by Brandon Clark
Times Managing EditorMATC’s Downtown Milwaukee Campus came very close to being less one computer lab last year. Campus administrators had planned to turn the Communication Center computer lab, located in Room C278 of the Continuing Education building, and the adjacent Writing Center into a faculty resource center and lounge.
The plan called for the Writing Center to be relocated while the Communication Center would cease to exist. Currently, there are two faculty lounges in the Continuing Education building.
According to Caroline Laise, an education assistant who works in the Communication Center, the reasons given for the proposed closing of the lab “include perceived low student use” by administration.
The Communication Center serves as an open computer lab available for all MATC students (including student overflow from the Computer Production Center, M273).
It also offers specialized services including assistance for students with computer and software issues, resume preparation and registration for courses and financial aid.
The lab also serves as a satellite classroom. In the second half of the fall 2008 semester the Communication Center hosted 35 classes averaging 15 to 20 students per class.
The Communication Center appears to be the computer lab of choice for students with accommodations and older students as well. Many of these students cite the quiet atmosphere and the personalized attention they receive from the Communication Center staff as their reason for choosing the lab to complete class assignments.
“This [lab] is very quiet,” said Jon Ney, a medical assistant student. “It’s sort of out of the way and the staff here is very helpful.”
“It serves me with my disabilities,” agreed Mattie Brown, a student in the Fashion/Retail Marketing program. “I learn at a slower pace, and being my age, it helped me also to control my anxieties. I was able to achieve a lot here.”
The Communication Center has established a special relationship with other academic support centers. According to Laise, the Tutoring Center, the Math and Science Centers and the Writing Center all refer students to the Communication Center for additional assistance.
The lab is particularly important for the Writing Center because there are only four desktop computer workstations in that center. The close proximity allows students to receive help and feedback on assignments in the Writing Center and immediately revise their work in the Communication Center.
In response to the perception of low student use, Laise says that from November 2007 to November 2008 the Communication Center has over 14,000 campus ID card scans tallied on their scanner. Laise also pointed out that each semester students complete a Client Reporting form at the main desk of the Communication Center.
She said the Communication Center generates more forms than many other support centers combined and always exceeds their yearly quotas.
Students have gone around the Downtown Milwaukee Campus collecting names for a petition to keep the lab open. Over 500 names were collected as of press time. Downtown Milwaukee’s Student Senate also conducted a series of focus groups to gather students’ opinions of the lab closing.
At a school board meeting on December 11, 2008, MATC President Darnell Cole tabled the issue of closing the lab. Hopefully, this tabling will remain permanent.
The Communication Center is a valuable asset to MATC, and by closing it the college would put an overwhelming number of students, many of whom possess no other alternative to obtain the resources and complete the work they can in this lab, at
an extreme disadvantage. Laise expressed concerns that if these resources are not provided, MATC’s retention rate would be negatively affected.
Closing any computer lab at a time when the college is seeing increases in enrollment would be a mistake. But closing this particular lab at a time when many new students are laid-off workers coming back to school after many years in the workforce away from any academic environment would be more than a mistake – it would be a disaster.
For many of these students, this will be their first time back in a classroom in over a decade. The Communication Center offers the exact services these new students will need.
Some students were frustrated by what they perceived as a failure on the administration’s part to seek out their feedback about closing the lab. For them it is about more than having a quiet place to type their papers and log on to Blackboard. It is about feeling valued by their college and knowing their opinions matter to administrators.
Closing the lab would send the wrong message on both counts.
