In his report to the Glendale Community College board of trustees Tuesday night, Marc Drescher, the college’s chief information services officer, presented a systematic plan for tackling major upgrades on campus.
Drescher said staff dedicated 2014 to replacing classroom computers with newer ones, upgrading computer software that had last been updated in the early to mid-2000s.
In all, about 15,000 students have access to 1,200 computers across nine labs and 34 classrooms.
After establishing a technology help desk, Drescher said his team has completed more than 7,000 requests for assistance.
In January, his team also added 80 wireless Internet access points on campus, doubling students’ ability to tap into the college’s Wi-Fi, at a $90,000 cost.
“We had several dead spots throughout campus, and in areas where we did have some Wi-Fi coverage, it was very spotty,” Drescher said, adding that staff will need to add more access points to meet the demand when students congregate in large numbers at the library or cafeteria.
The rest of this year will involve upgrading 30% of the college’s 125 servers in its data center, which still run on Windows 2003 and won’t be supported by Microsoft come July, he said.
The college will spend the next five years upgrading its network, including improving its firewalls and routers. The last time the college took on a major upgrade was a decade ago.
Another plan is to come up with a new design for the college’s website, something the college last adopted in 2009 and officials acknowledge is difficult to navigate.
Trustee Tony Tartaglia said he hoped that students will be involved in crafting the new design. Drescher confirmed that they would participate in a committee assigned to tackle that project in the fall.
©2015 the Glendale News-Press (Glendale, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
