Poor lab facilities and inadequate program support were just a few of the issues that computer information students addressed to the College of Arts and Sciences administrators Tuesday.
Carl Forde, 20, president of the Association for Computing Machinery, a campus organization that provides students with the latest information on technology, said the meeting was organized to discuss CIS facilities, lab hours and funding.
“To be the computer science department we have the worst computer labs and facilities on campus,” said the junior CIS student from Fort Lauderdale.
Forde said there are about 600 CIS students, and there are not enough computers to accommodate everyone.
“Out of about 112 computers in CIS, 76 of those computers are working and less than half of those have the software that we use in classes,” said Shameka J. Ottman, senior vice president of ACM and a 21-year-old, senior from Gary, Ind.
“We can’t go to other labs or the library to use computers because we have specific software that we use at CIS.”
ACM brought up concerns about the lack of chairs in the lab and concerns with the CIS building.
“I don’t think that our funding is so bad that we don’t have enough chairs for each computer,” Ottman said.
Larry E. Rivers, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, assured the students that their concerns were not going unnoticed.
“We are pushing for a new CIS building and for equipment but we are not high on the list,” Rivers said. “These are things that we are working on.”
Rivers admitted that a lack of lab hours and the need for a system administrator were problems.
Both Forde and Rivers agreed that writing a proposal for grant money to go toward the CIS program is a good idea.
Rivers urged the students to give CIS the chance for them to make changes. “We know about the concerns and we are going to work very closely with you,” Rivers said
“We have not forgotten you and that is why we have continuously pushed to have a system administrator . Rivers said. “And hopefully with that there will be an extension of (lab) hours.”