Software Licensing
Computing and Information Services (CIS) negotiated site licenses for 37 products, which have resulted in considerable savings for the university.
CIS reports to the associate provost for Information Technology and employs approximately 210 people. In addition, CIS employs up to 200 student workers, depending upon the time of year. About half of the staff within CIS support A&M’s administrative functions. According to the associate provost for Information Technology, about 51 percent of the CIS budget supports academic technology uses.
The following mission statements describe the goals of CIS:
• “We provide computing and information services to help our customers achieve their
missions. We serve the full range of university functions including teaching, research, public service, and administration.”
• “Our most important services are those that need to be shared by multiple divisions of the university, those that need to be coordinated between multiple customers, and those that need to be ongoing to assure continued availability over the years.”
• “Our primary customer is Texas A&M University, its students, faculty, and staff. We also support the agencies and institutions of the Texas A&M University System and other clients who contract for services, provided such services are compatible with meeting TAMU’s needs.”
• “Our staff is our most important resource. Their technical and management expertise is available to our customers both directly through consultation and contracts for services, and indirectly through their work to provide the other resources: computing systems, networks, software, and information.”
One CIS initiative that has reduced the cost of software used by A&M faculty and students is the effort to obtain software site licenses for products that are used campus wide. Negotiation for site licenses has been going on for 10 years and has resulted in considerable savings over that period of time. According to its web site, CIS has negotiated site licenses for a total of 37 products. Included among those are the following widely used products:
• ARC/INFO • ArcView • Adobe Products • AutoCAD • Dreamweaver • Flash • Macromedia Products • McAfee • Microsoft Products • Pagemaker • Photoshop • SAS • SPSS for Windows
The number of products is greater than the 37 listed since the list includes Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft Products, each of which represents more than one product. For example, Microsoft products include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Photo Editor, and Access.
Software Application Training
There is no policy that requires colleges to seek assistance from CIS to arrange a site license. Over time colleges have learned that it is more cost effective and convenient for CIS to work out these arrangements. There are instances when a college needs software that only it will use, and in that instance, the college will purchase the software on its own.
The training center in Computing and Information Services (CIS) offers all levels of training in software applications to A&M System employees. Classes are offered in operating environments, spreadsheets, databases, word processing, desktop publishing, web publishing, and
multimedia/presentation design and graphics. These classes range from three to nine hours of instruction and most carry Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits.
Exhibit 5–2 displays enrollment in CIS classes by employee classification and college during fiscal year 2003–04. The data in the exhibit include only training that is funded by the Computer
Access/Instructional Technology Fee. The CIS Training Center provides significant training for other non-academic purposes.
Exhibit 5–2
Enrollments in CIS Courses, Fiscal Year 2002–03 and First Half of 2003–04
FY 2002–03 First Half of FY 2003–04 Number of Classes 274 113 Total Enrollment: 146 77 Faculty 87 52 Staff 32 17 Graduate Assistants 21 5 Undergraduate Students 6 3 College: Agriculture 40 14 Architecture 9 6 Business 1 0 Education 20 11 Engineering 14 5 Geosciences 3 7 Liberal Arts 22 13 Science 9 4 Veterinary Medicine 11 1 Bush School 1 0
Health Science Center 4 3
Other Units 12 13
Source: A&M Computing and Information Services, 2004.
During fiscal year 2002–03, 146 individuals completed 274 classes, and during the first half of fiscal year 2003–04, a total of 77 individuals completed 113 classes. Participant feedback was positive, as shown by the following comments made regarding the classes:
• “I’ve struggled to learn software on my own for some time now. These classes greatly increased my confidence and ability to use the software. This was definitely a wise use of my time.”
• “I very much appreciate the support allotted for faculty for the purpose of training.” • “The material presented was most applicable to my teaching and research.”
• “I really enjoyed the Flash Class. It was great!”
The cost of classes varies from $70 to $150. However, participants are not charged for the class. Instead, the Computer Access/Instructional Technology Fee, that is included in student fees, covers the cost. See discussion of these fees in Section C.
