U. Florida anticipates increase in cost of technology

Craig Hampshire And Lawrence Wise
University Wire
11-09-1998
(Independent Florida Alligator) (U-WIRE) GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- With the rapidly increasing cost of technology, this year UF expects to spend $14 million more than last year's projected technology budget, according to a report released by UF officials last week.

UF's computer requirement for students, computer upgrades and unexpected expenditures have UF faculty and staff hoping for more money, said Gene Hemp, vice provost for Academic Affairs. UF spent about $8 million more than they budgeted for last year.

UF projected it would spend about $48 million last year but actually spent about $56 million.

"There's a need to spend more money next year to support the computing and networking on campus," Hemp said.

Because UF spent more than anticipated and officials want to continue to spend on technology, they expect to spend $62 million for the 1998-99 year.

"This is not a fixed budget," Hemp said. "If additional money is available, (we) will use it."

Tuesday, UF officials presented the technology report to the Board of Regents, the 14-member governing body of Florida's 10 public universities. The Board now must compile data from all Florida public universities into a report for the governor.

"It's something we do every year," said Mike Conlon, vice president of Health Affairs, referring to the UF report. "It's a day we come to closure with what we will do in the next year."

A number of reasons led to UF spending more this year. Additional money went to updating fiber cables, the core network and connections to major buildings. UF will spend money on this project as soon as it becomes available, according to the report.

To aid students in the computer requirement, computer laboratories also are being upgraded, and Division of Housing Network ports are being installed in certain dorms on campus.

DHNet - which combines data, video and voice traffic in a high-speed connection - ranks among the fastest on-campus connections in the country. UF needs more money to install the proper DHNet ports in the planned Student Apartment Residence Facility 2000.

Internet2 will connect UF for high-speed research

One of the factors in the increased projection for next year is due to Internet2, a very high-speed way to transmit data between research institutions across the United States.

"It's like building a super-duper superhighway (of information)," said John Sabin, director of information technology for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "It offers unparalleled speed."

Sabin said Internet2 provides a link between major researchers for "online control of experiments at a remote site." This is particularly useful for physics and chemistry.

UF will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars installing fiber cables for Internet2 to bring researchers "electronically closer together" without fear of interruption, Hemp said.

Internet2 will try to fulfill the original idea of the decade-old Internet. Research institutions across the country came up with the idea of a link to exchange information. However, Internet2 does not allow commercial sites on the Internet that slow down the data transmission.

FloridaNet, a subset of Internet2, will connect all of Florida's public universities. UF and the University of Miami are connected now, and by December, the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida will join.

"In this information age, we simply had to do a better job," said Hemp. "It is a much higher speed network for a smaller group of people."



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