TSC Computer Lab to Undergo Facelift

Starting this summer, the Taggart Student Center computer lab is undergoing renovation with the hopes of adding 25 to 26 extra computer stations.

Ericka Ensign, ASUSU academic vice president, said, "I think that any student that has tried to use the TSC computer lab in the middle of the day can attest to the fact that more computers would not go unused."

Layne Turner, a freshman art major, said, "There's always a wait, no matter what time of day you go there."

To further this transformation, the student computer fee committee voted in favor of increasing students' computer fees. The increase will be between $1 and $1.50.

"If the committee had granted every request for additional fees, it would have been around $11 per student per semester," Ensign said. "The committee was very careful in what it chose to fund."

Rob Chatterton, senior liberal arts and sciences major and member of the Student Academic Council, said, "I believe the increase will greatly help to meet the needs of the students. A lot of students regularly use the TSC computer lab, so I feel the money is being used wisely."

The TSC computer lab is the only computer facility on campus that has been funded for expansion.

Ensign said, "The TSC computer lab is by far the most-used open-access computer lab, with 21.58 percent of all usage."

To make this expansion successful, they will have to remove the arcade from the Bull Pen, and the arcade will be gone for good.

"The arcade in the Bull Pen loses money and has more high school students using it than Aggies," she said.

The expansion will bring new hours for the TSC computer lab. The lab will be open from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. every school day.

The time extension seemed logical, Ensign said, because of observations made during the last weeks of the semester, when the lab is open 24 hours.

"Most students leave the lab between 2 and 3 a.m. and don't start filling up again until around 7 a.m.," Ensign said.

By Staci Peterson; stacipete@cc.usu.edu
Photo by Ryan Talbot