By Rebecca A. Doyle
Faculty, staff and students returning to campus this fall may be shocked to see that the dollar amounts in their MTS accounts have fallen drastically.
Beginning in July, the Information Technology Division (ITD) made changes in the rate structure for all customers except rates that were negotiated with external customers.
But it really isn’t all that different, says Michael C. Clark, ITD associate director. While the MTS dollars may look alarmingly low, the rates have been adjusted so that most University users will be able to purchase approximately the same amount of service as in 1992–93.
University users of MTS services fall into one or more of four categories, and rates will affect each group differently.
External users will pay no greater a premium this year than in 1992–93.
Federal users will pay no more than cost.
Non-GFCA (General Fund Computing Allocation) University users will pay no more than cost.
GFCA users (includes faculty, staff and student request accounts) will be able to purchase the same amount of services in aggregate that they used last year. This year, each dollar corresponds to a real dollar.
The monthly GFCA allocation for University request account users is:
Faculty $22.55
Staff $13.55
Student $ 6.00
Pre-candidate $12.00
Candidate $22.55
GFCA rates reflect about 50 percent of the real cost of MTS use, according to Clark, and show that profits from other MTS rates are used to subsidize University users.
If MTS users find their GFCA accounts running dangerously low, additional MTS services can be purchased using a Univer-sity account number or cash prepayment. Whether or not the additional services can be purchased at GFCA rates will be determined by the demonstrated need for services and adherence to guidelines for use of GFCA funds.
Additional information about the new rates is available in the MTS file *RATES (type COPY *RATES at the # prompt) or, if you don’t want to use your computing dollars, in the June 28 issue of ITDigest, available at campus computing sites or from the ITD Documentation Support Staff, 763-8961.
