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13 Opening Computing Labs, Opening Minds
Chris
Jones, University of Oregon
The School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the
University of Oregon consists of nine departments and programs with 5000
students, 160 faculty and a few dozen staff.
When I came to the school in January as the school's
new computing lab manager, I was told I was responsible for two labs consisting
of 28 computers. As it turned out,
students from just three of the eight departments had access to the labs I
maintained on behalf of the school.
Most departments maintained their own small labs or scattered quasi-lab
computers, the vast majority of which were in bad shape. I offered my services as lab manager to the
departments; in exchange, I asked for increased availability of the computers
to students outside the department that "owned" each lab. I started out with 28 computers in two labs,
and by fall I will be maintaining at least 75 computers all over the school.
My grand utopian vision is to change the currently divided culture in the school by illustrating that when resources are scarce, sharing computing resources among all departments makes more sense than each department trying to hoard what little it has. I hope to increase interaction among students of different departments by allowing them to work side by side on computers that they think of as belonging to the whole school, not just one department. It is a big job, and it will take time and lots of help from key players in the departments, but it is worth doing.