College of Media

Computer labs, recommendations and support

The College of Media provides system administration, wireless networking, software installation and troubleshooting for all College computer labs for use by students, faculty and staff. The College also offers recommendations for students' computer hardware and software. In addition, the University maintains computer labs across campus.

Computer labs

The College maintains the following computer labs. For hours of operation and specific uses, please refer to room signs and information from your professor for a specific class.

• Beschloss Media Design Center, Room 31 Gregory Hall
• Broadcast Lab, Room 9 Gregory Hall
• Editing/Research Lab, Room 3 Gregory Hall
• H. Maxine Gladding Greenwood Video Editing Suite, Room 43 Gregory Hall
• Reporting Lab, Room 1 Gregory Hall
• Richard L. Hildwein Photojournalism Lab, Room 13 Gregory Hall
• Richmond Journalism Teaching Studio graphics lab, Room TF103 Richmond
• Audio editing lab, Room 41 Gregory Hall

See the lab schedule for College of Media computer labs

For details about other computer labs on campus, see the Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES) Web site.

College-specific recommendations for student computers

Courses in the College of Media, particularly in advertising and journalism, use state-of-the-art technology to analyze statistical information and to create and edit images, Web sites, printed pages, audio and video. The hardware and software involved may be too specialized or too expensive to purchase for individual use. All are available to students on computers located in free, open labs operated by the College in lieu of more generic labs operated by the University.

Because of the specialized hardware, software and configurations involved, some coursework must, without exception, be done within the College's labs. It is neither required nor recommended that a student obtain a personal computer capable of performing those tasks. However, if a student wished to do so, the student might consider:

• purchasing an educational version of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• particularly if planning to become a news-editorial journalism major — purchasing an educational version of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, including InDesign, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver and Acrobat Professional.
• particularly if planning to become a broadcast journalism major — purchasing an educational version of Adobe Audition.
• increasing the minimum campus-wide hardware recommendations by doubling or quadrupling both the memory (to 1 or 2 gigabytes) and the processor speed (to 2.0 gigahertz) and adding a DVD/RW instead of a CD/RW drive.
• adding a minimum 300-dpi color inkjet printer.
• purchasing a 1 gigabyte USB2 flash drive or similar removable media (compact flash, memory stick, etc.) for file transfer and storage.
• obtaining a desktop scanner and a 3-megapixel or greater digital camera.

Most labs, classrooms and conference rooms within the College of Media are equipped with 802.11g wireless networking. A laptop computer with built-in or add-on wireless capabilities would be a plus, not only for course work but also for use in the field, particularly in completing assignments in professional skills courses.

The College primarily uses the Windows XP (or Vista) operating systems but also uses the Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (or v10.5 Leopard) operating system in some courses. The software involved works similarly on both platforms.

Computer support staff

Computer resources for students are listed on the campus Web site at Guide to Resources for Students.

If you need assistance with a computer question or problem in a College of Media office or lab, please call or e-mail one of the staff. The first attempt at resolution will be via phone or e-mail. Sometimes, during very busy times, you may be connected to voicemail; please leave your name and number (and, when possible, details of your request), and we will get back to you as soon as we can. We will attempt to handle all non-critical help desk requests within two business days.

Please note that the duties of staff or lab monitors do not include technical "how-to" questions on achieving certain effects within programs.

Computer support staff members are regularly available Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m.. We are closed on University holidays.

Greg Zike

• Local area network support specialist

Zike's job consists of making sure everyone's systems are up and running to full potential. His responsibilities include system maintenance, software and hardware upgrades and general technical support for Gregory Hall, the Armory and the Richmond Journalism Teaching Studio. He is also the lab manager and is responsible for ensuring that College labs are open and staffed with trained assistants. Zike has more than 15 years of computing background and is an A+ Certified Computer Service Technician.