Computing support pilot project to expand next fall

Administrators have approved the funding and extension of a residence-based computing support pilot project into all residential program houses next year. Residence Life Acting Director Chris Dennis explained that the ResTech Primary Support Project will "personalize computer support" in all 11 program residences -- including six college houses and five first-year houses -- along the lines of a pilot program in the Van Pelt College House. "This will create a system to provide computer support 24 hours a day and seven days a week? with the bulk of the energy focused on first-year students," Dennis said. The project will require the hiring and training of approximately 130 information technology advisers, or ITAs, and five computing professionals as "backups" for the ITAs. Hiring the ITAs -- undergraduate work-study students -- has already begun in each of the residences, according to Residential Faculty Council Chairperson Al Filreis. The ITAs will complete a three-day training before the beginning of school in the fall. "We experimented with one residence to see if we could do it," Filreis said last month. "We've found that these houses are programs where this new system can be done very effectively." Filreis noted that these program houses have "a tradition of delivering student services right there in the House." The project will soon hire an Assistant Director for Residential Computing to coordinate the training. And implementation of the project will coincide with the installation of ResNet into all Quadrangle rooms. The next phase of the project will extend computing support to the high rises, while its fourth phase will provide the resources to all students -- including those living off campus. Filreis said that planning for the high rises is underway, and Dennis expressed hope that the project would include the high rises by fall 1998. This localized support serves a different purpose than the Computing Resource Center located on Locust Walk across from The Book Store. "The residential computing support project provides almost instantaneous answers to computing questions -- right in the student's home -- by people the student knows," Filreis said. Wharton senior Edton Mock, who serves as student manager of the program in Van Pelt College House, said the program will allow students to avoid "a lot of confusion that surrounds getting connected to the network." "A lot of freshmen come in with limited computer skills," he said. "So when they arrive, they'll have a mechanism in place to make their transition easier." He added that the program should also include a "more technically adept student body." Two other features of the Van Pelt program will be extended into the 11 houses next year, as a program this fall will provide a library assistance adviser for on-site library help and a student in each of the residences will provide help with the MAPLE calculus program. "The Van Pelt pilot demonstrated the power of local and peer support," Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta said. "I think it's going to be wonderful for reaching students in their homes and giving them a partnership with the academic community," he added.