UNK submissions to NU Foundation for consideration.
No decisions will be made on this until summer, 2006.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKAFOUNDATION GRANT PROPOSAL
Department of Information Technology Services
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Amount Requested: $56,400
Prepared by Deborah Schroeder
Director of Information Technology Services
Since 1999, many campus computer labs have been upgraded on a three-year cycle. During the summer of 2005, computers in the library computer labs, the Union computer lab and many departmental and college computer labs were replaced. Computers in the residence hall labs were not replaced.
The computers in the residence hall labs will be four years old this summer. All Windows computers are purchased with a three-year warranty, so these machines have been running without warranty for the past year. When a component fails, the machine is either abandoned or repaired with the cost of replacement parts charged to the Office of Residential and Greek Life. As machines age, the probability of failure increases and more labor is required to support the computer. There is a reason for three-year warranties—failures increase dramatically in year four. In addition, lab computers typically run 24 hours a day. These machines have had four years of “hard” use.
Although many students have their own computers in the residence hall, they like to work collaboratively and we find that the residence hall computer labs still have heavy use, particularly through the evening hours.
Students have better equipment in departmental and general-purpose labs than they have in their residence hall labs. New lab computers will bring residence hall labs into alignment with other campus labs, provide state-of-the-art equipment, and improve the reliability of the hardware available for students in the halls.
Both the Office of Residential and Greek Life and Information Technology Services, which maintains the hardware and software in the labs, support replacing the existing lab computers. The residence hall and number of lab computers are listed below:
| Residence Hall |
Number of Computers |
| CTE |
8
|
| CTW |
8
|
| Martin |
3
|
| Conrad |
2
|
| Mens |
4
|
| Stout |
3
|
| Mantor |
8
|
| Randall |
3
|
| URS |
4
|
| URN |
4
|
| Total |
47
|
The funding requested is $56,400.