Tech placement affects students

Madison McCord | Peripheral Vision

Everyone knows how to turn on a computer, that is common knowledge, but what if there is no computer to turn on?

In the last three academic years, our campus has grown 4.7 percent from 5690 students to 5974 students. This explosion in enrollment, though, has not been accompanied by a growth in technology needs.

Every spring, the technology fee committee, a select group consisting of students (one of which was me last year), faculty and administration take the nearly $1 million in tech fees paid out by students each year, and through a month long meeting process, decide where the money will be allotted on campus. Although the majority of the board is comprised of students, staff members and administrators already make the decisions beforehand, leaving us students to nicely go along with decisions that are more beneficial to them than us.

The campus owns and operates a total of 1452 machines between laptops, PC’s and Macintosh computers, making the average 4.11 computers per student. I will say that this number is very high and would give the illusion that students can easily access a computer. The key word there is illusion.

Of the machines, the largest chunks are in the library, which students use for less-than academic purposes and in the graphic design lab, a place that is used for classes and lab space for design students. Yet, there are only a few of the many English rooms between building 5 and 24 that even have one computer, let alone a full class lab. Things are no longer done on pen and paper, but mouse and keyboard.

Luckily, there is a simple solution. At least it is simple in student’s minds. The machines owned and operated on campus are on a ‘strict’ five-year rotation system. This means the computers are set to be sent to the quarterly district surplus sale to be sold off for 50 bucks a pop to non-students who stand outside like vultures hovering over a freshly killed chinchilla.

Last time I checked, a five-year-old machine can still handle Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, but according to this college, those are too difficult to maintain. If it means hiring another IT staff member in order to give students computers in the right places, then I will gladly pay the extra $15 a quarter.

The concept of technology in the classroom has changed from a want to a need, and not only in those courses that have a technology-first thinking process.

If we want to achieve the goal of an upper-education institution and teach students the things they need to know as we enter the “real world,” then start with the one thing that now makes the world go around. More accessible computers for our Student Body.