are anticipating more problems in the future. Sheehy said the University is budgeting for a 7 percent decrease in current levels of tax support in fiscal year 2002-2003 and an 8 percent reduction in 2003-2004. Dudley said the current economic downturn is hurting many institutions throughout the country including the commonwealth.
"This particularly affects Virginia because of the dot-com problems in northern Virginia," she said.
The state gets less tax revenue than projected, and by state law, the budget has to be balanced, she added.
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