[Internet Exclusive] As the end of autumn quarter nears, students may find themselves under pressure to finish research assignments and projects. Malfunctioning campus computers and printers, however, could make it difficult for students to meet their deadlines.
The William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library, Ohio State’s main library, offers a variety of assistance to students. Along with books, journals and reference items the library also supplies computers with Internet access. Lately though, some students have been disappointed with the facility’s online services.
Mark Gaulrapp, a student in pre-communications, is frustrated with the “pathetic Internet service in the main library.”
“It is so bad that one cannot do research or even better than that use the Web Oscar in the biggest library on campus,” Gaulrapp said in a letter to The Lantern. “I am writing this letter from the third floor because I could not get online downstairs on the main level. I did what I observe other students doing, that is bounce around from one computer to another hoping to get lucky and get online,” he said.
Patricia McCandless, library spokeswoman, said she did not know of students having difficulties in accessing the net. In fact, she said attendance in the labs has been great.
“I wonder if some students aren’t aware of the need to authenticate on the PCs in the area where JavaMaster is and on the second floor. As I walk around the building, most seats at PCs are taken and more than half are on the Internet,” she said.
Frozen screens often create a roadblock to finishing assignments. Students’ mice and keyboards often stop functioning while writing papers or doing research on the web. According to Tom Daniels, a Macintosh representative, a frozen screen is usually caused by the amount of memory being used up on the computer.
“You can increase your computer’s memory by installing more RAM,” said Daniels. “That will ease the frozen screen problems.”
Hanging applications may also cause screens to freeze.
“Although you can force-quit the application by pressing the Control, Option, Command, and Esc keys at the same time, it usually leads to another frozen screen, which requires restarting the computer and all unsaved material will be lost,” Daniels said.
Inoperative Internet service is not the only problem students are having as they try to complete work. Attempting to print documents is also hindering their efforts.
Molly Hartman, a junior in social work, had particular difficulties printing from the computer lab in the Journalism Building.
“After getting three messages on my computer screen saying there was an error in printing I finally asked for help. I thought maybe I was doing something wrong,” she said.
The assistant told Hartman that numerous computers had not been printing properly. The only way to remedy her problem, he said, would be to save her work to a disk and go from computer to computer in hopes of finding one that would successfully print.
Printing fees, as well as the way in which students are to pay them, are also a hassle to many students.
In previous years, there was no charge for printing from many of the computer labs. Now, however, each print job costs 10 cents and can only be paid with money on a BuckID.
“I had change with me but I didn’t realize it (the money) needed to be on my BuckID,” said Hartman. “I had to go home, find my ID and then go back to the lab, just to print out one assignment. It was ridiculous.”
“This situation is really something that has to be fixed,” Gaulrapp said. “With fees going up, there is no need at all for services to be down.”
