Computer labs handle high traffic

The sound of 100 typing hands greets the searching student who strains his neck to look down… The sound of 100 typing hands greets the searching student who strains his neck to look down each aisle of the Cathedral of Learning computer lab. He’s amongst a flurry of eight others doing the same. There’s an audible hum coming from an unknown source, which could quite possibly be the cranked-up heater, the fluorescent lights or the 50 running machines. He manages to weave down an aisle and pounce on the first chair put up for grabs.

The female student standing behind him entered the lab first, but she has lost the race. She throws up her hands, palms facing upward, to match the confused expression on her face. She mouths a shocked, “What?” while scrunching up her eyebrows. But in her efforts to avoid getting gypped again, she quickly moves on. And the computer search continues.

Available computers can be scarce at Pitt’s campus computing labs, although there are seven located throughout campus. Locations are: Alumni Hall, Benedum Hall, the Cathedral of Learning, David Lawrence Hall, the Hillman Library, Wesley W. Posvar Hall and Sutherland Hall. There are close to 600 computers and 25 printers in all.

Jinx Walton, the director of Computing Services and Systems Development at Pitt, said her department is in the process of an 18-month project to bring wireless Internet to the whole campus. The venture is scheduled to be complete by June of 2008, with wireless being added to different buildings each month. Walton said CSSD hopes this will help ease the problem of too few computers.

But finding a computer is only half of it.

Pitt student Megan Cobert moved briskly into the Cathedral, making no stops and heading directly for the computer lab. She kept her pace as she slid onto the first empty chair and immediately punched in her username and password. After a zip drive in, double click here and a quick type there, she pressed the “Print” button.

The computer lab employee performed high-paced alphabetization on the table next to Cobert. With the usernames bannered across the minty green coversheets that separate individuals’ printouts, the female employee put out the papers with experienced ease. She darted back and forth to the printers that continuously spat out paper.

“Twenty minutes? Did I just hear her say the wait was 20 minutes?” a waiting female student asked her friend.

She shifted her weight onto her other Ugg boot and crossed her arms. Stunned, she looked at her friend.

“That’s freaking ridiculous,” her gum-chewing pal said.

The two continued to wait as Cobert retrieved her hot-off-the-press printout and whizzed out the door to the elevators. This was her second attempt at printing her French paper. The first time, she went to the David Lawrence computer lab. She waited for it to print, then waited some more, until she finally ran to class only to show up late and paperless. Luckily, her professor understood and told her she could drop it off in her mailbox later that day.

These kinds of problems, in addition to debates over who should be entitled to the computers, are a daily event in the computer labs.

Walton said the CSSD department is aware of the problems students are facing in the labs.

“The number of labs we have is pretty significant, it’s just during those peak times when everyone wants to use them,” she said.

She defined peak times of lab usage as weekdays between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Walton also said that the most conveniently located labs, like the ones in the Cathedral and David Lawrence, are the busiest and that some students may not realize that other nearby labs are less crowded.

Posvar has 90 computers and Alumni Hall has 48 in its lab. Walton said these labs are substantially less crowded.

She said CSSD plans on placing display panels in the busier labs that will provide information about the less crowded ones, with hopes of directing students to more available computers.

Walton also said CSSD has just received 10 new high-speed printers to help remedy printer backups. The current printers will stay, and these will be added to labs throughout campus this month. Walton said they print faster and will be installed in the busiest labs, like the Cathedral, first.

Walton hopes that these plans, along with the wireless installation project, will help to alleviate the frustrations of Pitt computer lab users.

“We’re doing everything we can,” she said.

For now, the computer lab race continues.