Students find new College of Agriculture lab convenient

By Cheryl Fogle

Arizona Daily Wildcat

The new J.C. Penney Co. Inc.'s multimedia facility opened this semester in the UA's College of Agriculture.

The computer lab is used for introductory computer classes, merchandising, and automatic computer-assisted drafting. Students use the lab for classes and homework.

J.C. Penney donated $158,000 to help establish the facility, said Soyeon Shim, chair of the retailing and consumer division of the school of family and consumer resources in the College of Agriculture.

Shim said Dr. Ellen Goldsberry, director of the facility, got the first $100,000 this year and will receive the rest of the grant over the next two years.

"Students are using these computers to learn how to make an inventory, and use CD-ROMs that come with their textbooks," Shim said.

Lainie Smith, merchandising senior, used the facility to solve a problem set about marking up items for retail.

"I like coming here because it's convenient," Smith said.

The lab has 35 computers, 10 of which are available for students all the time with 24 being reserved for classes. The computers are connected to a projector that enlarges images from computer screens or from a videocassette recorder.

Robert Santamaria, mechanical engineering senior, used a Pentium computer with a 16 RAM hard drive to run the AutoCad to make house drawings.

"This is better than drafting by hand and using rulers and triangles," he said. "The computer lets us click a mouse and move lines without erasing them."

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