The reason SLAC has partners is certain departments on campus are small in size of their faculty and students yet their need for technology is as important as any other department. SLAC serves as their computer lab because their budgets would not allow for computer lab staffing, constant upgrading, and supporting such a facility. By having several small departments use a common computer lab their specific budgets can be focused on providing other direct student services. These departments simply provide their specific software, at no charge, to the SLAC to be placed on all PC workstations. It is the responsibility of the departments to secure the site licenses and maintain the appropriate paperwork.
Once the SLAC has the ownership of the software and is placed on all workstations our personnel are responsible for training all appropriate students on how to use it. SLAC technical staff makes sure that the software is compatible with the local area networks and performs on any of the workstations regardless of the computer's capabilities. Faculty members of our Partner Departments schedule their classes to have the SLAC staff teach their students the basic fundamentals of the software. All part-time employees in the SLAC are given training sessions on the software so everyone can help students use the department's software after the initial classroom training. This training is done for the part-time tutors in a 2-day period before the beginning of the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters.
Partner Department Chairpersons can request a report at the end of a semester on how many students used the program and the total times it was used (see our section on How We Check-in Students). Specific faculty members can request reports on the use of the SLAC by their students by providing us with the social security numbers from the class roles.
Any of the faculty can request new services of the SLAC but if it involves a significant amount of money the chairperson is notified about the request. If the chairperson cannot fund the proposed service, SLAC staff will talk with the SLAC Council at its yearly meeting to see if the rest of the Partners feel the new service is worth the expense and how it can be funded. The Council's main function is to serve as an advisory group to the SLAC staff on new directions, services, and improvements that should be made, and is the SLAC still providing support to the specific Partners.
