The Center for Information Technology will close three campus computer labs and consolidate services on South Campus to German House next fall. The move will allow the College to update computers while swallowing a $300,000 cut spurred by the budget crisis a year ago.

“We fully recognize the advantage of having labs all over campus,” CIT director John Bucher said. “But we’re trying to minimize the impact of budget cuts, which have affected us in a big way.”

The iMacs in the lobby of Carnegie, the second floor of Wilder and the third and fourth floors of Mudd will fall victim to the cuts, as well as the computer lab in Lord/Saunders. Bucher said he hopes additional equipment will be added to the Kade computer lab to offset the closure.

The center plans to replace the entire stock of four-year-old iMacs on campus suring the summer. While CIT will not have its $4 million budget downsized again this year, given the 30 percent reduction in capital purchases a year ago, the only way Bucher said they could afford the upgrades is through consolidation.

“I’m not trying to pretend this isn’t a removal of convenience,” he said. “But there is definitely an advantage to having bigger, larger labs.”

The campus currently boasts about 370 computers for student use. After factoring out the computers dedicated to TIMARA, computer science and other restricted access labs, the number of public computers comes to approximately 300. Currently, 30 of those are in Biggs, 100 in Mudd and 18 spread between Kade and Lord/Saunders.

The current cuts would shave 24 computers off that total. Bucher said that with cuts in maintenance allotments, it is impossible to keep all labs open with up to date machinery and continue to provide the other network and Resnet services that the center offers.

A prominent concern is the reduction of computer access on South Campus, which, at 18 computers, is already paltry compared to the 30 computers that Biggs brings to North Campus. Bucher mentioned possibly talking with Residential Life to create a Biggs-like lab in the basement of South.

“You could get really creative,” he said, but added that there were security and financial concerns that would need to be addressed before any project of that nature could go through.

CIT has had to cut student labor by 30 percent and computer purchases by 25 percent since the administration laid out budget cuts last academic year. Software licenses are often flat fees and can not be cut without suspending services. The CIT pays license costs for programs that calculate the campus’ payroll, track student enrollment and provide Internet access, as well as supply public-use software, such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat.

“There are many different ways you could cut this,” Bucher admitted. “We have a large budget.” He stressed providing new equipment and a plethora of maintenance services was more important that retaining every computer lab.

“I’m puzzled by the fact that 70 percent of the people on the south end of campus have computers with network access in their rooms, yet they want the computer lab to stay as well,” he said.

President Nancy Dye said that while she questioned the closure of the Lord/Saunders lab, she was confident that Bucher had made a sound decision.

“Given the situation with student-owned computers, we might consider consolidating labs,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a crazy idea.”

“That said,” she added, “I don’t think we should get into the complacent notion that everbody has a computer.”

Characterizing computer labs in dorms as providing “bedroom slipper access,” she added: “I like the idea of bedroom slipper access, and I would hate to see things go further in the direction that they are.”

She said she sympathized with those who wanted to keep the Lord/Saunders lab, responding, “I agree with those sentiments.”

The closure of the lab in Wilder 210 will increase stress on Mudd, where six computers will also likely be taken to offset the closure on South Campus.

Bucher, while admitting that A-level was the busiest lab on campus, stressed that computers were almost always available in Mudd 052 except during the hectic times of midterms, reading period and finals. In a light-hearted addendum, he said that it was exactly 150 steps from the current Wilder lab to the entrance of A-level.

While computer totals have been increased since the opening of the Science Center, they are all in “computer classrooms” and have been incorporated into course cirriculums, meaning their capacity cannot be reduced below class sizes.

“Research Only” computers on campus are maintained by the Oberlin College Library and are not the responsibility of CIT.