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COURTESY GRAPHIC -- SIN
Phase one of SIN's redesign was launched Thursday, but the menu pages are still under construction. Students can expect phase two in October.
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IT promises movie channel return, SIN plans to relaunch in phases
By Karalyn Meany
The Flat Hat
Students returning to the College this fall have noticed the absence of the movies typically shown on cable channel 22. Since classes began, students have seen a month of mostly dead air. However, the movies are on their way back this week, according to David Shantz, an Information Technology engineer.
Shantz said that the biggest problem in getting the movies back has been re-signing the contract with Residence Life Cinema, the company that rents the movie tapes played on WMTV. According to Shantz, the contract has been held up largely due to budget constraints.
"We're trying to find a way to hold the costs to what we had last year," Shantz said.
The primary budget constraint IT is faced with is providing a cable system for the entire campus, which is expensive, with annual costs of more than $200,000, not including labor, maintenance or equipment. Moreover, movies on WMTV and maintaining the cable system is only one area covered by a larger IT budget, and that money is allocated to those areas of IT that need it most.
"We have to make choices on where to put the money," Shantz said. "Where money is spent is based on what services IT is expected to provide."
The contract with Residence Life Cinema was signed Tuesday and the order for new movies went in right away.
"They should be up right away, certainly by this weekend," Colleen Carpinelli, assistant director of Student Activities, said.
Beyond resolving the movie situation, IT has other concerns, such as altering some of the channels offered in the main cable package. Due to the difficulty and delay in getting contracts settled this year, IT has committed to offering the same cable lineup as last year, with the possibility of changing the channels later.
"We need to do an assessment over the year about what the campus' wants and needs are to make sure we're meeting them to the best of our abilities," Pete Kellogg, a staff member at IT, said.
Another of the College's technology services, the Student Information Network has not been fully functional since the beginning of school. The website is currently being completely revamped, according to senior Armistead Booker, executive director of SIN, but it is taking more time than initially expected to make the updates.
"This is a colossal project," Booker said. "We've rebuilt the site from the ground up ... we have had a lot of delays and complications that were unseen at the beginning of the semester."
Booker added that delays were compounded by SIN's organizing and running freshman elections and their limited student staff, which has had difficulty balancing schoolwork with working on the site. However, he added that the staff members are taking their time trying to make the site as user-friendly as possible.
"It's exciting to see that students have come to depend on SIN to provide information and services, and that has been a good incentive for us to provide a high quality product," Booker said.
The new site will be introduced in three phases, the first of which launched Thursday. The first phase is mostly dedicated to providing some daily content and announcements.
Phase two will see the return of popular services, such as the ride board and housing center, which are still operational on the old site, though not maintained. This phase should be completed around the beginning of October, according to Booker.
Phase three will continue through the rest of this semester and will bring back old features such as the calendar and add discussion boards to go along with SIN News.
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