Editor,
The computer pod in Dane Smith Hall consists of a pod and three classrooms, all containing computers.
The computers in the pod are available for students to use on a "first come basis." Most professors and instructors who have classes in the three classrooms have allowed students waiting in the pod for an open computer to use the computers in their classes not required by students.
On Nov. 6, I entered the pod and inquired about using a computer in classroom 141 because there were only four people in the room.
I was told that the instructor wanted no one in the classroom except her Sociology 481 class of three students. The instructor, Ms. Kim Pitts, informed me that UNM Scheduling had placed her class in that room. In addition, she added that Room 141 was an "open classroom."
I contacted Joseph Quintero, who manages the pod, at the suggestion of the Student Affairs office. Mr. Quintero told me that Ms. Pitts had the right to exercise her prerogative to exclude students from her classroom.
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I agree, but not when a minimum of 46 computers are not being utilized while students are standing in line waiting for an open computer.
The responsibility for this wasteful use of resources rests with the UNM Classroom Scheduling in the Registrar's Office for classifying Room 141 with 50 computers as an open classroom into which any class can be scheduled; and by the size of the class a criteria for classroom space - in this case we have three students and one instructor.
Some responsibility has to be shared by Ms. Pitts for being insensitive to the under utilization of the resources in that classroom.
There needs to be a better method of scheduling classes that does not limit the resources we have on this campus.
Virginia E. Roberts
Undergraduate student
