History of the Division of Computer Services (circa 1972)
The University of Wyoming, being the only four-year educational institution
in the state of Wyoming, is charged with the responsibility of providing a
quality education to the students of the state. At its founding in 1887,
education was emphasized as a civilizing influence in a vast and wild region.
This emphasis has continued to the present. Fifty-five percent of the
seniors graduating from high schools throughout the state seek a college
education. Of these, fifty percent attend the University of Wyoming.
The University's primary goal is to provide quality education in agriculture,
arts and sciences, commerce and industry, engineering, law, nursing, and
pharmacy. In line with this policy, the University currently supports
forty-seven programs leading to a master's degree and twenty-one leading
to a doctoral degree. Since 1959 the Computer Center has existed as a
fundamental part in support of this goal.
In 1959 the University obtained, through an NSF grant, a Bendix G-15. This
computer was used in some computer oriented courses and by some faculty in
support of their research. It was operated in an open-shop environment and
scheduled by means of a sign-up sheet. Within two years it was difficult to
find space on the sign-up sheet so the University purchased, with its own
funds, an IBM 1620. This machine was also operated in an open-shop
environment and scheduled by means of a sign-up sheet.
By 1964, both of these computers were scheduled almost 24 hours a day and
seven days a week. It also was becoming obvious that research needs in
various fields and some instructional needs were beginning to outgrow these
small computers. By using funds from another NSF grant and matching these
with University funds, a large-scale second-generation digital computer system
was purchased. This system consisted of a Philco 2000, model 211, 32K words
of 48-bit-word core memory, 10 magnetic tape drives, a 1000 line per minute
printer, a 125 card per minute punch, a paper tape reader and punch, and a
digital plotter. At this time, since most of the available funds were used
to purchase this system, the decision was made to provide in-house maintenance
for that hardware and thus circumvent a costly maintenance contract. Over the
next three years a maintenance crew of three highly motivated people were
hired and trained to provide round-the-clock maintenance. It is obvious that
the emphasis, at this time, was placed on hardware as the rest of the staff
consisted of the director, a secretary, two graduate assistants and several
machine operators. This system was operated in a strictly closed-shop
environment.
It was at this time that the policy was originated whereby no contract
programming would be done by the staff of the computer center. The reasons
behind this policy were two-fold. At the time, the staff was so limited that
this kind of work could not be carried out on a demand basis. The second
reason is much more philosophical. It was felt that if contract programming
was provided, it would be analogous to giving a crutch to an otherwise healthy
person and thus keeping him from learning to walk. This decision has born
sweet fruit. There is currently wide-spread use of computing facilities
throughout the campus and expertise in programming has been discovered in very
unusual corners. An example of the unusual places was the use several years
ago of the system by a doctoral candidate in physical education. This
individual did the analysis, design, and programming of his problem, by
himself, with only a minimum amount of help from the staff of the computer
center.
In 1968 the University administration decided to combine the Division
of Data Processing, a division which existed to serve the data handling needs
of the University's administration, with the Computer Center and form the
Division of Computer Services, administered by a director with to assistant
directors. These assistant directors were to have separate responsibilities
in the academic area and the administrative area respectively.
To aid in the administration of such a broad-based function, the Faculty
Senate, in the fall of 1969, reorganized the already-existing advisory committee
and set forth its responsibilities. The committee is composed of six faculty
members, each representing a user college and each individually possessing
expertise in one or more areas of computer science. Further, there are four
ex-officio members assigned to the committee by the administration including
the Director of Computer Services, the Registrar, the Director of Finance and
Budget, and the Director of the Library. The Senate outlined the committee's
function as follows:
-
The Committee shall act in an advisory capacity regarding
priorities in the purchase of computers, computer systems
and data processing equipment, and the efficient operation
of a computer system for the University. It shall recommend
Senate policies which insure the equitable use of computer
services. In addition, it shall correlate academic needs,
data processing, and University research needs. The long
range goals of computer services and computer science
shall be established and continually reviewed.
At the time of the merger, the Division of Data Processing was using a
leased IBM 1401 system. This system was only being used about six hours per
day to handle payroll, student records, registration, etc. Because of this
light administrative load and because of the heavy academic load which was now
placed on the Philco system, plans were formulated to purchase a third genera-
tion, general-purpose time-sharing system, terminate the lease on the 1401,
and in a smooth fashion shift both the administrative work and the academic
work to the new system.
In order to begin this shift to a time-sharing system as quickly as possible,
a Xerox Sigma 5 was purchased with non-legislative University funds. The Sigma
5 was chosen since it would provide direct upgrade to a Sigma 7 which was the
computer of choice indicated by a previous evaluation study. The Sigma 7 was
to be purchased by trading in the Sigma 5 and using funds obtained from an
NSF grant for the remainder of the cost. The Sigma 5 acquisition allowed the
implementation of a student registration system as well as a year of time-
sharing experience before the funding from the NSF was made available. The grant
was received on August 3, 1970 and the order for the Sigma 7 was then placed.
