Study any time of the day or night
After two years without a 24-hour computer lab for students,there is now such a lab open in the Broadway Housing building.
It is located on the second floor and when fully outfitted willhave 101 terminals. Entrance to The Broadway is gained with thecurrent student ID card.
The entrance is not yet programmed for the proposed new HigherOne card.
“We’ll address the Higher One card when it comes out,” said MarkKramer, director of instruction and research services. “We have atechnology thing about the Higher One card.” Scheduled to be issuedthis month, the Higher One cards will replace current student IDcards.
For two years, university students have languished without a24-hour general computer lab since budget cuts forced MillarLibrary to terminate its all-hours computer lab service.
“Now we have better equipment and a 24-hour day,” Kramer said.”ASPSU wanted 24-hour access.”
The Broadway lab will not be open 24 hours on Saturdays. Theschedule has the lab open on a 24-hour schedule from 11 a.m. Sundaythrough Friday at 7 p.m. The Saturday schedule is 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.There will be an attendant at the lab.
Students may enter on either the Southwest Sixth Avenue entranceor the Jackson Street entrance. At both entrances, the second floorlab is accessed by stairwell. The lab is located in Room 226.
“The lab has state-of-the-art PCs,” Kramer said. They are flatscreen with Pentium processors. They are highly energy-efficient,using only 10 percent of the power of the older PCs. The Broadwaylabs replace completely the former two student labs in ShattuckHall.
The Broadway stations have tables four feet wide, with plenty ofroom to spread out books and papers.
“Laptops are welcome,” he said. Those stations are wired to givelaptop access to printers. The computers are designed so thestudent may create documents on a lab computer and save it to ahome computer. Or the student can reverse the flow, taking the homecomputer file into a lab computer.
With a PSU computer account, students may access any lab. Theycan also have personal folders, which they can save on the networkand can access from home on their Internet connection. Students cancreate their own personal web sites. For assistance on any of theseapplications, students may consult a lab attendant or visit thehelp desk in Room 18, Smith Memorial Student Union basement.
The updating of technology, Kramer said, was made possible bythe student technology fee.
The most popular computers students use are in Millar Library,Kramer said. The hours there are Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m.to midnight; Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to midnight.
The third computer lab for general student use is located in theNeuberger Hall basement, room 96. Hours there are Monday throughThursday, 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., closedSaturday and Sunday.
All student lab computers carry the full Microsoft Office Suite.This includes Word, Excel, Power Point and Intenet Explorer, amongother applications. There are also photo scanning stationsavailable in labs. In addition to PCs, there are Macintoshterminals available.
Besides the general labs, the university has a number ofspecialized labs dedicated to the needs of various departments.There are more than 20 of these specialized labs in differentbuildings throughout the campus.
Kramer cautioned against food and drink in the labs.
“Spilling a soda or latte into the keyboard makes itdysfunctional,” he said.
Computer labs do not take up the entire non-residential part ofthe Broadway’s upper floors. There is one 60-seat classroom, two35-seat classrooms and two 16-seat classrooms.
For information concerning lab availability, account problems,or general access questions, students, faculty and staff may call503-725-2940.
