The Office of the Provost has allotted $18,000 per year to pay Computing Services, an allocation that will not require yearly renewal or review, according to College Provost Barry Scherr.
Kapil Kale '07, the resolution's sponsor, said he believed Computing Services could oversee the terminals more efficiently and effectively than the Assembly could, arguing that Computing Services is better suited to repair and replace terminals more regularly.
"The service that students are going to get is going to be much better than the service that they're getting right now, and it frees up SA to do other things," Kale said.
Budget constraints and the high turnover rate of Assembly leaders prevent the Assembly from regularly replacing the terminals, according to Kale. Prior to the most recent replacement of the BlitzMail terminals in 2005, the Assembly had not replaced them in over six years.
Computing Services will replace the current BlitzMail terminals over a period of three or four years, beginning with those in the most high traffic areas and those in most need of repair, according to Director of Computing Support and Fiscal Services Rita Murdoch. How often the computers will be replaced after the initial purchase depends on whether Computing Services purchases Apple computers or Dell computers for the new terminals. Apple computers would be replaced after three years of use -- the length of time the Apple warranty covers them. Dell computers, which have a four year warranty, would be replaced every four years.
Murdoch and Kale both explained that currently the Assembly hires two students to oversee and maintain the terminals, but a professional member of Computing Services' staff will perform the task beginning in the fall.
"We have a person whose job it is to manage public computers," Murdoch said. "This is his job. It's not a student whose real job here is to learn, not to go around and replace mice on keyboards."
While Computing Services may hire a student, likely a help desk worker, to assist with BlitzMail terminal oversight, this student will not have primary responsibility for the terminals' care, Murdoch said.
Kale, who first contacted Murdoch and Scherr in February about handing over maintenance responsibility to Computing Services, highlighted the speed and ease of the process.
"I talked to [Student Body President] Tim [Andreadis '07] and some other members of SA about it," Kale said. "I talked to Scherr about it. I talked to Rita about it, and it happened."
After Computing Services replaces the terminals, the computers owned by the Assembly will be returned to the Assembly. The group hasn't yet decided what it will do with the old computers, but Kale said that the Assembly might use them, sell them, or give them away.