One month prior to this the Division of Computer Services consolidated its
operations from two centers, one in the basement of the Commerce and Industry
Building and the other in the basement of Old Main, to the basement of
the recently completed Biological Science Building of the G. D. Humphrey
Science Center. Within three months all administrative work had been shifted
to the new system. On February 1, 1972, the Philco system was finally turned
off, thus completing the shift of all computing to the Sigma 7.
Feeling that the University would be best served by providing the largest
possible computer system for the minimum number of dollars, a great deal of
hardware was added to the Sigma 7 by the staff of the Division of Computer
Services. These pieces of hardware included two IBM 1403 chain printers, two
high speed card readers, a card punch and a memory map. It is estimated that
this hardware has saved the University close to $100,000.
The staff of the Division has changed character along with the hardware.
The Division is currently staffed with a director, two assistant directors,
an operations manager who schedules the production work and manages the
operation of the facility, two secretaries, four programmers whose responsibi-
lities lie in the maintenance of the system software and systems programming,
four programmers whose main responsibilities lie in servicing the administrative
needs of the University, three people who are employed to aid the users in
the University with programming, debugging, and general consultation, six
operators, five keypunch operators, and three maintenance engineers. This
makes a total of thirty-one full-time employees. This level of staffing
is thought to be sufficient for the type of work carried out at the present
time. It is well to point out that some might think that the two programming
staffs are somewhat small. We feel, however, that a small group of very dedi-
cated, very talented people are far more productive than a larger group of
average programmers. We feel our programmers are both very dedicated and very
talented.
Services Supplied to Academic Users
Since 1959 when the Bendix G-15 was purchased, the University has maintained
the policy that use of computing facilities shall be handled like the
use of a library and shall be free to all users. To ration the resource, an
allocation committee composed of the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean
of the Graduate School, Chairman of the Computer Advisory Committee, and the
Director of Computer Services allocates time to the dean of each college using
the computer. A new software processor called SUPER has been programmed to
facilitate the management of computer time after it has been allocated. Each
account manager can interactively create or delete passwords, account, and
account privileges (run time/job, etc.). In addition the account manager has
report facilities so he can determine accumulated usage for each account. There
is a three-tiered structure of account managers at the university, college,
and department levels.
The significant thing about this process is that the control of the academic
portion of the computer resource has been put entirely in the hands of
the academic community. This community takes a lively interest in managing
their portion of the resource. Typically, an interested and knowledgeable
faculty member will manage a departmental allocation. A dean will usually
form a college committee to advise him on the allocation of his resource to
the various departments, the setting up of college reserves, etc.
One of the most gratifying results of the above procedure is that computer
time is no longer thought of as "free". Everyone is well aware that
it is a limited resource and treats it accordingly even though there is
no hourly charge.
There are four IBM 029 keypunches and an IBM 085 card sorter provided,
at the Computer Center, for use by students and faculty. A complete set
or pertinent manuals is also provided and kept updated for reference during
times when users may not have access to their own. As indicated above,
three people are available to do almost as much "hand-holding" as necessary
to allow the users to complete their work. Contract programming is still not
done although these consultants sometimes write small special purpose routines
which may require more sophistication than the user has.
The academic part of the Division also has the responsibility to provide
those changes to the operating system which will make the facility more res-
ponsive to use. An example of this was the recent introduction of SUPER.
Another example, which will make the facility more responsive by cutting down
turn-around time of user jobs, is the planned installation of a card reader
and printer which can be operated by the users. This change has, of course,
required many changes to both the hardware and the software monitor.
The Division of Computer Services acts as a service organization to the
academic users in the community. Within the scope of personal commitments
and available funds, every attempt is made to make the use of the computer
educational as well as fruitful. Seminars are scheduled when the need
arises, a monthly publication containing useful information is produced and
circulated, an automatic answering message phone is updated at regular inter-
vals to contain timely information on the status of current daily processing
and greeting messages appear at log-on to inform time-sharing users of current
schedules.
Services Supplied to Administrative Users
Administrative computing at the University of Wyoming includes all of
those processes which are done on the computers at the Computer Center in
support of the University administration. Services are provided for more
than 30 offices around campus and involves over 640 programs. The systems
are presently all batch although plans are being made for installation of on-
line services and an experiment involving an on-line financial expenditure
system has recently been completed. There are five keypunchers, four analyst/
programmers, and the assistant director assigned to the administrative data
processing activity employed on a full-time basis.
The keypunch section operates one staggered shift per day for five days
each week. They do all the data preparation for the administrative processes.
Input to this section includes documents prepared by many different offices
on a wide variety of forms. All data is punched and verified. This group
also services the staff of the Computer Services Division and the student and
faculty on a time-available basis. In use are two IBM 029 keypunches and
three IBM 129 keypunch/verify machines.
