Date Last Reviewed:
04/21/2008
On Tuesday, April 15, Charles E. Schumann, Jr., IT Manager for ITS Lab Operations, and Sylvia Gorman, Associate Director of Information Services, presented a Let's Talk on the ITS Computer Labs in the Holmes Student Center's Illinois Room.
Schumann talked about changes in the software installation process by which faculty can have specific software installed in ITS labs.
Requests must be submitted each fall for all software installations through the Software installation form.. A separate form must be submitted for each software package. If you have requested software installation previously, you will receive a letter listing all the general access software for Fall 2008. Microsoft Office 2007 will replace 2003 as it is difficult to have both on lab machines.
The schedule for software installation requests has changed slightly:
- Requests received 60 days before the semester are free
- Requests received 59-30 days before the semester cost $40 per hour
- Requests received less than 30 days before the semester cost $80 per hour
In addition, ITS Labs will support the current version plus one previous version for free. Additional versions of software, obsolete, and unsupported versions will cost $250 per application per semester.
ITS Labs print more than 12,000,000 pages per year. The cost of printing has risen about 25% per year for several years while funding has remained the same. This has prevented ITS Labs management from updating the printing management technology, which is not secure, has limited page management options, is available only to currently enrolled students, and is available only in 8.5x11 black and white.
Either a funding increase or cost recovery is needed to pay for color printing and alternate page sizes, neither of which is possible now.
UniPrint would allow for various print quotas and charges and would allow for more audiences to print, like faculty and staff, departments and the general public. The increased income could pay for printing options like printing anywhere anytime, which would allow people to print from residence hall rooms and laptops, for example.
A target date of Fall 2008 has been set for a UniPrint pilot in the library.
To reduce costs and increase hours, some labs may become unstaffed. The building hours would determine the lab hours in these labs, allowing for 24-hour access during finals week in the library, for example. Classroom labs would remain staffed. Cameras, NIU OneCard access and "ring-down" phones would provide security and support in unstaffed labs.
The residence halls have had success with unstaffed labs.
The hardware upgrade required to move the ITS Lab computers to Vista would be a huge investment. The audience was asked if their department faculty and staff were asking for Vista in their labs and in their offices. Most said they were not; in fact their departments were resisting moving to Vista.
No timetable has been set yet for a migration to Vista in the ITS Labs.
Mac machines will be upgraded to 10.5 (Leopard) during this summer. Mac 10.5/XP dual boot will be installed in Fall 2008.