Veep's Corner
By Greg Rogers

As someone who has worked full-time every summer since I was 15, it always feels odd to say “welcome back” when I and my staff have been at our busiest. Nonetheless, to our esteemed colleagues who have not been on campus for a couple of months, we in OIT say Welcome Back!

Last Spring we were moving towards possibly closing down the PIT in HT2 due to declining enrollment, and as a cost-saving measure. However, by May it was apparent that enrollments were trending upward and closing the PIT in HT2 would limit technology access for our students. Unfortunately, PSTaRT had recommended a one-year moratorium on computer acquisitions. This put us in a “bind” because our intent was to reallocate the PIT computers to fill four labs in the newly renovated Business Building.

Concurrent to the activities here at GCC, the Governing Board was recommending that all colleges in the District standardize on one computer manufacturer. Now what do we do? Some colleges deployed Dells, and some deployed HPs, and of course, we have successfully stretched our capital dollars by building our own. But all of the colleges purchased some Macs. In fact, several of our sister institutions had already gone so far as to make Macs their institutional standard because of the Macs’ ability to also run Windows’ operating systems (among others).

Therefore, the OIT staff recommended that I consider deploying iMacs in our open labs so students requiring Mac software would not have to wait for a computer to free up, and students requiring Windows software could use the same machine. And, while I recognized that many life-long PC users might find this a tough pill to swallow (myself included), going with Macs in the open labs was the best solution for our students. Not only can they run multiple operating systems, they were also cheaper than the PC alternatives AND included a stunning 24 inch monitor!

While this decision only pertains to the open lab settings where our students need this flexibility, I will be recommending to PSTaRT on September 4, that iMacs become our institutional standard. We will also be offering a session during the week of accountability on the iMacs, as well as a Learning Lunch session later this fall to acquaint folks with the hardware and why it is the best choice for standardization at GCC at this time.

Please read the other articles in this newsletter for more details about this and some of the many projects your OIT staff have worked on this past summer.

Have a great Fall semester!

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