The analyst/programmers are responsible for maintenance and modification
of all existing application programs as well as the systems analysis, design,
programming, and debugging of all new systems. They also assist the operations
staff in setting up and running the daily production work. With a staff this
small it is desirable to keep maintenance at a minimum and it is necessary to
schedule project activity on a priority basis.
Mandatory maintenance is usually done immediately whereas optional
maintenance is scheduled. At any point in time there is a work backlog
of 15-25 projects. Some of the backlogged tasks require a day or two to
accomplish whereas others would need several months or longer. Priorities
are determined by the Assistant Director after considering such factors
as staff availability, skills required, size of the job, and impact upon the
University office being served. Conversation with the parties involved usually
help to make sure all the relevant factors have been considered.
All major systems use the Xerox Sigma 7 computer and utility processes
are run on the IBM 1401. The principal programming language is COBOL al-
though some work is done in Fortran and avery small amount of Meta Symbol.
A primitive report generator/file management software package called MANAGE
has been used extensively.
Recent developments have led the staff to adopt a new method of programming
called "modularization". This technique reduces the time needed to write and
debug programs, it lends itself to reduced maintenance, fewer errors are made,
and modifications are easier. Modularization will be used on all future,
major systems programming. A summary of the programs supported for each office
follows:
Office |
MANAGE |
COBOL |
OTHER |
Accounting and Budget |
42 |
13 |
88 |
Admissions |
22 |
-- |
-- |
Adult Education Broadcast Services |
1 |
-- |
-- |
Adult Education Correspondence School |
-- |
-- |
2 |
Agriculture Experimental Station |
-- |
-- |
1 |
Alumni Association |
1 |
-- |
2 |
College of Arts and Sciences |
2 |
-- |
2 |
ASUW |
5 |
3 |
2 |
Bureau of Mines |
-- |
-- |
4 |
Campus Police |
6 |
1 |
1 |
College of Commerce and Industry |
1 |
1 |
-- |
Communications |
2 |
2 |
1 |
Computer Services |
1 |
-- |
45 |
Counseling and Testing |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Credit Union |
2 |
-- |
1 |
College of Education |
2 |
-- |
-- |
College of Engineering |
-- |
-- |
1 |
Faculty Senate |
-- |
1 |
1 |
FFA |
-- |
1 |
1 |
Graduate School |
3 |
-- |
-- |
Housing |
-- |
-- |
7 |
Library - Rare Books |
13 |
-- |
-- |
Payroll |
24 |
8 |
7 |
Personnel |
35 |
-- |
-- |
Registrar |
176 |
17 |
23 |
Student Financial Aids |
4 |
8 |
4 |
Student Health |
31 |
-- |
-- |
Summer School |
-- |
-- |
2 |
University Statistician |
10 |
1 |
-- |
Wyoming Higher Education Council |
-- |
-- |
1 |
TOTALS |
384 |
55 |
201 |
From 1962 through 1972 the University enrollment, number of faculty,
and number of staff have each approximately doubled. During the same period
the number of staff involved with administrative data processing has also
doubled while many colleges and universities were expanding administrative
services by four- or even five-fold. Generally personnel costs increase at
an annual rate of between 12% and 15% whereas computing costs go up only 7%.
Although automation rarely reduces staff size it can contribute significantly
to controlled growth, long-range const reductions, and quality improvements
in services. Our rather slow movement into administrative automation has
prevented realization of these advantages.
However modest past efforts have been, the installation of the Xerox
Sigma 7 computer and the recruiting and training of a permanent processional
staff skilled in administrative processes has signalled a new era in adminis-
trative data processing. With a large backlog of work to be done and a small
but competent staff to do the work, considerable attention is being paid to
improved productivity and elimination of re-work. Systems analysis and design
are becoming responsive to the benefits of standardization and integration.
Techniques and structures are being used which are particularly well-suited
to accommodate change as the environments in which the systems operate change.
By eliminating inflexibility and planning for change the amount of effort
needed will be reduced, leaving more time for programming on new systems
and services.
The short-range goal is to provide an increased number of support services
to the University administrative community. Reduction of the backlog
and extension of services to a wider constituency are of major importance.
Coupled with these quantity goals are longer-range objectives to improve the
quality of support and enable the administrative offices to realize quality
improvements in their activities as well. There is a close relationship
between these quantity and quality goals. By building systems based upon sound
principles (quality) staff saturation can be avoided and permit realization
of backlog reduction (quantity).
The notion of quality improvement extends beyond system design improvements,
however. Beyond the systems which support daily operations are those
which facilitate planning, analysis, and decision-making. Better,
more relevant data in the hands of a competent administrator strengthens the
entire University. The administrative data processing staff seeks to reduce
the energy expended in solving the problems of the future.
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