University Of Florida To Require All Students To Have Computer Access

June 4, 1997

GAINESVILLE — Beginning in summer 1998, all incoming University of Florida students will have to add computer savvy to their list of requirements for graduation.

In preparation for next year’s student catalogs and brochures, university officials announced the new policy this week that will make basic computer competency a requirement for graduation.

“We want to give our students the opportunity to function in a technologically literate world, and to do that they need to be proficient on the computer,” UF Provost Betty Capaldi said Wednesday.

Students will be expected to regularly use e-mail, the Internet and the World Wide Web and be competent with word processing and spread sheet programs.

“Class assignments may require use of a computer, academic advising and registration can be done by computer and official university correspondence is often sent via e-mail,” reads the policy.

Much like a mandatory reading or class textbook, the policy requires access to a computer and a proficiency — as required by each department — that must be shown before a student earns a degree.

One of the advantages of the rule is that it will allow computing costs to be included in financial aid considerations, Capaldi said.

In addition to financial aid packages, UF officials are arranging to make computers available for lease and are preparing for a major upgrade of the campus’ central communications and networking systems. The upgrade, Capaldi said, also will mean all on-campus residences will be wired for computers by the fall of 1999. More connections also are planned for off-campus apartments and in more campus teaching and public areas.

“This whole campus is going to get electronic,” said Capaldi, who believes UF is in the company of the best public universities in aiming for universal computer access for its students.

Besides wanting UF students to be as prepared as any students in the country to compete in a computerized world, the new policy also is in response to an accrediting agency rule that all university students be computer literate, Capaldi said.

“This is an important step,” said Cornelius Pings, president of the prestigious Association of American Universities, of which UF is a member. “Clearly, today’s university graduates are going to have to be computer literate to keep up and advance themselves no matter what profession they choose.”

The specific requirements needed for graduation will vary and will be up to each of the university’s colleges to define.

“We want to provide our students the best education we can, and requiring computer literacy is an important element in achieving that end,” Capaldi said.