(Effective May 1, 1997)

Date: December 2, 1996

Introduction

Many faculty, staff, and students in the Faculty of Arts routinely use computers for their daily activities. These can include research, teaching, learning, and administrative activities as well as the underlying electronic workplace. The Faculty of Arts provides support services and computing resources to encourage all members of the Faculty to use information systems and technology in their work. However, there are constraints on the amount of support services and computing resources that can be provided by the Faculty of Arts and the University. Constraints on computing resources take two forms, limits on the available time of computing support staff and limits on funds for purchasing hardware and software. These constrained resources must be allocated to support computing by faculty, staff, and students for research, teaching, learning, and administrative activities.

Most faculty members use a single workstation for a mix of research, teaching, and administrative activities and access to the electronic workplace. The Faculty of Arts provides support services and general accounts on Waterloo Nexus and/or Watarts to encourage computer use by faculty members. Given the power of modern workstations, a single computer and the general accounts are sufficient to handle the computing needs of most faculty members. Many faculty members use external or internal research grants to purchase a computer for their office and the Faculty shares the cost of connecting these computers to the campus network.

Some faculty members require centralized computing facilities to conduct their research. This may result from factors such as large disk space requirements, intensive CPU usage, centralized databases, or extensive support services. The objective of this policy is both to quantify typical charges so that researchers can then include in new grant proposals, and to provide a means to recover the cost of providing centralized support services and computing resources for computer-intensive faculty research. By direct collaboration with the Associate Dean, Computing at the grant proposal stage, researchers can ensure that future computer-intensive needs are considered by both the granting agency (usually SSHRC or NSERC) and by the Faculty, and that those needs are expressed in concrete terms. Funds collected from this policy will supplement existing budgets to purchase hardware and software to support research computing.

Description of Policy

This policy recognizes that while the Faculty of Arts has a responsibility to provide computing support for research, there are constraints on the resources available for computing and most research computing in Arts can be carried out efficiently on a desktop workstation. The Faculty of Arts recognizes a responsibility to provide computing infrastructure and access to the electronic workplace to support research. In particular, the Faculty of Arts provides a general account on Waterloo Nexus and/or Watarts and general support services at no charge. These computer accounts provide access to the campus network, the Internet, and electronic workplace software.

Faculty members using Faculty of Arts or University support services or computing resources in research or contract work beyond the limits of general accounts are charged for the cost of these services or resources. The rates are applied in all cases and can be paid by the researcher from external or internal grants/contracts or by the researcher's department.  The policy applies to faculty members conducting research and their research assistants.

Graduate and undergraduate students are provided with computer accounts to be used in their studies. Researchers who involve students as research assistants in their projects are charged for the accounts of the research assistants.

Rates

At present, there does not exist a reliable and cost-effective method to determine whether computer usage is for research, teaching, or administration. As a result, the policy relies on the faculty member's judgement to allocate usage among the three categories. The rate structure is based upon a series of flat rates which take into account the intensity of computer usage for research or contract work only. The intensity is evaluated in terms of type of account (i.e., Waterloo Nexus and/or UNIX), connect time, CPU usage on UNIX, disk space used, and amount of support services from personnel in the Arts Computing Office or the Information Systems and Technology department. The level of use can be established in conjunction with the Manager of Arts Computing Office and/or the Associate Dean, Computing.

Monthly Charges for Computer Use

Faculty members in Arts programs at the Federated and Affiliated Colleges will be treated as Arts Users for charging purposes.

A sample contract is attached to this policy. The contract is signed by the user and the Associate Dean Computing. Payment for use is through an internal transfer or cash payment and payment should be received prior to commencement of computer use.

Other Computing Charges

All users are responsible for printing charges on printers operated by the Arts Computing Office. Users should refer to the policy on printing charges for the appropriate costs. Similarly, users are responsible for terminal server charges if they wish to dial in to the University network.

Guidelines for Determination of Charging Category

The following tables are intended to provide guidelines to determine the appropriate usage category. The Associate Dean Computing is happy to meet with researchers to discuss the appropriate category. Factors such as the proportion of research usage relative to teaching or administrative usage, variation in usage patterns during the year, use of consulting time to install specialized software, and use of University resources will be considered in the decision.

Waterloo Nexus account

UNIX account (i.e., Watarts)

The usage charges for Watarts are measured in dollars and based on connect time, CPU usage, and usage of disk space. The acs command displays total usage to date for the current term (including cumulative connect time measured in hours, cumulative CPU usage measured in hours, and cumulative disk space usage based on MB per day). The current usage charges for Watarts are $0.20 / hour for connect time, $5.00 / CPU hour for CPU time, and $0.02 / MB / day for disk space.

Implementation

The implementation date is May 1, 1997. In order to reduce the impact of implementation of this policy, the Associate Dean Computing, in consultation with the Dean, will consider applications for reduced charges from faculty members who were unsuccessful in obtaining a research grant for 1997-98.

1. The electronic workplace includes activities such as word processing, communication by electronic mail, spreadsheet analysis, and access to the World Wide Web. It is described in section 3.2.4 of the University Computing Directions Statement (1998) which is available on the Web at the URL:
   

   www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocist/Directions1998.html

2. For convenience, the name "Watarts" is used to describe both UNIX servers operated by the Faculty of Arts. Computer accounts may reside on either Watarts or Wataco.

The Associate Dean of Computing, in consultation with the Dean, will consider applications for reduced charges in cases such as unsuccessful research grant applications or new faculty members who have not received a first external research grant.