The long lines of students waiting to use the e-mail access stations on the ground floor of the Union may soon thin out with the introduction of additional stations in the building.
Heath Hattaway, Student Government executive assistant, said a $20,000 proposal was submitted to the Student Tech Fee committee Nov. 15 to improve the information desk area in the Union by adding three e-mail workstations, a wireless printer and an LCD television to promote Union events.
As part of the campus wireless printing system, the new printer will be accessible anywhere on campus, as well as by the Union e-mail stations.
Stacy Morales, manager of public access computing for the Office of Computing Services, said printing to the wireless printer in the Union will be similar to the system currently in use in campus computer labs.
Users will select the printer from their workstation’s desktop, which will prompt a popup box for the Pharos printing system. In the computer labs, the user would go to the selected printer’s Pharos computer, swipe their Tiger Card and print their document.
Morales said the Union instillation will be different because of space limitations. She said OCS is looking at using a simple Pharos LCD screen which would replace the Pharos computer used in normal setups.
In an effort to promote Union events in what Hattaway called a more “user-friendly” way, the proposal includes the addition of an LCD television screen which he said will serve any purpose in addition to plugging Union events.
“We were looking for a way to make events in the Union more eye-catching,” Hattaway said.
The partial wireless coverage in the Union will be expanded to complete coverage on all three floors with the addition of 30 wireless access points in the building, John Borne, assistant director of system support of the Office of Computing Services, said.
The wireless expansion is expected to be completed in February.
For students who have not yet ventured into the world of wireless computing, a proposal is in the works to add 25 Internet kiosks to five areas on campus: the Coates Hall corridor, Tureaud Hall break room, CEBA corridors, Music and Dramatic Art Building lobby and the Chopin Hall break area.
The project, estimated to cost about $75,000, will make use of student tech fee computers that are nearing the end of their three-year life cycle in campus computer labs.
Hattaway said the computers will be equipped with an Internet browser and will be housed inside custom enclosures which account for $62,000 of the project’s estimated cost.