One of the Information Technology Service’s main objectives is to give students the access to the best technology available, in order to obtain the optimal environment for education. This time, ITS will satisfy the growing demand for computers in Paul Mellon Humanities Center and St. John’s Hall by converting several rooms into computer labs.

Director of ITS Andrew Speyer explained, “Our current goal is to make sure that each department at least 45 computers.” The science department can easily pass this requirement, since it has a whole science center with computerized labs to itself. The language department also can pass the ITS standards easily. The entire ground level of Steele Hall is devoted to International Learning Center, which is basically a computer language lab.

The St. John’s Hall poses some problems. The math building only has two classrooms with computers. One is devoted entirely to a single teacher, David Quarfoot, who teaches all high-level computer science courses. The other is full of IBM tablet PCs equipped with various special math applications, such as Dino. While all other academic buildings can supply extra computers outside labs in the form of laptop carts when needs arise, St. John’s Hall, one of the oldest buildings in Choate campus, does not have an elevator in which bulky laptop carts can travel between the first and second floors. Therefore, the only viable solution for the math department is to convert one of the first floor classrooms into a computer lab. After a math department meeting with the ITS, math teachers concluded that both teachers and students will greatly benefit from a new first floor lab.

The Paul Mellon Humanities Center has a great disadvantage compared to other academic buildings because it actually houses two departments—English and HPRSS. Thus, ITS must provide at least 90 computers to the building. Also, many teachers in the Humanities do feel a greater need for more computers as more and more coursework and projects are done on computers. Although they are provided with laptop carts, the laptops are typically slow to boot up, and rolling the carts around a large four-story building was sometimes extremely tiring and time-consuming. To resolve these problems, the Humanities teachers also had a department meeting with the ITS and concluded that they could sacrifice a first floor classroom and the fourth floor faculty lounge to create space for more computer labs.

During spring break, ITS plans to take the first step toward setting up new computer labs. ITS must make a wide variety of changes to the designated classrooms and the faculty lounge before actually bringing the computers in. Preparing a computer lab for the ITS means not only buying computers but also installing new wiring behind the walls and purchasing a number of other devices, such as projectors and printers. The rest of the work will be done in the sliver of time between the last day of spring term and the first day of the Choate summer programs. By the beginning of the next school year, the new computer labs in St. John’s and Humanities will be available for class use.