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College of Architecture, Planning & Design

An Important Message From Dean de Noble

All Students, Faculty and Staff,
 
Happy New Year!
 
I trust everyone had a fun-filled break spent with friends and family. Perhaps some time spent traveling to see new things or at least looking at old things with new eyes, perceptions. As I mentioned in my Holiday send-off letter, I am following up about how we might move forward with an increase in our Tech Fee structure for APDesign.
 
Please take time to read the following information in preparation for an All-School Meeting scheduled for5:00PM in the Regnier Forum on January 23rd. We will also broadcast the meeting in case we are over-capacity in the Forum. Pizza will follow in the Regnier Atrium.
 
UNIVERSITY CONTEXT
As you are likely aware, between budgeted cuts for this year and a budget turnback enacted this last month, our college has absorbed an 8% cut to our budget, as have all other units on campus. Each year the cuts have been exacted across the board, regardless of the growth of programs, expense of instructional delivery, etc. What makes this most difficult is that these cuts, coming on top of successive cuts over almost my entire time as dean, eroded monies we had reserved to help pay for the transition and dislocation expenses necessary for us to begin and complete our facility. Needless to say, we have expended these funds and more. 
 
The good news is that under President Myers we are moving towards a new budgetary model that should more accurately account for each college’s growth and relative costs. On the one hand, this will also allow us to capitalize on growth in population in existing and new programs, and to capitalize on organizational efficiencies. On the other, such a model will reflect our more expensive teaching model, commensurate with our smaller class sizes, and relatively large spatial and technological demands.
 
THE POWER OF YOUR FEE
Any discussion about Tech Fees paid by our students must recognize the power these fees have had in helping us advance as a college and maintain our national prominence.
 
When we agreed to raise the fee in 2012/13, first to $35/Credit Hour and then to $40/Credit Hour, I stressed that we would leverage the student’s commitment to argue for support from the State of Kansas for our building project. In this way, your fees have been instrumental in gaining the $62.5 Million commitment and bonding authority by the State of Kansas for the facility.
 
We have also pointed to your commitment in gaining greater philanthropic support for APDesign as a part of the Innovation and Inspiration Campaign. In this arena, your commitment has helped us raise over $34 Million, $23 Million of which supports scholarships, program and faculty support. We have reached a point where on an annual basis we are raising approximately seven dollars for every dollar paid in fees. Nearly 80% of these monies raised come from outside of the State of Kansas and 70% of all monies raised are focused on student support or academic enrichment.
 
In arguing for our new facility, I was able to point to the students’ commitment to APDesign through the ‘self-imposed’ Tech Fee as an indication of your support for the project. These fees are generally used solely in support of equipment, technology, software and tech-related personnel as per our agreement. Additionally, the fees support our APDPro staffing and events, aimed at building our students’ professional preparedness.
 
With the new facility, Tech Fee monies saved for this purpose, were used to acquire 1500 new (750A and 750B) design laboratory desks. And while we had not originally intended, we decided that you should have new studio chairs in your new spaces, pushing our expenses to the limit.
 
It is important to consider what we got out of our $75 million project that otherwise would have taken years and years of squirrelled-away tech fees to acquire:
· +$2.8 million in new digital technology. This includes all the large touch screen monitors, wireless and wired networking connectivity, Regnier Forum support, information monitors, etc.
· +$1.4 million in new furniture in offices, critique rooms, lounges and public areas.
· +$1.0 million in shop related technologies including compressed air, steam, dust and fume collection.
· +$0.20 million in experimental green roof technology
 
It would have taken us nearly 10 years to pay for these items If we had dedicated every cent of every year’s Tech Fee money to the project, not realistic given the number of on-going expenses and equipment updates funded through these fees.
 
MOVING FORWARD
As we have increased our technological capacities, we have also significantly increased our infrastructure, support and replacement costs. Quite simply, we will need more sustained funds to operate and maintain our new level of technology, both in undergirding a replacement cycle and supporting personnel focused on maintaining and transforming our evolving technologies.
 
In meeting with the Dean’s Student Advisory Committee, comprised of representatives from all registered student organizations in APDesign, I have proposed a number of considerations relative to our tuition and fees as follows.
 
The proposals for consideration by the entire student body of APDesign include:
·      A levelized tuition rate for all five years of the non-baccalaureate Masters programs.
In this scenario students would pay the same tuition for APDesign coursework in their first year as in their fifth year. The goal is to lesson the impact of the current higher graduate tuition rate currently paid coming almost simultaneous to international study and internship.
·      The adaptation of an all-inclusive tuition rate which would incorporate the technology fee.
·      Any increase in technology fees beginning in the 2018/19 academic year, as well as the current fee, will sunset with the adaptation of a new tuition model resulting in financial support for our college commensurate with our growth.
 
PROCEDURE
The proposals will be discussed and questions addressed at the meeting scheduled for January 23rd, 5:00PM in Regnier Forum. In addition to the information included herein, we will illustrate the current fee allocations for support, maintenance and technology acquisition.
 
We will also distribute and collect survey/voting documents to determine our course of action prior to the February 1st Fee Proposal Deadline. The results of the survey will be made public in advance of submission of any fee adjustment.
 
 
Thank you in advance for your consideration,
 
Tim de Noble, Dean
 
Spring APD IT Update
Cart, Crit, and Classroom AV equipment.
Over the winter intercession, APD IT updated the software and configuration of all cart, crit, and classroom AV equipment. All digital displays have a computer running Windows 10 Pro 64bit with Office 365 installed. Computers will auto logon at boot up to a local account named APD. You may choose to logon with your own college computing account as well. The systems are also configured with Deep Freeze. This means the systems will not retain saved files, saved passwords, installed software, or system changes. On reboot, these systems will return to a default baseline. Please save your files on these systems to a USB drive, to a server, or to the cloud. All systems should have working Internet and network access at this time.
If you need training on the equipment, please contact Brianna Sprague in the Dean’s Office.
 
Copier Codes.
Late last fall, the state copier contract switched to the new Konica Minolta equipment. Copiers were installed without requiring a copier code for use. We are planning on enabling the copier codes this week. Once the copier codes are enabled, all scanning, printing, and copying will require your copier code to function. For printing, the copy code will need to be programmed in the printer settings on the computer you are printing from. We will publish a set of instructions for Windows and Mac operating systems. Additionally, we will be available for desktop support to perform this task for you. Be aware, we will need you to be logged on to your computer when we arrive to provide assistance, the changes must be made under your account profile.
 
Cell Phones in Seaton/Regnier.
We have heard concerns regarding lack of cellular signal strength in the building. We have met with Telecom in this regard and in the short term we are unable to provide a central solution. It is possible to enable Wi-Fi calling on newer Apple and Android devices. This will use the Internet to make connections without cellular reception. Please contact your cell phone provider with questions. Here are a couple of links to help.
 
Support Requests and Ticket Tracking
Also, over the break, APD IT setup a cloud-based support ticket system using Spiceworks. Spiceworks is a free, community based and advertising funded help desk solution. Be aware you may submit a support request by filling out the form at: https://ksu.on.spiceworks.com/portal
Or you may submit an email directly to: help@ksu.on.spiceworks.com
Please ensure email from this address is not routed to your Junk or Spam folders.
 
Have a great semester! APD IT
__
Donald P. Crawford, MCSE, MCP+I, A+
Information Technology Manager