MOSCOW University of Idaho students won't have to wait until their tuition checks clear the bank to see the results of the money they're spending on new computers.
UI Computer Services officials spent about $430,00 this summer, ahead of the actual collection of $500,000 in student fees this year, to make sure students had better access to computers on campus starting this fall.
Boxes were piled ceiling-high in the corridor outside the English writing lab on Thursday, awaiting disposal. Similar scenes can be witnessed at seven other campus locations this week, as the computer shuffle frantically takes place before classes begin Wednesday.
Computer Services Director Fritz Hibbler said he felt a great responsibility to have new computers waiting for students this fall.
''We had to show the students we were willing to give them an (upgraded) computing environment,'' Hibbler said. ''We wanted to show them we were giving them their money's worth right away. Now we're one year closer to student computer literacy right now.''
Hibbler and Financial Vice President Jerry N. Wallace developed a plan last spring to upgrade the university's aging computer laboratories. Students and the Idaho Board of Education approved the university's charging a $28 per-semester fee for full-time students and a $2 per-credit fee for part-time students to finance the $2.5 million, five-year upgrade.
Kari Dickinson, who is heading up the upgrade project, said the UI purchased 104 personal computers from Micron, and 23 new-generation Macintosh computers. Micron, a Boise company, is headed by education board member Joseph Parkinson. Hibbler said the PCs were by far the best buy for the money ($1,777 apiece, without a hard disk drive) in the marketplace, and the purchase had nothing to do with Parkinson.
Five laboratories will receive new equipment, and older equipment is either being surplussed or moved to other labs where it can still be used effectively. The new computers have stickers on them that clearly state that they were purchased with student fees.
''I feel the students will be proud that this is what their money was spent on,'' Dickinson said. ''In three or four years, people will be able to see all the progress that has happened.''
Between moving older equipment and installing the new, seven laboratories will get some kind of upgrade, Dickinson said. An eighth laboratory, in the College of Engineering, has just been turned over by the college to the computer services department so it may be put on the campus network.
The upgraded laboratories will all have laser printing capabilities, and the new graduate students laboratory will have a color printer, scanner, and more memory capabilities to accommodate graduate research, Dickinson said. The UI has never had a lab especially for graduate students, and it is located at the North Campus Center, where many graduate students live.
The idea behind the entire upgrade is to allow all the academic computers on campus to be linked by a central computer ''backbone.'' This way, students can do virtually any kind of computing on any computer terminal in any laboratory. Software will be centrally loaded onto the system.
In addition to buying hardware, Hibbler said the university's selection of educational software also has been enhanced. Students will have access to a number of specialty programs in the math, word processing, spreadsheet and desktop publishing areas. The Macintosh computers also include a variety of reference materials, such as dictionary and encyclopedia.
For students who don't have much experience with computers, trained lab consultants will be on hand to answer questions. A help desk also will be available for students with questions, at 885-PALS.