Students, computers, and surveys, oh my

First, a little plug: the Academic Bowl is this weekend! It's the first time in the competition's 15-year history that all the magic will happen here on campus, and matches are open to fans! I'm working on it myself, and am looking forward to it.

Now ...

As I've mentioned a few times over the past few weeks, we're looking at different things we may be able to do with the public computer area on the first floor, next to the Service Desk.

To that end, we set up a survey specifically for people who used that area and collected them over the course of 2 weeks. We got close to a hundred responses, which, given various factors, is a pretty good number!

In general, we asked people questions on a couple of different topics:

1) How they used the area, either individually or with others.
2) If crowding was a problem, whether in terms of inadequate computer supply or sheer space for one's bags and stuff, and if an "express station" might help.

We also offered an area where people could add other issues that they'd been having with that area in particular. What we discovered both surprised us and didn't, and it'll inform many of the decisions we make over the next few months. More to come on that front!

In the meantime, I'd like to congratulate the winners of our drawing: Emma Pruitt, Shane Dundas, and Fallon Haney! They each get a nifty little giftcard to enjoy their weekend with, and everyone gets the benefit of their input, along with that of all the terrific students, staff, and faculty who filled out our survey. Our thanks go out to them.

That's it for the time being. Next week promises to be difficult schedule-wise, to say the least, so this blog will go quiet for the next week and a half. Never fear; we shall return!