Computing labs and technology classroom (CLTC) initiative

Abstract

DePauw University is a small, liberal arts institution with 2200 undergraduate residential students and 222 faculty members, located in Greencastle, Indiana. The challenges of supporting a campus with multiple and diverse facilities are further amplified by limited staff support resources. One of the strategies for addressing these challenges led to the formation of the Computing Labs and Technology Classrooms (CLTC) initiative. The CLTC recognizes and draws on the strengths of support specialists with a wide variety of professional training and experience, who regularly collaborate in the support and management of campus-wide labs and technology classrooms.The veritable explosion of new technologies presents its own fiscal challenges. As with many other institutions, our financial ability to hire enough staff with the requisite skills to fulfill the ever-increasing support requests is very limited. In an effort to address these concerns, a committee was formed of individuals active in supporting technology in their respective disciplines.The committee includes faculty members, technical and administrative support specialists, instructional technologist, a graphic artist and the director of Instructional Media Services. Their individual support perspectives combine to provide a broad understanding that enriches and increases each committee member's ability to provide support at all levels. In addition to the focus on support, the CLTC initiative has also provided a forum for collaborative work on budgets, policy and planning.In this paper, four committee members describe the CLTC initiative and the distributed support model developed at DePauw University, along with its impact on labs, technology classrooms and the broader campus community.