KRISTIN ELVES

Oksana Jonas, elementary education freshman, waits to use a computer in the Science and Engineering Library. Like yesterday afternoon, Jonas often waits 10 minutes for a computer in the crowded computer area. But what some may not know is that other campus labs are used far less frequently and have shorter waiting periods.

Tuesday September 25, 2001

Despite excess CCIT labs, students prefer waiting for library workstations

Oksana Jonas, an elementary education freshman, normally waits 10 minutes or more for access to a computer in the Science and Engineering Library, but yesterday, she managed to get one after waiting for only five.

"It would be better if they had more computers," said Jonas, who uses the computer lab in the library every day. "Sometimes the wait is too long."

With less than 1,000 open computer workstations on campus and nearly 35,000 University of Arizona students, many find themselves in Jonas' position.

Veronica Reyes, an assistant librarian in the Main Library, said the staff there tries to keep lines moving, and even though the lines may look long, students normally only have to wait a few minutes.

She said the wait reaches its peak around noon and then slows down in the late afternoon.

Jonas said she often tries to find a computer during those peak times but gets frustrated.

"Usually if I see people waiting, I will go upstairs and study and wait for more computers to open up," she said.

Janet Fore, head of the undergraduate services team, said the Integrated Learning Center - the UA's 119,032-square-foot underground computer and classroom center - should alleviate the computer shortage.

"This semester, more than ever before, there have been long waits for computers in the Main and Science and Engineering Libraries," she said. "With the completion of the ILC, we hope to solve that."

The ILC, which has been under construction since fall 1999, was originally planned to house 250 open workstations in its Information Commons, where students could walk in and use computers.

The ILC has met its share of delays over the past two years, mostly due to construction hiccups, but Fore said university budget cut proposals now threaten the center's January completion date.

"It is even more critical then in the past, as more faculty use computer technology and send their students to the labs, that we get the Information Commons opened," she said.

ILC officials are waiting to hear the fate of the center's opening and the impact of the cuts from the Budget Finance Committee and cabinet.

"This week is critical," Fore said. "We could hear any minute."

This week is especially critical, Fore said, because equipment still needs to be ordered for the center. Waiting any longer would be "cutting it close," for next semester's opening date, she said.

Carla Stoffle, dean of libraries, said her confidence in the January opening has worn thin given ever looming budget cuts proposed by Governor Jane Dee Hull earlier this month.

She said officials have already tried to cut potential costs in a variety of ways including reexamining the plan for the ILC to be a 24 hour a day operation and cutting the 250 workstations by 25 percent.

Stoffle also said the original budget allowed for some 30 extra high-tech positions to be filled. That number will now be trimmed, but she is not sure by how much.

Theresa Koflanovich, a senior support systems analyst for CCIT, said there are enough computers on campus for students even without the ILC, but students seem to be drawn to the library labs.

She said CCIT operates seven walk-in labs, spanning from La Paz Residence Hall to the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering building, but few students take advantage of them. As a result, there are rarely lines at the labs.

Kolfanovich said debates about the need for extra computers - given CCIT's excess workstations - have been on going since the conception of the ILC.

Nevertheless, she said CCIT's labs will continue to be open for students, and the center is considering a larger marketing campaign to make students aware of the labs.

"You can't go to the ILC and do programming," she said. "You don't have the privacy."

Fore, however, said the ILC will have higher-end computers that will play host to a number of computer programs spanning from media arts to engineering.

Stoffle said while the entire ILC may not be opened on time, officials would consider opening the center in phases.

"The university has to decide how important this project is versus other things on campus," she said.