Students ask: Where have all the Macs gone?

Students who use Macintosh computers for word processing or checking e-mail outside of class now face limited labs on campus, due to decisions made by a committee that did not include student or faculty representatives.

Although 530 new computers became part of campus labs over the summer, all but 31 of them are IBM PC 300PL's. Until 31 new Power Macintosh G3 computers become available in the College of Education later in the semester, most CSUS students who prefer Macs are limited to a 14-computer lab in Amador Hall without a printer or a lab assistant.

"I went to where the Mac labs used to be and found new computers," said student Nick Leonti, an occasional State Hornet contributor. "The journalism classes work on Macs, so I have to hope something's open to use."

Over the summer, a committee working under the title of the Ad Hoc Committee on 24-Hour Access and Baseline Access Training and Support convened to allocate open computer lab funding. The purpose was to upgrade the existing computer equipment on campus, including the purchase of new monitors, printers and software.

While the campus previously had computer labs with both Macs and PCs, the committee did not purchase new Power Macintosh computers for fully open computer labs.

"Two issues went into the selection. One was that Mac was much higher in cost than the IBM's we purchased. The second was Macintoshes make up such a small percentage of the market," said Scott McGown, instructional computing consultant for University Computing and Communication Services.

However, though the BATS committee considered bids from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, Dell, and Gateway, Apple was not contacted for a bid, McGown said.

According to figures from the University Computing and Communication Services office, Macintosh use in open labs accounted for 23.4 percent of total computer usage last semester.

Funding for the computers, worth $1580.13 including the monitor, was provided by a combination of CSUS funds, funding from the California State University, and lottery funds.

The committee consists of Dave Hill, director of University Computing and Communications Services,. Spencer Freund, associate vice president for Academic Affairs/Telecommunications, Michael Hartner, dean of the College of Health and Human Services, Mary Jane Lee, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, Marion O'Leary, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Nancy Shulock. No students or faculty were represented on the committee.

Students familiar with the Mac do have recourse. An open Macintosh-only lab is available in Amador Hall. The lab consists of 14 Mac IIsi computers without a printer or UCCS lab assistant. However, working at the lab requires more effort now than last semester.

"Students should format a disk as an IBM diskette in one of the other labs and bring it to Amador Hall and work there. Then they bring it back to one of the other labs to print," McGown said.

Government major Dale Green is one such student. He said he was unaware of the new printing procedure and voiced concerns with the new policy.

"What brought this on? The phasing out of Mac computers?" he said. "Essentially, what they are trying to do is force us to learn to use a PC."

As part of the new lab set-up, each college has a discipline specific lab for instruction and students with majors in the college. Under this policy, the labs must be open to the general student population for 20 hours a week.

A discipline specific lab for the College of Education will feature 31 new Power Macintosh G3 computers, but Mike Menchaka, Information Technology Consultant for the college said the machines have not arrived on campus. He said it was important for his department to have Macs available.

"Eighty percent of schools use Macs. We train teachers and we have a serious commitment to providing Macintosh training," he said.

Menchaka said he anticipates a good deal of use once the Education Macintosh lab is set up and available for 20 hours of general use.

"For the students who are most comfortable with the Macs, that will be the time they can come in," he said.

Associated Students Inc. President Gary Davis said he was consulted over the summer by Freund, but was surprised to learn from the State Hornet that there was committee to make the allocation decisions.

"If there is going to be a committee to make those important decisions, we really need to be involved. Otherwise, it goes against everything we stand for," Davis said.

Faculty Senate Chair Tom Krabacher said he was unfamiliar with the committee's decision and needed more time to look into the issue, though he said he knew that there are faculty who use Macintosh computers. He also said he was not surprised by the move.

Both Davis and Krabacher are Macintosh users.

The amount spent on 530 new IBM PCs -- based on the cost of $1,377.22 for the CPU and $202.91 for the monitor -- is $837,468.90. Each of the machines boasts 64 megabytes of RAM, 4.5 gigabytes of hard drive space and 15" monitors. The approximate cost of a comparable Power Macintosh over the summer with education pricing would have been $1,600 for an all-in-one design with 64 megabytes of RAM and 15" monitor, based on information from Apple's website.

McGown said the BATS committee would soon be considering whether or not to keep the Amador lab open in the spring of 1999, based on the demonstrated demand of the lab.