The final 2020 Town Hall Meeting of the semester was presented by the Finance and Administration Office in the Nick and Lou Martin University Center Tuesday afternoon. 

Daniel de Leon, Wesleyan’s dynamic campus chief information officer, presented on changes in IT and IT’s strategy for computer replacement. He was introduced by Donna Nance, the vice president of finance and administration.  

“The most exciting thing going on (in finance and administration) had to do with IT,” Nance said. “About a year and half ago, we contacted all of our IT services in dynamic campus and it resulted in significant budget saving. Additionally, we’ve been able to use all the budget savings in a computer replacement strategy.” 

 Nance said IT has been working over the summer and into the fall semester to implement the computer replacement strategy on campus. 

According to de Leon, students, staff, and faulty will have around 700 new computers on campus by Dec. 22 due to the $625,000 in expenditures cut with changes in contracts. 

“The real strategy is that we’ll have better retention rate,” de Leon said. 

With computers being updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and a budget to replace old computers, students, faculty, and staff will have better technology to work on campus, de Leon said. The IT Help Desk has a list of computers that will be updated based on age. 

“The replacement priority of the computer is based on the age of the computer, not the staff,” President Frederick Slabach said to clarify de Leon’s statement.

Slabach also added later that there will more computer updates on campus. 

“This isn’t the last computer replacement process,” Slabach said. “We’re trying to get to the point where we have fewer we have to replace each year and get them on a regular four-year replacement schedule. This is a huge one because it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to replace 700 computers here on campus.” 

Earlier in the meeting, Slabach announced Jill Speegle, the student financial services representative as the recipient of the November Staff Hero Award. 

“It’s very humbling and very unexpected surprise,” Speegle said. “I’m blessed that I enjoy what I do, and I get to work with great people.”