Two years ago, Lake City Community College purchased a $150,000 state-of-the-art mainframe computer to quicken the flow of communication within its administrative systems. More than 700 days have passed and campus users have still not been switched over to the new administrative mainframe.

"We purchase things with the full intent that they are going to be utilized immediately," said Michael Davis, director of data processing at the college. "We don't just go out and purchase for the sake of purchasing. We purchase with the intent of making use of it and this situation was unfortunate. Other priorities took precedent."

When Davis pulled the Compaq ES40 from its box in March 2000, the college was on the verge of quicker registration, faster access to records and the ability to have extensive users and peripheral systems connected at the same time to the network. Davis even purchased four new hard drives to upgrade the reliability and prevention of data loss on the new computer. Then a series of projects prevented Davis from installing the programs into the network.

Asked to create telephone and Web registration systems and install a new $350,000 telephone system on campus, Davis has spent the past two years prioritizing most of his time away from the Compaq ES40.

"I'm trying my best to do things that are in the best interest of the college," Davis said. "And some of (the priorities) are set by people besides me. I'm juggling."

Dr. Chuck Hall, president of the college, agrees Davis was side-tracked. He said installing the new phone system on campus, "ran over about 5-6 months ... and a casualty of this whole thing was the complete implementation of this computer."

Mark DeRight is a former operator in computer operations at the college whom Hall said was fired for "admitting to trying to put a virus into the college computer system." DeRight said he sent the virus to "raise awareness of how easy it is to infect the entire campus." Hall said he wasn't amused.

DeRight said he does not understand how a $150,000 piece of machinery that would affect the efficiency of the entire college was not given top priority.

"It is depreciating at a tremendous value," DeRight said. "If you would buy a personal computer for yourself, would you just put it in the back room and turn it on and leave it there for two years? When this computer was purchased, that's when Pentium IIs were still operational. Then they came out with IIIs and IVs, so this computer is no longer state-of-the-art."

Unfortunately for the taxpayer, the Compaq ES40 is not even being used close to its potential. This has prompted DeRight to write Florida's Office of the Chief Inspector General. Adam Shores, spokesman for the Department of Education, said an investigation may be pending into the college's procedures on implementing the computer.

"We did receive the complaint and it was referred to us (Thursday) morning by the chief inspector general," Shores said.

According to Florida Statute 20.055, the state "shall assign to the Division of Public Schools and Community Education such powers, duties, responsibilities, and functions as are necessary to ensure the greatest possible coordination, efficiency, and effectiveness of education for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, for secondary school vocational education, and for community education."

DeRight said he is most baffled by Davis' decision to move the maintenance contract, which costs $12,000 a year, from the old computer to the ES40.

"He took the maintenance contract, where Digital (maintenance company) would come out and immediately fix anything, and Mike Davis took the contract and put it on the new mainframe. So we have no maintenance coverage on the one the college is currently using."

Davis said he had the full intention of switching campus users over to the new computer as soon as possible.

"That did not happen, but in reality there was no reason to go back and put maintenance on the old machine because all the maintenance does is ensure that we will not be down more than 24 hours," Davis said. "If the old machine were to crash, I would then from that point, move over and have everybody running on the new machine the next day.

"But it would be moved over without the thorough testing to ensure that I could transfer files ... I would have to do those on the fly. It would be an emergency and I'd be working all night."

Ironically, the two-year maintenance cost of $24,000 spent on the unconnected ES40 could have almost paid for the initial installation of the system by Compaq when the computer was purchased. Dr. Hall said the company offered to install the computer for $30,000 in 2000, but with budget cuts looming, the college opted away from paying for installation.

Davis is not going anywhere for Spring Break. He will spend his days moving users over to the new mainframe and the college will finally benefit from its aging state-of-the-art computer. Once implemented, telephone registration, Web registration, a fax system, records, accounting and services will all come from the one piece of machinery.

Lake City Reporter

-- Anonymous, March 18, 2002