Student Tech & Library Blog @ GC

Currently, CUNY-wide policy sets Student Tech Fees at $100 for full-time and $50 for part-time students each semester. Revenue from this fee is retained by each college to improve IT services for its students and faculty. The funding available this coming year for the Graduate Center is estimated to be $780,000. Any individual Graduate School student or a group of Graduate School students can submit a proposal. Although all types of proposals are considered, priority is given to projects that enhance the learning environment for all Graduate Center students and that provide benefit across disciplines.

All proposals should include the following:

• Project Title/Technology Request
• Person(s) Responsible for Project/Technology Request
• Graduate Center Affiliation(s)
• Student Services Affected and Estimated Students Served
• Project Description (including equipment lists, technical requirements, budget requests)
• Major Project Objectives
• Budget Justification
• Potential Vendors (if available, attach quotes)

Proposal Example:

• Provalis Software
• Patricia Stapleton
• PhD student, Political Science, Graduate Center
• Qualitative Data Analysis Software for Humanities and Social Sciences. Over 60 students responded positively to a brief survey, saying that they would use such software in their research in: Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, Educational Psychology, Social-Personality Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Environmental Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Experimental Forensic Psychology, Philosophy, English, Art History, and the Center for Study in Education.
• Proposal would require the purchase of a software license for the Graduate Center for up to 5 simultaneous users at $4,660. The software would need to be installed on five computers in one of the student hubs. Technical requirements:
  • Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, Vista, 7 (see note below for Mac OS and Linux)
  • Memory: From 256 MB (XP) to 1GB (Vista, Windows 7)
  • Disk Space: 30 MB of disk space
• The cost of the software license is less than 1% of the total STF budget, with the potential to reach students in at least thirteen different departments. Although the GC currently has other licensed qualitative data analysis software, such as ATLAS and NVivo, Provalis offers different functions. While there is a potential for overlap, after doing a review of what Provalis offers compared to those programs, we find that the content/text analysis and visualization tools of Provalis surpass ATLAS and NVivo. This software is also much easier to use immediately, without the same struggles that students have with our current programs.
  Several students in the Political Science and Psychology departments are using qualitative software, and Provalis fits their needs much better, in part because the data visualization functions are better. Feedback from students in the English department also indicate that Provalis would be a better fit with the type of research they’re doing with textual analysis.
• Price listing and Vendor: http://www.provalisresearch.com/buyIt/ListPriceA.php

STF proposals are only requested and reviewed annually (this year in late February), and must be submitted digitally to Robert Campbell (rcampbell@gc.cuny.edu), Director of Information Technology by February 14, 2012. Please also CC your request to Patricia Stapleton (pstapleton@gc.cuny.edu), the DSC Steering Officer for Technology and Library.

Please contact Patricia Stapleton with any questions or concerns regarding STF proposals.