COMPUTING FACILITIES AND RESOURCESThe department of Computing Services supports research, academic, and administrative computing on the University of Arkansas campus. Computer operations are staffed to provide access to the computing facilities and resources 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A variety of host systems and servers are available for academic use. The primary host for academic and research computing is comp.uark.edu, a Sun Ultra Enterprise 5000, using the Unix operating system Solaris 2.5.1 Comp supports statistical packages (SAS, SPSS), programming languages (C++, FORTRAN, Pascal), e-mail software (Pine), and other Internet applications. All students are automatically assigned an account on comp.uark.edu. Additionally, web development is available from comp (personal home pages) or via other specialized servers for faculty/instructor or departmental publications. Access to some student information, course schedules, schedule of classes, etc., is available through these systems. Mainframe accounts are also available for special purposes, including batch processing. Operating systems include: IBM's VM/SP, CMS, and MVS/ESA. Some departments participate in Computing Services' Novell file service, gaining access to PC and Mac-based software through these servers. Additionally, the General-Access Computing Labs maintain software via a networked-server, allowing access to the same products in multiple labs. Faculty also have access to the administrative computing systems for advising purposes, roster generation, and grade reporting. Host peripherals include disk storage, tape systems, and laser printing. UARKnet, the campus's backbone network, is managed by Computing Services. This network enables communication among networks, computers, and servers on campus, as well as on the Internet. Virtually all departments, as well as all our labs, are connected to the campus network. Network access is also available via phone dial-up and modem. Dial-up access requires an ID and password. General-Access Computing Labs offer approximately 220 network-attached PCs and Macintoshes for use by University users. These labs are located in the Gibson Center, the Administrative Services Building, the Business Administration Building, and the Science Engineering Building. The labs are open day and evening hours and weekends, with the lab in the Administrative Services Building open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the Gibson Center also offers long open-hours. In addition to being Internet connected, a wide variety of products are supported on these machines, including web applications (Netscape), word processors (MS Word and WordPerfect), databases (Access), and spreadsheets (Excel). Laser printing is available from all supported software. Scanning facilities are available in the Administrative Services Building and the Gibson Center. Computing Services offers free, non-credit short courses every month on a variety of computer and internet-based applications, including operating systems, e-mail, word processing, home page development, Internet navigation, presentation tools, etc. For faculty, a MultiMedia Resource Center provides access and training for computers and applications that can be used to develop programs and presentations, typically used for playback and authoring. Presentation equipment is available for check-out. The Research Data Center provides researchers assistance with data design, analysis, and other needs, such as billable staff support for projects. The Computing Services office is located in the Administrative Services
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