Richard Campbell

rcampbel@mtsu.edu

Richard Campbell

School of Journalism

N/A

Mass Comm 270

Upgrade of Existing Technology

Computers in Room 270 are more than four years old and no longer capable of handling Internet and software upgrades needed by our students and faculty

1. The School of Journalism requests Pool 2 funding to replace old 486 computers in one of our three key media writing labs -Room. 270. This lab serves mainly as a required writing lab to support the 20 sections of Media Writing offered by the School each semester (16 students per class). Each student is required to attend the lab for individual help one hour a week. In addition, many of our advanced writing courses use the lab on a walk-in basis. Our records indicate that 50 to 75 students per day use the writing lab to receive individual help from the School's writing faculty and adjunct teaching staff. This lab also serves as traditional classroom in the evening and for summer courses and accommodates another 100 students per year. The lab serves not only the School but students enrolled in writing courses throughout the College, which now has more than 2800 majors. The new computers requested will replace existing equipment that is 4 years old and not capable of handling the Internet and software upgrades now used by our writing faculty and our students. 2. In addition, to support the new computers, the School of Journalism seeks to reconfigure the electrical wiring and computer station arrangement (see attachment) to make the room more functional and to hide computer and electrical wires that are now exposed. Reconfiguration of these labs will not only protect exposed computer cables (which students occasionally trip over) but also allow open space in middle of the classroom to support work tables and chairs for our students. Facility Services estimates this cost at $15,000.