Students benefit from technology funding

Students collectively purchased and used millions of dollars of technology services this year, while paying only a fraction of the cost.

They did it through the Student Information Technology Initiative (SITI), a 1.5 percent portion of student tuition that is directed toward providing information technology services. The SITI portion amounted to almost $2.9 million and was combined with $1.6 million from other University sources to purchase and maintain services such as unlimited Internet access, a 2,752-modem dial pool, and 15 campus computer labs with more than 1,000 computers.

New services purchased with SITI funds included the My UW–Madison Web portal, providing a personalized gateway to campus services; Wireless WiscWorld, providing convenient wireless access to Internet services; 18 communication kiosks located around campus providing Internet access; and the opening of a 30-seat student computer testing facility.

“Using technology to effectively meet the needs of students, both educationally and socially, is a crucial and necessary part of the student experience,” notes Kathi Dwelle of DoIT. “Before starting this program in 1993, students were dissatisfied with overall campus computing services and felt ill-prepared to enter the work force. Today overall satisfaction remains high with 88 percent of students reporting being satisfied or very satisfied with the computing resources UW–Madison provides.”

SITI funds are also used to enhance and maintain key services including student individual web pages, the 24×7 DoIT Help Desk, free peer student IT training, and operation of a WebCT utility for e-delivery of course materials.