for
the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts
Mar.
9, 2001
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Senate debates current policy by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff  fter
extensive discussion and an amendment, a resolution supporting the
eventual abolition of the optional fee for students using Office of
Information Technologies services was passed by the Faculty Senate
at its March 1 meeting.Some senators objected to the original motion, which contained the phrase, "free access to OIT services without payment of an optional fee," because of budgetary concerns. "I'm not opposed to the notion if we figure out a way to get universal access, but those of us who have been involved through the Executive Council ... [have been] looking at budget items and identified OIT as being an area where we have got to pay particular attention," said Peter d'Errico, professor of Legal Studies. "So when I see the word 'free' access it raises a lot of questions in my mind, and I'm wondering whether the committee addressed the question of a continuing revenue stream to support the operation." "Well, certainly a continuing revenue stream is expected," said Joseph Kunkel, chair of the University Computer and Electronic Communications Committee, which generated the resolution. "However, it's going to be difficult to identify exactly how to make that transition. We as a committee looked at this as simply where we have to move towards and hope that the administration and other wise minds in the community would figure out how we would fund it." "The current income from student fees is about $750,000 this year," said John Dubach, associate chancellor for Information Technologies and chief information officer. "The Faculty Senate committee only recognizes the need, which I fully support, to go ubiquitous with access to computing. "I can tell you many, many stories of faculty members coming to me and complaining about this fee, that it inhibited students from taking advantage of available resources in their classes and really interferes with them trying to do as many things as they want to do in the classroom. "The committee said the intent of this motion is that 'this is where we need to go,' to make it so that every student on campus can be assumed to have access to the some level of resources. In terms of the financing, it is an open question." "I've heard people say...that some people can't participate in WebCT, for example, if they use that method of conducting a course," d'Errico said. "As a teacher, I regard [an OIT fee] as being the same as requiring them to buy a book. "I think we're way past the point at which the senate or any other group can simply say, we want pie in the sky, and then hand it to some administrator and say, please deliver the pie in the sky as soon as possible. Maybe if the word 'free' weren't in there, I wouldn't be so upset." "In the preamble, we recognize that there are financial matters to be considered," Kunkel said. "However, the motion is purely aimed at recognizing the fact that we need equal access to all University members. And it does not address the revenue stream." After striking the word 'free' from the motion, the discussion focused on issues that arise from students not all being on the OIT system. "Students come to classes, some of them with OIT accounts, some of them with various commercial accounts, and actually the ones with commercial accounts cannot get the same services," Kunkel said. "Many faculty seem to feel inhibited from utilizing things like electronic reserves or Web pages which are very efficient, and which students like, because not all members of the class have these accounts," said May. "And without saying it, what we're recommending is that the University change this revenue stream from being an optional fee, a nonmandatory fee, to being part of the mandatory fee, either part of the curriculum fee or part of a technology fee. "Now, my understanding is this is not a change in University policy if the senate endorses this. We're setting a policy direction; we're not mandating that it occur on such-and-such a date. "I believe that in the near future, not this fiscal year perhaps, but certainly the following one, that there will be some rises in fees allowed in Boston, and, if so, I think this ought to be among the first things that get taken care of. "Some faculty take the attitude of professor d'Errico, but others don't. And it's really restraining the development of a number of courses in this direction. "Also, if it's a mandatory fee, then it goes on the bill, and students with financial need, find that their financial aid will take care of it. "The Library is going forward rather quickly with electronic improvements in services. From the Library point of view, they're getting site licenses now to many large databases and so forth, and the price of those site licenses... depends on being able to identify the community to which the license is being granted. If we don't have authentication of all the members of the community, then the issue of who gets in and who's out of being able to use these databases in the Library is extremely complicated. And people who are on AOL and Yahoo cannot get in because only people who are on our system can. So there's another reason. But what we're really voting is that every member of the University community should have access to OIT services without payment of an optional fee: it doesn't say that we can't have a mandatory fee. "So I think there are a number of reasons [to approve the resolution], and as a resolution of the Faculty Senate, it's not setting an absolute University policy, but it's pointing strongly in this direction for those who do set budgetary policy." |
