Academic Computing Advisory Committee

Report to Faculty Senate

David H. Hutchens

May 1998

In the 1997-1998 academic year the following labs were upgraded at a total cost of $390,100:
• Stayer Mac Lab: $160,460
• ITEC Osburn Macintosh Lab: $148,080
• Roddy Computer Lab: $81,560
Requests have been made to upgrade 2 labs next year:
• Chryst Writing Center: $113,289
• CAD/CAM Lab, Osborn Hall: $85,214
Priorities for spending next year (in order) are Ad-Hoc Upgrades to various labs, upgrade to the Chryst Lab, providing furniture for e-mail stations, providing 3 portables for faculty use, and the Osborn Hall upgrade (last because it was submitted after other priorities had been set).

As I stated last year, staffing remains a critical issue for Academic Computing. Five of Academic Computing's eight people have resigned over the last year. These resignations left large holes in the services that Academic Computing could provide. Users continue to muddle through without adequate support. Many of the things we would like to do remain undone due to lack of staff.
Finding and keeping quality staff is becoming more difficult. According to recent reports, the average starting salary for a person with a new B.S. in Computer Science is over $40,000 per year. And they reasonably expect big raises fairly quickly. It is no surprise that our staff are leaving for industry positions.
A top priority for next year is deciding how we are going to provide support in the future. Will the support be from a centralized computer center, decentralized staff at the college and department level, or a combination of the two? What will be the management structure? Will everyone in Computer Support report to the new VP? Will some report to other administrators? Until this is decided and supported at the highest levels of administration, we will continue to flounder.

In order to allow Academic Computing to stretch its resources, a list of supported computers and software was proposed. Academic Computing conducted a survey to see how many old and soon to be unsupported systems we have in labs and faculty offices. This information has been made available to Dept. Chairs and Deans to help them plan for orderly replacement. Faculty members and departments with old equipment should plan to upgrade in the near future or find ways of providing their own support. The list of supported configurations was distributed to all faculty.