John McDaniel/Jimmie Cain

mcdaniel@mtsu.edu/jcain@mtsu.edu

John McDaniel/Jimmie Cain

Liberal Arts

Open computer labs

Peck Hall 326

Replacement of Existing Technology

Eleven of the nineteen computers in the facility are over four years of age. The one printer is the same age and cannot meet the printing demands of a lab full of users.

The University Writing Center open computer lab, located in Peck Hall 326, provides access to email, the internet, and wordprocessing for dozens of graduate students and thousands of undergraduate students annually. Just last semester, for example, over 3,800 hours of lab usage were recorded. However, to more fully utilize the space available in the facility and to continue to serve the computing needs of students, the lab must be reconfigured and new equipment must be purchased. The existing layout prohibits the conducting of group workshops. Arranging the workstations around the perimeter of the room and installing an electrically controlled projection screen will alleviate this problem. Moreover, eleven of the nineteen computer workstations and the one printer are over four years of age. As a consequence, machines often fail, and printing is extremely difficult during peak usage times.