Each year the Computer Center will publish a report that describes the current state of computing at Potsdam College. The report will describe: current computing activities in departments; usage and activity for each student computing center/lab (e.g., Levitt Center, Student Word Processing Lab, School of Professional Studies Micro Lab, Crane Computer Lab); support provided by the Computer Center and the College; and, general directions in computing, new developments and plans for the future in computing.
Goals:
To produce an annual report based upon the description above
Cooperative Relationships with the Computing Industry
Potsdam College has a strong need to foster and maintain good relations with the computing industry. Not only are computer companies a major source of employment for our students, they are interested and often active in many phases of college life: admissions, grants and research contracts, summer employment, personal computer purchase programs, technical assistance to campus computing, career services, alumni relations and development. The Computing Center can assist with computer industry relations by making contact at trade shows, working with vendors, getting students involved in computing and establishing regular contact with company representatives.
Goals:
To establish cooperative relationships with computing companies whose products and direction are consistent with the goals of the campus computing plan
To acquire technical assistance and support from these companies
To establish beta-test site status with these companies
To increase opportunities for grants and joint research projects between faculty and students and these companies
To increase opportunities for employment of Potsdam College graduates with these companies
Testing/Prototyping New Technologies
Computing technology continually experiences tremendous change, often within very short spans of time. The pace of major product announcements and significant innovations in computing technology over the past several years has quickened and to take advantage of these developments, it is important to explore new technologies which are of particular interest to academic work and maintain a current understanding of the technology. A small percentage of the computing resources acquired by the College should also be allocated each year for the evaluation of new equipment, software and networking strategies for campus-wide implementation. This should include newly announced hardware which has the greatest potential use by the College community. This evaluation process benefits the College by:
* reducing costly mistakes in purchasing
* minimizing the inefficient use of computing resources
* encouraging faculty and students to purchase recommended (i.e., thoroughly tested and appropriate) hardware and software, thus reducing pressure to acquire these resources by the College
* producing recommendations to outside vendors, alumni, corporations and friends to donate resources which are appropriate to our needs
Goals:
To explore new computing hardware architectures based upon advanced operating systems
To explore new computing applications which may have a beneficial impact upon instruction and research (e.g., hypermedia)
Faculty and staff frequently apply for research and equipment grants to sponsor special projects and programs that involve computing (e.g., the NSF Science and Math Teachers grant). The Computer Center offers consultation and support in these efforts.
Goals:
To provide consultation and support to faculty and staff in the preparation of grant proposals involving computing activity
Each year there are several computing concepts which pique the general interest of the academic community, or particular departments, and require special assistance and research to explore and evaluate. Often these projects open new computing opportunities for students and faculty.
Goals:
To identify and fully support those special computing projects which are of general interest to the academic community or to particular departments
Clarkson University Computing Facilities
Through an agreement with Clarkson University, faculty, staff and students of Potsdam College may access and use the computing facilities of Clarkson University through one of three special telephone dial-in lines attached to the Clarkson LAN. However, you must have a Clarkson usercode assigned to you to make use of this service. Ideally, access should be as transparent to the user as any other service provided on our campus.
Goals:
To establish transparent access to Clarkson computing facilities from Potsdam College or by telephone service
To explore the use of additional or new services provided by the Clarkson University computing facilities which would be supported under the current contractual agreement