24 hour dedicated computer lab for Mechanical/Electrical/Civil/Etc students.
It seems patently unfair that one of the largest departments/colleges at this school doesn't have a dedicated 24 hour computer lab. To access computers on off-days, you have to hope that someone didn't lock brown, and hope that someone didn't lock 316, and hope that they are going to let you log on in the first place. With a lot of my homework requiring specialty software that is not provided for free, I am frequently enraged when I am unceremoniously kicked out of a computer lab at 11:00 when I still have a small dump-truck of work to be done.
David Pride
shared this idea
UPDATE:
Currently CTLM has a dedicated 24 hour computer lab with a lot of computers and software! Any student, no matter what major or year, can use these computers. USG acknowledges that there should be more space on campus for 24 hour dedicated computer labs. We will continue in the future to advocate for new computer labs. For example, the new library renovation project will create new space for more computer labs accessible to all students.
Sincerely,
USG
Update: It is in the short future of capital planning to create two more computer labs. One will be a teaching lab in Chauvenet and the other will be in Brown building. A definite timeline is not yet known. It is still a class project to work on longer access in Brown.
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Update: One of the main reasons why getting access to this building is so difficult is because of all the incidents that occur. Apparently there have been several incidents late at night (like pretty gross incidents). If the amount of these could go down then maybe we would be able to make more progress, but unfortunately we still haven’t been able to get far with this project.
Update: This project is still ongoing. The current sophomore class is looking in to the issue and trying to get blastercard access to that building. If you ever have specific questions about the progress email the president or representatives, you can find their info at http://mines.orgsync.com/org/usg/officers
Previous: The USG Freshman class is looking into getting 24/7 Brown Building blaster card access for the majors located there.
A current problem is that each department has their own requirements for giving blaster card access to their respective students. So getting 24/7 blaster card access to Brown largely depends on how lenient your department is and if you have a valid excuse for 24/7 access.
Those who have tried to get 24/7 access to Brown have been denied due to security reasons and because ‘being a student’ is not a valid reason for granting 24/7 access.
We will continue to look for a solution to this problem, we understand its importance to the campus.
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Jon
commented
Ok, so how are we doing on this one now another year past? If there have been "gross incidents" keeping us from accessing Brown, perhaps looking into the mining department would be a good place to start since they have 24/7 access. Or look at all of the logged "tape" from the cameras scattered all over the place. Another way to cut down on those kinds of problems is to only grant that access to juniors and seniors; we need it the most anyway.
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Cassandra Calahan
commented
How is it that the security problems are limited to just Brown building? The Chemical Engineering and Petroleum Departments grant their students 24/7 access. I do not understand why these security issues are exclusive to Brown Building. I understand that the CTLM is also 24/7 for all students, and that is a step in the right direction, but many different software programs that are needed for certain classes are only on computers in Brown Building.
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Anonymous
commented
I think it would work just fine if the computer labs that are already in Brown do not kick you off at 10:00 PM. Make them so you can use them any time of day, and problem mostly solved! It'll be like CTLM where they won't kick you out even when the building is closed. If that works for CTLM, I'm sure it'll work for Brown.
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Corey Brugh
commented
Petroleum and Chemical engineering students have 24/7 access to their respective buildings and computer labs.
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Liz Erbeam
commented
Perhaps the academic societies for the general engineering majors (Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Environmental) should also be looking into this. There are some majors on campus whose academic society reserves and maintains a room for them within their department. Get them to do a little digging and perhaps something could be done.
Also, if you're in the CTLM before 11:45 PM and you want to stay, they don't kick you out and you can be there as loooong as you want. -
Nice Guy
commented
It is indeed ridiculous. Perhaps our student body size doesn't quite meet the critical mass necessary to fund a 24-hour lab. But, almost every school I know of has a 24-hour computer lab.
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Bob
commented
Has any progress been made on this idea? The fact that all computer labs on campus close down at or before 11:45 PM is simply ridiculous. Blastercard readers and security cameras are already present in all new buildings. What is the point of such entry control and security measures if the buildings are only accessible during the day? The equipment to grant and control student access to computer labs during non-business hours already exists and is installed! All it takes is a change in policy to allow students to make use of the equipment that they're already paying for. I would like to see this changed before next semester, there's simply no excuse for not getting it done by then.