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Issue 31, Fall 2004
 by Rob Galbraith
The number and quality of computer lab workstations available to students increased this summer with both the completion of the new Communications Facility and another round of computer lab upgrades funded by the Student Technology Fee (STF).
The Communications Facility is home to seven new general university computer labs with a total of 150 student workstations. Each lab has a classroom projector and media podium, with most also including a document camera. Starting with the basement, there is a 20 seat Windows lab in CF 21 in which the Internet Studies Center has a preferred scheduling agreement. Across the hall, CF 24 and 26 house 20 Windows workstations each; a folding wall divider allows expansion of these rooms to a single 40 seat lab. In this configuration, media switching equipment allows the image from the instructor’s station to be projected in both halves of the combined room simultaneously.
On the main floor, CF 165 and 167 house 26 and 24 workstations respectively, with the same type of wall curtain and switching gear allowing expansion to a 50 seat lab — the largest available on campus. Right next door, CF 161 provides 20 Macintosh computers which were moved from the Journalism lab formerly located at College Hall, now providing a new Macintosh-based general university lab in which the Journalism Department has a preferred scheduling agreement. And finally CF 312 is home to 20 Windows workstations where the Physics Department has a preferred scheduling agreement. Note that all of these general university labs are open for use by all students when not used for classes. Also, any department may schedule classes in those facilities once use by ‘preferred’ departments has been scheduled.
The Student Technology Fee once again did its share to upgrade computer labs this summer, starting with 26 new Macintosh G5 computers, 2 new scanners and a printer added to upgrade the Fine Arts 101 general university lab. Numerous departmental computer labs were also upgraded, including the Modern and Classical Languages lab in Haggard Hall 114, where a new furniture layout to enhance teaching, a new mediated teaching podium, projection equipment, and 27 new computers were added. The Engineering Technology 308 departmental lab was upgraded with 35 new workstations, while the Humanities 104 lab operated by the English Department received an upgrade of 29 new computers, software and a new printer. Huxley College’s Spatial Analysis Lab in Arntzen Hall 16 received 24 new replacement computers, along with upgrades of other older computers and software. To round things out, the College of Business and Economics received 57 new 17 inch flat panel monitors and two new printers to upgrade their Parks Hall 210 lab.
Other computer lab changes this summer included a preferred scheduling arrangement for PEHR in the Bond Hall 319 computer lab and the transfer of a dozen workstations from the old (always too warm) CV 116 lab to start a new lab associated with the Student Technology Center in Haggard Hall 122.
This quarter we are rolling out a new lab usage monitoring system in the labs which will give us much more accurate data about lab usage by students and allow us to better schedule and plan for classes, software deployment and upgrades in the labs.
All in all, we made significant progress toward our high priority student goal of increasing the availability of computer lab seats on campus. Even with the influx of 150 new general university lab seats and at least as many new departmental lab seats in the Communications Facility, it hasn’t taken long for students to both discover these new lab seats and begin to fill them up. For a current listing of general university computer labs and lab schedules, visit the ATUS Help Desk website, specifically http://west.wwu.edu/atus/computerlabs/labschedule.asp. If you want to reserve a computer lab for a class session, please contact Rob Galbraith at 650-3368 or Rick Nichols at the Help Desk, 650-7928
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