1. I can not control how the library wants to do their print jobs, all I can do is make recommendations to them and I will be certain to pass any of your comments that pertain to the library onto the head Librarian.  Maybe that will make things better.
2. Poor service from lab (or library) employees is never acceptable.  I will be certain to have a word with my staff about being more alert to the presence of print jobs and the lab users who want them.
3. I, unfortunately, can not grant undergraduate lab users a print quota at this time.  However, I will mention this to the Undergraduate Office and see if they would be willing to budget this in for you.
4. The other campus computer labs (College Library, Memorial Library, CAE, etc.) have a completely different system setup to handle print jobs.  The current VendaCard system was in place before I took over this position and the cost of switching to a system that would allow you to print on your own is currently prohibitive.  Personally, I would like to use a system where your print jobs don't print until you pay for them, as it would certainly cut down on my paper and toner budget when it comes to unclaimed jobs.  Trust me, I am always looking for a better way to do print jobs.
5. Campus rules dictate that each building can only have one VendaCard purchasing station (or something like that).  Basically, we are not allowed to have a machine for you to fill up your VendaCard in the lab.

1. Grainger Hall is open from 7AM until 11PM.  I can not keep the labs open past 11PM since the building is technically closed and you are not supposed to be in it unless you have an after hours pass.  Therefore, I can not keep the lab open until 1AM (or midnight, or 2AM).  This is not something I can change.
2. Keeping the lab open costs money (paying an employee, increased electricity costs since all the PCs and the printers come out of power save mode, etc.).  If only 5 people are using the lab during a given time period, it is not very cost effective to staff the lab and keep it open.
3. Current lab hours are the way the are because no one has ever asked me to change them.  We based the hours on how much use the lab was getting and cut back on times when it was not being used much.
4. I can certainly see about opening the Undergraduate Lab at 8AM, but if it does not get much use, I will roll the opening time back to 9AM.
5. The strange Saturday hours are intended to give us a 24 hour window to do repairs and lab maintenance.  I can extend Saturday and Sunday hours, but it may mean that the lab will have to be closed unexpectedly in order for us to make repairs or lab modifications (you users are hard on the PCs).
6. Friday hours until 9PM?  We did that once, the lab was empty (everyone was going home or out for the night).  How about 7PM on Fridays?

Why you ask?  Let me relate an all too common conversation that I used to have.

Lab Consultant:  Shane, I have a user here who can not read their floppy disk.

Me: What is the error message?

LC: It says something about the disk not being formatted, but the user swears it worked this morning when they left home.

Me:  Tell them sorry, but the disk is fried, and the data is most likely not recoverable.

Note: I know a few tricks to recover lost floppy disk data, but they are rarely very successful and the recovered data is not always useful.

LC: They say that they really need the files on the disk, it is their only copy and it is due today.

Me: Sorry, floppy disks are notoriously unstable media, especially when shoved into backpacks or other bags and carried all over campus while sitting next to small EM emitting devices (calculators, walkmans, etc.), drink bottles that are sweating, food that is getting crumbs everywhere, pencil lead dust, and all sorts of other things that are bad for magnetic media.

So the moral of this story is, that floppy disks are an untrustworthy way to store your files.  Now, the lab PCs all have CD-RW drives (if they are not working properly, you need to tell me), plus you can check out Zip750 USB drives (they can read Zip100, 250, and 750, and write to Zip 250 and 750 disks) and USB floppy drives from the lab consultants.  Also, you can use USB Keychain drives (or thumb drives, sold in sizes ranging from 16 MB to 1 GB of flash memory, the DOIT Tech Store has 64 MB USB thumb drives for $30.00).  If you have trouble using these, ask the lab consultants for help.  Also, you get 20 MBs of storage on the server that is backed up almost daily (your desktop and My Docs folder).

Finally, we hope to soon have the ability for you to get access to your Grainger files from anywhere via the web.  You will get additional information on this as soon as it is available.  This will mean that you will not need a floppy disk to move your files around.

Also, remember that consultants are required to enforce lab rules.  If they are overly rude while trying to enforce the rules, let me know, but the fact that they are asking you to stop doing something is not rudeness in itself.

As for limited technical ability, we are working on improving that.

When I took this position, as Lab Manager, the computer labs were FILTHY!  The keyboards and mice were sticky and dirty and people would write papers thhhhhhhhhat kind   a loooooked like thisssss.  The desks all had a rather unpleasant film on them.  It took 5 people 3 days just to clean up the Undergraduate Lab and we had to replace well over a dozen keyboards and mice.  So, I took a rather draconian stance on food and drink and I prohibited it completely.

Now, enforcing a no food or drink rule is a major inconvenience, not only for you, but also for my staff and myself.  However, I need to be able to keep the lab clean and functioning (no, I don't enforce this rule because I am a control freak or something).  So it basically boils down to this, you want to drink, I want to let you drink, but I need to keep the labs clean (I know about the dust, the consultants will try to keep up with it).

So here is what I will consider.  I will consider allowing closed containers for drinks.  I will also consider permanently revoking the lab privileges of any person who makes a mess and does not clean it up (I'll provide cleaning supplies).  I'll formalize a policy detailing the rules, the enforcement, and the consequences and get it out before Fall semester.

Be responsible about this and I'll never have to institute and enforce a strict food & drink policy again.  That means cleaning up your messes and making sure your classmates do the same.  It also means letting lab staff know about a mess someone left so we can get it cleaned up immediately and try to make sure it does not happen again.

I agree with you completely on this.  There are 1300 Business Undergrads using room 1295, plus all of the non-business students taking business courses (no, I can not deny them access since they may need to be able to use software not found anywhere else on campus).  So we are looking at 22 or more people per PC.  That is a tough ratio.  If I ran the world, we'd have 200 (minimum) PCs for Undergrads, but as I am not yet the Evil Overlord, I can not do this.  It is not my place to try and explain the politics behind why there are so few PCs for undergrads, but I assure you that I will make sure the right people see these surveys in an effort to get more lab space.

On a side note, if you only need to use a PC for internet access or applications like Word or Excel, I urge you to try using one of the computer labs in the libraries around campus.  All of these labs should have modern equipment and should accept USB thumb drives.

For those that think you should have access to the Graduate Labs, not anytime soon.  Sorry, Graduate students pay a rather hefty tuition differential to go to school here, and one benefit of that differential is private lab space and free printing (another reason you can not use the graduate labs on the second floor, how do I get you to pay for printing while making sure grad students don't).

Why?  Because I would have to completely reload the OS on every PC every week.  Again, I have learned from history.  It used to be that you could load anything onto the lab PCs, and they were slow, and they rarely worked properly, and sometimes they were in a different language, and we were constantly repairing them, etc. 

I can not let you just load whatever software you want.  The PCs would be riddled with AdWare, SpyWare, Shareware/Freeware (which is usually illegal to load in a lab setting, read the End User License Agreement sometime), pirated software, hacker tools, everybody's favorite chat program, email client, media player, etc.  All that software would make the PCs slow and impossible to use, not to mention many software titles are completely incompatible with others and could disable the PC, thus requiring me to reload it.

If you want something loaded in the lab (like a graphics editor such as Paint Shop Pro), you are always free to ask me (I may already have something loaded that you are not aware of).  However, before I can load anything, I have to be able to load it on all the PCs in that lab and I have to be able to do it legally (either by getting money to purchase enough copies, or by getting permission from the software publisher to load it in a lab setting).  Also, I like to be able to see a clear benefit to all lab users, not just you, otherwise you are just wasting my time and valuable computing resources.

Again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to fill out these surveys.