Student Technology Dollar Goes Further at UW-Madison

For $20, the average UW–Madison student can finance an evening’s worth of entertainment: catch the special-edition “Star Wars” release, grab some dinner at a State Street eatery and enjoy a beverage at the Union. For $20 a semester, the same student has ongoing access to the latest computing technology on campus.

Each semester, a 1.5 percent surcharge on each student’s tuition (currently about $20 for a full-time resident undergraduate) goes into the Student Information Technology Initiative (SITI) fund. The fund is administered by the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) to improve student computing resources on campus. Student input on future needs is routinely gathered through focus groups and surveys.

The total cost of computing services available to students at UW–Madison is approximately $100 per student per year. The student tuition fee pays for 40 percent of that expense, while the remaining 60 percent is covered by University funds.

This year, in addition to providing a 24-hour Help Desk, WiscWorld e-mail and Internet services, operating one of the largest university dial-in pools in the nation and coordinating 16 InfoLabs, the funds will help to renovate and expand the College Library InfoLab, hold Ethernet installation fairs in the residence halls and pilot a student “Technews” electronic newsletter. Highlights from SITI-funded projects for 1996-97 are:

DoIT’s Student Peer Trainers program: The program received $85,000 from SITI for the current academic year. Over the year, Student Peer Trainers are teaching 207 sessions to UW students in areas such as navigating the Internet, Photoshop and scanning, and e-mail skills. So far this semester, attendance in courses has averaged 65 students per week, with the highest enrollments in introductory courses on PageMaker and Windows 95. SITI funds have also purchased computer training videos available for student checkout from the College Library.
Incorporate electronic conferencing in the classroom: Electronic conferencing projects received $35,000 from SITI to develop technology for courses taught at UW–Madison. Last year, ratings were high for electronic conferencing in many of the program areas that use the technology, such as Pharmacy, Music, Neurophysiology, and Curriculum and Instruction.

Future SITI-funded projects include:

College Library renovation: The SITI Committee granted $88,000 to upgrade the College Library InfoLab. An estimated 50 new computers will be purchased, bringing the total number of computers to approximately 200. The new computers will be two to three times faster than machines now in the lab. All new machines will have larger hard drives, enabling more software programs to be available to students.
The renovation of the College Library InfoLab will make more computers available to the northeast area of campus, which has experienced increased demand for computing resources. After spring finals, the lab will close for the summer and reopen for the fall semester after renovations are complete.
Upgrade DoIT’s dial-in and e-mail equipment: Almost $48,000 was spent to upgrade DoIT’s dial-in terminal server, which made additional modem lines available to dial-in users. Over the summer, DoIT’s e-mail server will also be upgraded, using $178,000 of SITI funds. These efforts will improve network access for users in the InfoLabs, from the residence halls and from off-campus locations.

Faculty and staff use of dial access and most other IT services used by students is approximately equal to their percentage of the overall user community. University funds pay for faculty and staff.

CONTACT: Brian Rust, (608) 263-9484, rust@doit.wisc.edu