Media lab grows by bits and pieces

Academic Computing Services has ordered 30 new Pentium computers for the New Media CenterŐs Open Access Lab, which will bring the labŐs total to 45. Currently, there are 25 new Pentium machines in LA5, 352, and 10 in the Open Access Lab, with five more to be installed soon. Each computer cost about $2,200 and some include high capacity Zip drives.

Academic Computing Services oversees the Open Access Lab and the Development Lab in the New Media Center and the third-floor labs in LA5, all of which were monopolized by Macintosh until this semester.

Director of Academic Computing Services Franoise Corey says student demand prompted the purchases of the Pentium computers. "[The center was] all Mac when it was designed," Corey said. "There was a lot of assistance from Apple and others so we are much more Mac-oriented. The emphasis now is really changing. We will try to make it more even."

With about 200 Macintosh stations already in the three labs, the new purchases begin closing the gap on Macs. The Open Access Lab has 49 Macs and, after this purchase, will have 45 Pentiums. Liberal Arts 5 now has 25 new Pentiums compared with 72 Macs. The Development Lab is still Mac-only.

"It's not that much considering the size of this campus," Corey said. "But the departments are getting their own labs, so that helps us."

Academic Computing Services also purchased several computers for the new Pentium lab in the University Library basement, and a few more for other departments.

Some of the older computers in the labs were passed on to other departments when the new ones were installed.

"The idea is not to get rid of them, itŐs to add," Corey said. "In the Open Access Lab, there are plans for many, many more stations. ItŐs just getting the money to do it all."

As professors integrate more technology into their courses, some students have to be on the World Wide Web in order to see their assignments, their reading lists, send out their work, or talk to their professors, so there is a demand and I donŐt see it going away at all."

"It is very busy right now which is nice," Corey said of the increasing number of students using the facility. "What we really want to try to do, since we have this beautiful building, is to make this our main facility for the computing area. We still have a lot of labs [in other departments], and we have no space here to replace those, but we want students to come down here and take advantage of what we have."

The labs are available for all students and faculty to do word processing, desktop publishing, scanning, and printing in addition to Internet activities such as Web access and E-mail. Students may obtain a free E-mail account at building LA5, 361.