Some members of The University of Memphis community questionwhether TAF-funded purchases are really being made in the bestinterests of students and faculty members or if they're justpurchases to keep up with the latest and greatest in high-techtoys.
Some say that while 20 labs have been closed and importantsoftware is not being updated, TAF funds are being spent onexpensive programs and services that benefit only faculty membersor a small number of students.
"Today, businesses expect graduates to be familiar with theindustry standards of their fields of study, and the TAF is a wayto ensure, especially with constant budget cuts, that there is apool of funds dedicated to that purpose," said Bill Watkins Jr.,Tennessee Board of Regents senator.
According to TAF guidelines set by TBR, "The TAF should be usedby institutions for direct student benefit for items such as newand improved high technology laboratories and classrooms,appropriate network and software, computer and other equipment, andtechnological improvements that enhance instruction."
Watkins, serving his second six-year term on TBR, said whiledifferent schools interpret the terms "technology" and "directstudent benefit" differently, TBR ensures through annual reviews,that each school complies with the spirit of the guidelines.
Last year's TBR audit did not find any major discrepancies, saidJohn Wasileski, assistant vice president of information system andoperations.
"They (TBR) found a couple of small errors that turned out to beclerical mistakes," Wasileski said. "We work really hard to makesure we follow TAF rules."
At The U of M, the Information Technology Division is chargedwith handling TAF spending, which, set by TBR at $225 per studentannually, totaled over $4.4 million in receipts for fiscal year2003.
The TAF and several other fees: Graduation Fee, Change in CourseFee, Athletic Allocation, Health Services Fee and the StudentGeneral Parking Permit Fee make up the General Access Fee and arenot listed individually on receipts from the Bursar's Office.
Lakesha Becton, psychology senior, said students should be givena choice about whether or not they want to pay for access to schoolcomputers.
"I don't use the labs. I do all of my computing at home," shesaid. "But what are you going to do, tell the Bursar's Office whenyou pay, 'No thank you on the TAF, I'll use my own computer?'"
While most TAF funds are used to cover the cost of computerreplacements, infrastructure maintenance, lab staffing and theambiguous Presidential and Provost Reserves, things like Internet2,T-LIT and MERLOT also come out of the TAF budget.
It is necessary to provide students with technology that is asup to date as possible to ensure the marketability of Tennesseegraduates, Watkins said.
Richard Ranta, dean of the College of Communications and FineArts at The U of M, agrees that technology in the classroom isimportant but said it should fit the needs of individualdepartments better.
"If we are going to offer students a major, we need to becommitted to making sure we supply them with adequate resources,"he said. "We owe it to our students and the people of thiscommunity to provide quality service."
But U of M technology gurus stand by TAF spending on high-techprojects.
Internet2 is one technology resource in which The U of Mparticipates, as part of a group of universities, businesses andgovernment departments that created and maintain a super-high-speednetwork known as Abilene.
Internet2 offers, at $500,000 a year, opportunities toexperiment and create new applications, like digital libraries,virtual laboratories and high-quality Web casts, said Ed Koshland,director of U of M Information Systems Infrastructure.
But some question the widespread use of Internet2 in day-to-dayfunctions.
Ranta said while he believes Internet2 has a promising future,it is now primarily a research-oriented tool, and students havemuch more immediate technology needs that are not being met.
"Departments should not have to beg and scrounge around for thethings they need," he said.
Another high-tech program to which The University subscribes isMultimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching orMERLOT.
MERLOT is an online catalog of instructional materials targetedtoward instructors.
"If an instructor somewhere has put together a really greatpresentation on a particular subject, there is no reason for ourinstructors to reinvent the wheel," said Roy Bowery, instructionaldesign specialist in FIT's Advanced Learning Center.
MERLOT is a list of Web links. The program doesn't actually ownany of the programs it lists. So MERLOT simply makes findinginformation easier for instructors. The U of M has participated inMERLOT for five years at a cost of $25,000 yearly.
Jack Ronai, sociology instructor, said that MERLOT'sorganization is good and that it would probably really help peoplewho aren't proficient surfing the Internet. But he's not sure it'sworth the cost.
"The sight was put together nice, but you could find the samelinks or types of sites surfing the net on your own for free,"Ronai said.
However, it is unclear how many and how often U of M instructorsuse the tool because the MERLOT Web site doesn't list how many hitscome from The U of M.
"Keeping track of MERLOT usage isn't a priority right now, but Isuspect anecdotally that its use isn't very high," said SandySchaeffer, associate director of the Advanced Learning Center inthe FedEx Institute of Technology.
But Ranta feels more strongly. "Cut MERLOT," he said. "No one isusing it."
The mission of T-LIT, or Teaching-Learning Initiative Teams, isto help faculty members utilize information technology inclassrooms. But T-LIT now only exists on paper. Schaeffer said itmorphed into "Gas for FITness."
"It was realized that we could accelerate the technology fluencyof faculty by funding support for graduate assistants who couldassist them with various IT related projects," Schaeffer said.
The $85,000-per-year program is funded by TAF, the Office of theProvost and the Advanced Learning Center.
From what junior business major Patrick Bone has seen in theclassroom, visual aids like Power Point presentations help studentsunderstand the material better. But, he added, "It's reallyirritating to be in a class where students have to show the teacherhow to use the equipment. But at least they are trying."
Journalism senior Laquita Houston seemed to sum up the feelingof the majority of students interviewed.
"TAF is kind of like all those weird taxes and fees that come onyour cell phone bill," she said. "It's not really much you can doabout them. You don't pay, they cut you off. You know it's wrong,they know it's wrong but you are just trying to graduate."
