CD duplication facility to open

Lisa Ross

Alejandro Saravia copied more than 60 CD-ROMs for his Spanish 101 students this semester.

“I started at home doing them one by one, but I thought there had to be a quicker way,” said Saravia, a modern language and intercultural studies instructor.

That’s when a student told Saravia about a lab in the fine arts center where he could copy CDs faster. He said he was able to copy about 60 CDs in that lab in an hour, but other instructors also needed to use it.

Saravia will soon have another choice.

This semester, Western will start a CD-ROM replication facility that will allow faculty to copy class notes, PowerPoint presentations and other teaching materials for their students.

The facility will allow faculty to copy multiple CDs at a time – saving them time.

Saravia said the CD-ROMs he makes for his Spanish students are important to his class.

“To me, all the materials are ready for the students to review when they are not in class,” Saravia said. “They asked to have my PowerPoints in advance and that’s why I did the CD.”

Saravia, like many other faculty members, also has a Web page where he posts class notes and other important information, he said. But not all students have constant Internet access.

The facility will cost $15,000, said Richard Kirchmeyer, vice president for Information Technology.

“A lot of faculty have indicated that they don’t have the capability to get their class notes on CD,” he said. “Hopefully, this will solve the problem.”

The new facility will be located in Tate Page Hall, Room 101 and will be available only to faculty members, Kirchmeyer said.

“It’s basically for any faculty member wanting to submit materials to put a CD for distribution to his or her classes,” he said.

Right now, Saravia is charging his students 75 cents to cover the cost of the CDs.

A copied CD will cost students 75 cents and will more than likely be a department charge, Kirchmeyer said.

Reach Lisa Ross at [email protected].