Open Access Lab Support
Computing and Information Services (CIS) provides support to seven open access labs (OALs) with a total of 1,350 computers that are available for student use. To facilitate access, OALs are located across the campus. For five of the labs, CIS buys the equipment and software and provides support. Other departments that purchase software host two labs, but CIS purchases the equipment and provides support for the labs. In addition, CIS has an agreement to provide support to the Athletic Department lab, which is fully furnished by the department.
The support unit has 21 full-time staff members and hires from 90 to 130 students, depending upon the time of year. The Student Computing Center, which is the largest of the labs, has approximately 500 workstations. It is open 24 hours a day, five days a week, and for a variable number of hours on the weekends. One lab is open until 2:00 AM, and the other labs close at midnight. The computer access fee that students pay covers all costs associated with the labs.
In addition to the computers, the labs also provide access to peripherals such as color printers, large format plotters, film recorders, scanners, CD/DVD burners, and multimedia workstations. There also are supercomputer workstations that are used by graduate students.
The review team found that the number of computers available satisfies the needs of students. During the 2002 academic year, the highest number of seats occupied in the labs was 1,112, and the average occupancy was 521 seats. Observers report that the only time there are students waiting to use computers is when classes are about to change.
On the review team survey of alumni, 67.6 percent of recent graduates indicated that they were very satisfied or satisfied with the instructional technology at A&M. Approximately 30 percent had no opinion on the issue, and less than three percent indicated any dissatisfaction with instructional technology at A&M. Of those alumni who reported dissatisfaction with instructional technology, 37.5 percent said there was not enough technology in the classrooms.
Recent graduates indicated that the university has an adequate number of computers for students. This may be due partially to the fact that many students now have their own computer, which reduces demand for computer lab space. Four faculty members who were interviewed reported that they do not hear students complain about access to technology and that their students seem to be quite satisfied with the labs.
CIS also has seven classroom labs in which every student seat has a computer. Although these classrooms stay busy during the day, students may use these computers when the room is not scheduled for a class.
Computers are normally upgraded on a three-year cycle, however, with recent budget cuts, the cycle will likely be extended. The intent of the cycle is to keep technology up-to-date. Computers that are replaced are relocated to the library and elsewhere on campus where their use will still satisfy a need. For example, the library, which usually receives at least 300 computers through this process, uses older computers as workstations for the public, since they will most likely be doing searches that these computers still do well.
To assure sufficient technology access for students, CIS supports 10,500 Ethernet connections to the Internet in the residence halls, which consist of almost one-fourth of the total student population. Evidence of the use of these high-speed connections is demonstrated by the reduction from 2,000 modems in the late 1990s to 1,100 modems in 2004. None of these modems is at more than 70 percent capacity. Thus, the access in the residence halls reduces the need for computers in the open access labs.
CIS also provides a network support team student for computer repairs. The team is composed almost entirely of student workers and is so good at what they do that faculty members occasionally take advantage of their repair services. This service reduced the need for open access labs in that, by quickly repairing computers owned by students, the number of trips students need to make to one of the labs while repairs are being made is reduced.
The associate provost for Information Technology appoints an Open Access Labs Advisory Committee whose purpose is to provide advice on all aspects of OAL operation and rules. Membership on the committee consists of the OAL associate director of CIS or designated representative; two members of CIS involved with the OALs; seven students, one of whom is a graduate student; one representative of the library; and four at-large faculty members, one of whom is a faculty senator.
Some members of the OAL Advisory Committee indicated they felt the committee was essentially a “rubber stamp” committee for CIS. Although they cited several decisions that had been made by the committee as evidence, the review team found that there were factors relating to each of the decisions that suggested the final action of the committee to be appropriate. Nevertheless, the associate provost for Information Technology needs to do everything possible to ensure there is not the slightest perception that the committee serves as a convenience mechanism for CIS.