Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Martin Wood Computer labs have closed without explanation, but now may reopen as soon as this week. [Click to enlarge]

You've got five minutes to be in your Placer Hall class for a presentation. Your eyes throb from sitting in front of a computer screen until dawn because, last night, you started that paper your professor assigned weeks ago. Sweat beads on your forehead while you scurry around looking for a computer lab to turn your hard work into an inked-up sheet of paper.

You run over to Mendocino Hall to utilize one of the four rooms with iMacs set up for your printing convenience.

Your sweaty dash is halted by a closed door and a sign telling you that the Mendocino Hall labs aren't available to individual students. Sacramento State, this semester, has limited the individual student's access to computer labs, isolating them to only one part of campus.

Why is it that empty classrooms containing open computers, which were accessible in the Spring 2007 semester, are no longer available to students?

It seems logical to point the finger at last year's budget cuts and its relation to the student work force. A reduction in money means fewer jobs for students who can administer these classrooms.

Doug Jackson, the Associate VP of the Information Resource & Technology division (IRT), disagrees with that assertion. Jackson said that the decision made to close the Mendocino and Solano labs were based on the necessity to be more effective in the need to balance out student verses faculty use.

"What we determined last Fall and last Spring, if you look at the numbers, Mendocino and Solano Labs weren't getting a whole lot of use in terms of being used as labs," Jackson said. "Obviously, we were very wrong so we have taken immediate steps to change that."

Given the outcry of Sac State students, the IRT is moving to reverse that decision by working with Space Management and Reservations to implement a strategy for duel usage between students and classes.

Art major Alicia Guerra had experienced problems with the computer labs' inconvenient locations.

"They are always full and there's always a giant line." Guerra said.

She goes on to say that she recently discovered a secret computer lab location but isn't going reveal where it is.

Another problem with the limited labs is that they seem to be lacking proper help. The Library computer lab, which, along with the AIRC, are the only accessible labs open to individual students but aren't staffed as such. Student computer lab assistants are on location in minimal increments with no posted hours.

Industrial Organizational Psychology grad student, Ruxandra Turcu, was witnessed experiencing problems with the support in the Library computer lab. Using her own laptop, she needed to be able to print from a lab computer. After approaching a student assistant who was refilling printer paper, he informed her that he was in the circulation department and unable to provide any assistance.

"People should be working here that can help," Turcu said.

Librarian Linda Goff points out that there is an online help desk option available for instant chat when using a computer in the labs. However, the hours of the help chat are restricted compared to the Library hours.



One professor Edward Ortiz uses a Mendocino Hall lab for his screenwriting class. Professor Ortiz feels that open access to the Mendocino labs isn't crucial for the individual student regarding a class like screenwriting. However, he does realize a need for other students.

"However, this situation changes when you are taking a video production class as the production software loaded on those comps would be too expensive for a student to purchase, therefore access to the lab is important," Ortiz said.

Jackson said that the Solano and Mendocino hall labs could possibly be reopen to students as soon as this week.

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