Management turns down technology proposal
Campus Times
March 26, 1999
University of La Verne students such as senior Jessica Hunter currently
have access to the Internet and email free of charge. A proposal concerning
a technology fee for the maintenance and upgrading of ULV's computer infrastructure
was made to the University's senior management. The proposal was turned
down March 12.
Senior management at the University of La Verne turned down a proposal
March 12 for a fee that would have been used to upgrade technology.
Senior management consists of the University's deans, vice presidents
and president.
Executive Vice President Phil Hawkey said that all 6,500 ULV students-off
and on campus-would have had to pay between $25 and $100 per semester, depending
on whether they commute, live on campus and are full- or part-time students,
had the proposal been accepted.
The improvements would have included upgrading the computer labs, expanding
Internet and email services to classrooms, residence halls and off-campus
facilities and extended hours for computer labs.
Although the proposal was turned down, it has not disappeared. "It
is a discussion proposal at this point," Hawkey said, adding that it
would take more than a year to be accepted.
Does the technology on campus need to be upgraded? Are students willing
and able to pay the said fee?
"I think computer labs should be open longer, and that our tuition
should have already paid for it," said Trinh Ta, senior criminology
major.
Senior business major Roxanne Klein agreed. "What frustrates me
is that we pay so much money to go to this University," she said. "I
think there is so much money that is not being put in proper areas.
"So I don't think it would be necessary to add an additional technology
fee."
Klein said that technology on campus needs to be upgraded, but that
it could be done with the money students already pay.
Ta, on the other hand, said, "We don't need better technology.
I think we have all we need."
Dr. Jay Jones, director of academic computing, whose department first
proposed a technology fee in the early '90s, disagreed. He said the department
needs money to upgrade technology and maintain services.
"We have built our infrastructure from a blend of external funds
and little bits of money that have been supplied from projects such as the
Landis renovation," said Dr. Jones.
The budget for academic computing is currently $250,000 a year.
"That's about one third of what we need," said Dr. Jones.
"And that's not for expanding services; that's for maintaining what
we've got."
Granting agencies do not generally provide grants for the maintenance
of infrastructure already in place.
In the past, the department was able to draw from a university plant
fund to meet those extra costs. Due to projects like the Spot renovation
and the new book store in the Wells Fargo building, far less money is going
to be available for academic computing.
"I'm kind of in terror," said Dr. Jones, "because I have
to figure out how to provide the funding for what we do."
This year the department has about $260,000 available, but the amount
that is actually being used comes to "at least 400,000," Dr. Jones
said.
"I would like to know exactly where they're planning on putting
the money," Klein said.
According to Dr. Jones, salaries and wages for the personnel are $160,000.
Student salaries for the department come to $1,465, and hardware replacements
each year cost $232,000.
Contrary to popular belief, computers, once they have been installed,
cannot just to be left to themselves. They need to be maintained. The cost
for software and maintenance agreements comes to $60,000.
Dr. Jones said "the books are open," and that anyone is welcome
to look at the figures.
He also pointed out that while new material does not have to be replaced
in the couple of years following its installation, it will eventually have
to be upgraded or replaced. If improvements are not made when necessary,
the eventual costs will be even higher.
Because of such factors, "we're going to have an addition of probably
about $75,000," said Dr. Jones.
"We would like to keep the laboratories open all the time. We have
to have them manned, but right now, we have expended all of our student
work budget for the whole year," he said.
"If [enough money from] the plant fund is not going to be available
next year, I don't know what I'm going to do."
He said that the Landis computer lab, which runs Pentium 90s, is close
to not being functional anymore and is not fit to be a teaching laboratory.
"It is to the point where the lab needs to be replaced," Dr.
Jones said, adding that the computer science lab is also several years old-too
old for computer science students. "We have 45 faculty members who
have sub-standard computers."
Hawkey "prompted the resurrection" of the technology fee,
said Dr. Jones, who was asked to prepare a proposal for consideration this
year.
"It was a good proposal," Dr. Jones said. "It would have
provided the funds we needed without having to have cuts in other programs,
and it would have moved us forward."
He said that ULV would be a low-cost leader, and that it would be operating
on about one fourth to one third of the technology budget on which schools
its size are operating.
He said, "My first option would be to have this as a part of the
formal budget and not identified as a separate fee."
A separate fee was proposed because the tuition height for next year
was set, leaving no flexibility for working the fee into the budget.
"Information technology for this university is so important,"
Dr. Jones said. "University of La Verne is a broad ranging university.
Most of us don't realize that we have five other campuses."
Talks on how to provide the necessary funds are continuing.
