The department of Information Technology and Communication is moving forward with two cost-cutting plans for the University's computer labs. The department will remove all 22 computers from the computing lab in Bryan Hall this summer and will remove the 122 computers in the Thornton Hall stacks next summer.
These plans have been in place for the last one-and-a-half years and will follow up on last summer's removal of computers from the smaller labs across Grounds, such as those in residential colleges and in Small Hall in the Engineering School, said Michael McPherson, ITC associate vice president and deputy chief information officer.
"What we're trying to do is to make it into much better collaboration spaces," McPherson said. "These public computing labs are terrible spaces for people to get together to work on group projects. A good model is what we've done on the fourth floor of Clemons Library, which is a great way for people to get together to work, with flexible spaces, special purpose input and output devices, printers, scanners and big monitors."
In fact, an evaluation conducted last year revealed that the vast majority of Engineering students in the Thornton computer lab do not use the desktop computers for special service software available but rather for common programs, McPherson said.
"We looked at the utilization in the computing labs and saw about 95 percent were for application software that people have access to on their own computers," McPherson said. "Things like web browsers, pdfs, and Microsoft Word and Excel. Only about 5 percent of utilization in the labs was for the special purpose software."
McPherson said he hopes some issues in accessing specialized software will be resolved by this semester's introduction of a program called the Hive, which allows University students to access specialized software for free through the Internet. This semester's version of the Hive is only a pilot program - which attracted more than 700 users - and ITC hopes implement a permanent version of the program in the fall.
"We're reducing the number of physical seats to provide greatly expanded access to special service software through the online access so you'll be able to use it anywhere you want - whether you're in the room, in the library group working on a group project, or through UVACollab," McPherson said. "You'll be able to use these tools whenever you want to and you wont be confined to a particular physical space to use this specific software. As long as they're enrolled and still have access to computer service they'll be able to use the software."
Nevertheless, McPherson said a few computers will remain in the Thornton Stacks to accommodate software that fares better on desktop computers.
In addition, ITC has been taking student input into consideration and is conducting continual discussions with individual schools within the University to decide on the best plan of action that would accommodate everyone, McPherson said.
"We asked the schools what they thought, but the labs are ITC operations, so it was ITC's decision to make about the labs," McPherson said. "There are 122 computers in the stacks. We'd remove virtually all of them. The goal is to leave behind only the number of computers that's really necessary to provide access to this special service software that won't work well in the Hive - like those that require heavy use of graphics for example, or 3-D photo realistic modeling."
Mitch Rosen, Engineering School chief technology officer, said the phase-out will not include certain computing labs that are major-specific in the Engineering School.
"There are 253 computers throughout the E-School that are not public labs, but they have specialized software - the E-School plans to sustain those," Rosen said.
Rosen also added that the impending completion of the construction of Rice Hall will provide ample study and group-work space for Engineering students, modeled after similar conference rooms in Robertson Hall and the Darden School.
McPherson noted, however, that ITC is not deaf to the concerns of students.
"We've certainly been made aware that there are folks who are not happy with this decision," McPherson said. "What people have pointed out that it's a convenience to have the computers labs on campus even if they're not using this special software. It allows them to leave their laptops in the rooms and dorms."
Jen Wilson, outgoing Engineering Student Council president, said her constituents are displeased with plans to remove computers from the Thornton computer lab.
"Over the past year, we have participated in student focus groups and talked directly to the deans," Wilson said. "Unfortunately, by the time we gave our input, dismantling the stacks' computing lab was a done deal."
Similarly, fourth-year Engineering Student Chris Belyea, who organized a petition last spring, said he believes ITC's plans are an impediment to many students.
"My group projects and use of engineering software all revolve around the use of public computers," Belyea said. "I cannot over-emphasize the value of having a uniform, up-to-date ITC-cared-for platform of software on which student groups can collaborate. University provided public computing ensures professionally kept, virus free and functionally sound computing access for students. I think it would be a great shame to see the University remove all of the major public computer labs in the Engineering School."
First-year College student Tidanke Diaby, meanwhile, suggested that the University cut other services from its budget, such as water fountains and television screens in Newcomb Hall. Laptops are not always convenient, she said, in part because there is a limited number of seats close to electrical outlets.
"I don't have my computer with me all the time," Diaby said. "I have classes there, use computer labs for ITC software and print quickly. There aren't a lot of seats in Clemons with plugs.
Still, many University officials believe that the decision to make cuts to computer labs is more responsible than cutting other programs.
"The reality of the situation is that everybody at the University has been required to take significant budget cuts, and we have we decided that was better to cut in an area that was a convenience than to cut somewhere else that was more critical," McPherson said.
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