Tuesday, July 23, 1985
The Nebraskan
Page3
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By Kip Fry
Staff Reporter
In recent years, computing facilities
on the UNL campus have been scarce.
But this fall a program to upgrade eas
ily accessible computers will make
campus computing more visible, ac
cording to the director of UNL com
puting. "A lot of work has been going on for a
year and students will see the result of
that work this fall," Doug Gale said.
Computer facilities are being con
structed this summer on eight campus
locations to accomodate the incoming
terminals. The project was initiated
when UNL chancellor Martin Massen
gale decided there needed to be improve
ments in the UNL computing department.
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"It is a big commitment on the part
of campus administration and faculty
to improve this," Gale said..
At present, computing at UNL is only
about 60 percent of its peer institu
tions, but it is making improvements as
rapidly as any comparable institution,
he said.
"We are playing catch up ball," he
said, "but we have not yet caught up."
Work is being done on facilities in
Nebraska Hall, Bancroft Hall, Neihardt
Residence Center, Abel and Sandoz
residence halls, Hamilton Hall, Fergu
son Hall and the Wick Alumni Center.
Carpeting and air conditioning are
some of the items being added to the
rooms on the first and second floors of
Nebraska Hall. The rooms are already
operational with close to 40 computer
terminals there.
"When they're through, the rooms
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will be more fit for human habitation,"
Gale said.
Several of the projects are scheduled
to be completed this fall. The most
visible place may be in the southwest
corner of the Nebraska Union lounge,
which will house 16 terminals. The
areas put aside for the 24 units in Ban
croft Hall and the 32 in Neihardt
should also be ready for use this fall.
The Faculty Support Center, (FAS
TER), in the Wick Alumni Center should
be completed by mid-September. FAS
TER is a training facility used specifi
cally for faculty and staff members.
Work in Ferguson Hall, which should
be finished by mid-fall, is planned to
reduce crowding there. This location
contains a cluster of microcomputers
16 IBM personal computers and 16
Macintosh computers which are
linked to the central file in the admin
istration building.
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In a location undisclosed at this
time, the Microcomputer Laboratory
for Innovative Instruction (MIL1I) is
being planned and should be finished
by the middle of September.
Abel and Sandoz Halls will receive
32 terminals, and Hamilton Hall 24 to
30. Both computer sites will be access
ible by late fall.
"We're not running behind sche
dule," Gale said. "It's just that the
physical plant is under a tremendous
workload."
It is only now, though, that the work
is becoming visible. Much progress has
already been made, Gale said. Con-,
struction, such as laying miles of com-'
munications wire in the university's
steam tunnels, isn't as visible.
"Communications costs are a major
item," Gale said, "so this wire increases
10-9
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performance and decreases costs."
Half of the finances for the compu
ters comes from a "patchwork" of dif
ferent places. NU has received two
grants and is trying to obtain others
pom vendors and computer manufac
turers. UNL computing officials are.
also getting aid from both the Depart
ment of Education and the National
Science Foundation.
1 There is a lot of money out there,"
Gale said. "You have to work to get it,
but you don't always get it."
In the sixteen months since he
arrived at UNL, Gale said there has
been much activity at the. Computing
Resource Center. Now that work is
coming to a close on some of these
locations, Gale said he feels more optimistic
than he did six months ago.
"I'm sleeping well at night," Gale
rsaid. "The payday is just about here."
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