UA examines computing at U.

The computer labs open to all University students aren't as bad as some thought, but they aren't quite perfect -- yet. In response to many students' concerns about lack of computer availability since the Wharton School closed its labs this summer to all students not taking Wharton classes, the Undergraduate Assembly has surveyed the state of the remaining computer labs available to all University students. The results: the problem wasn't necessarily a lack of available equipment, but rather many students don't know where some of the open labs are on campus, and not all the computers in those labs have the same software. Some labs don't even have printers -- a big minus. "I have no tangible proof that we need the Wharton facilities," said Theo LeCompte, chairperson of the UA Facilities Committee, which conducted the survey. "Our eventual goal here is to bring the public labs up to par rather than demanding that Wharton reopen their labs." The committee sent members to explore issues ranging from printing capabilities to technical support in computer labs open to all University students. At Sunday night's UA meeting, the committee proposed changes they hope will be implemented by the start of the fall 1999 semester. In standardizing software and hardware in the labs, the UA would like to establish a user-wide authentication system; place standard signs on all University-wide labs; ensure that all hardware in the public labs be no more than four years old; install the same software packages on each public work station; create a universal policy on printing and scanning; staff each lab with sufficient information technology adviser support; and establish a set hours of operation for each lab. Following fall break, the UA will distribute an additional survey to all undergraduates to assess sentiments among students concerning computing at Penn. One problem the UA found was that availability of software and equipment varied in each lab. Some labs didn't have printers or the Maple math software, while some programs in the college house labs didn't work. According to the survey, in some labs a shared disk had been employed to store some of the software, but the UA member performing the survey was unable to access the disk and an ITA was unavailable for assistance. While LeCompte said he was "pleased with the results of the survey" because they didn't "find any huge problems," the results were not "a ringing endorsement of the public computer labs." "We need to see how [students] feel about what problems there are, if there are any, and if what there is is adequate," the College sophomore added. Prior to the survey, UA Vice Chairperson Michael Bassik and LeCompte met with Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing James O'Donnell to speak about the current computing situation. The University as a whole does not provide any public computing space. Rather, individual schools, libraries and college houses provide their own funding for public labs, using matching funds from O'Donnell's ISC division. O'Donnell welcomed the UA survey, as he hopes to gather data about the current status of computing at Penn. "I would like to look at what other Ivy competitors are doing, record trafficking in our public labs and see the results of the UA survey before making any decisions about creating new facilities," O'Donnell said. The UA would like to involve ISC in administering "some sort of standardization linked to matching funds," LeCompte said. O'Donnell could not be reached for comment on the committee's latest action. Last month, he said officials "haven't yet even begun to plan" a University-wide authentication system.

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