All 1,230 University of Colorado at Boulder faculty members will receive new computers in a continuing three-year cycle, Richard L. Byyny, chancellor, announced today.
Byyny announced the current investment in equipment following a survey by the ATLAS Steering Committee, which showed the greatest faculty information technology need was for infrastructure support. ATLAS is the Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society, a campus initiative to ensure that all students are prepared for careers in the Information Age and faculty have the tools they need to do their research and provide the best education for students.
"The goal is simple," Byyny said. "Give our outstanding faculty the technological support they need to continue being successful. Providing PC equipment and support is one important step in meeting this goal."
He said that a program to equip the faculty with modern personal computers advances learning and the academic interests and administrative functions of the institution, supporting both the President聮s Total Learning Environment initiative and the campus strategic plan.
All tenured and tenure-track faculty and all rostered instructors and senior instructors are included in the upgrading plan. New machines will be equipped with pre-loaded software.
"By providing a basic set of software, we hope to improve and simplify the on-going technical support over time," he said.
In the first year, faculty members who have no computer or whose computer is more than four years old will be given preference for the receipt of new equipment. An estimated 25 percent of the faculty now are using old equipment. In three years, all faculty will have received new computers. Thereafter, equipment will be upgraded every three years.
Both PCs and Macintoshes will be available.