Ohio University's Office of Information Technology will slash $1.62 million from its budget next year, which will include restructuring a computer lab in the Computer Services Center and eliminating the network's backup Internet connection.
The budget reduction plan submitted to Budget Planning Council in March included five layoffs, as well as plans to not fill seven vacant positions.
These cuts are hitting us at the staffing level
the network level and the service level said Sean O'Malley, OIT's communications director. But we are keeping an eye on our core mission of maintaining a robust and stable computer network.
OIT will reconfigure the lab on the ground floor of the Computer Services Center, which is on President Street across from Bentley Hall and currently houses a general-purpose lab, a second lab for classroom instruction and a digital media center. The lab contains about 60 computers, as well as printing services and is overseen by student managers.
O'Malley said the reorganization will not affect all of the computers, and that any changes to the lab will be complete by Fall Quarter.
The ultimate goal is to provide better computer access to students O'Malley said, adding that the restructuring may reduce the number of student managers needed at the lab.
It's possible that some of those student manager positions could go away
but that doesn't mean we'll lose the students
O'Malley said. There are other places we could need them within the department.
The reduction plan also suggests restructuring the computer center located on the ground floor of Baker University Center, but O'Malley said OIT hopes to avoid making changes to the Baker Center lab. The current plan is to keep the Baker Center lab open as is if we can save enough money through internal reconfiguring
O'Malley said.
OIT will also eliminate the university's backup Internet line. The reduction plan states that the cut will hurt the university's Internet reliability, while saving up to $50,000.
We're eliminating a redundancy by getting rid of our secondary outside Internet line
O'Malley said, adding that if the university's primary line were to crash, it would leave the campus without a backup.
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Wesley Lowery
