Lab Reservations Policy (UCSC Classes)

Reservations & Confirmations

In order to best serve UCSC instructional needs amidst growing class sizes, and increasing requests for lab reservations, we will have three lab request deadlines, and prioritize batches of lab requests to match available lab resources. Our lab reservation deadlines will align with the deadlines the Registrar sets for classroom requests. Our deadlines should give you time to meet pertinent Registrar deadlines, such as listings in the schedule of classes, the addendum, etc. You may reserve either a specific number of computer workstations (for office hours or small sections) or an entire lab.

You may consider your course or section scheduled when you receive an email confirmation. In addition, your confirmed reservation will be shown on the lab schedule posted in advance on the web.

Note: Short term or one-time lab requests will be reserved and confirmed no earlier than three weeks before the start of instruction for the quarter.

About Finals Week & Holidays

Scheduling a class for the duration of a quarter means that your reservation starts the first week of instruction and continues through the last week of instruction, but does NOT include Finals week. If you want lab time during Finals week, please submit a separate request.

Any University holiday falling within normally scheduled instruction is observed, and all staffed labs are closed. Some unstaffed labs, such as the Sun Unix lab, may be open. Labs often close early the day before major holidays such as Thanksgiving, so please refer to our hours schedule.

Rationale for Assigning Labs and Times to Requests

Due to limited computing resources available, we evaluate each course's hardware and software needs and assign an appropriate lab after comparing the request with other competing requests. If an instructor requests a large lab because of its location, when a smaller lab would suffice, the class is more likely to be scheduled in the smaller lab if a popular timeslot is requested. Class sizes are increasing, and in an effort to optimize limited campus resources, we need to reserve the larger labs with more than 25 workstations for larger classes, or those classes requiring specialized technologies. If a larger lab is reserved for a class which ends up only having 15 or fewer students, this class may be moved to a smaller lab (providing all technical needs of the class can be met elsewhere).

It is also possible that you will not get your requested time if there is a conflict with another class. Please be sure to list alternatives to the time you want, and most importantly, please include contact information so that our staff can reach you in case of a conflict we cannot schedule around. If we cannot reach you to resolve a time or lab conflict when we are scheduling a batch of requests, your course will not be scheduled until we can contact you.

Cancellations & Changes

Please cancel any times you discover you won't need immediately, as another class may need this time. No Shows: If no instructor shows up at your reserved, scheduled times two or more times in a quarter, your lab reservation may be cancelled for the rest of the quarter to free up the time for other class requests.

Please request lab time that you know you will use. If you schedule several sections and then cancel ones you didn't need into the quarter, it makes it difficult to optimally allocate lab resources. Consistently scheduling lab time and then canceling sections may compromise the priority of subsequent requests for that particular class.

Classes scheduled in larger labs (more than 25 workstations) that end up having fewer than 15 students attending may be rescheduled in a more appropriately sized class.

Non-Quarter Long Classes, Office hours, and Optional Sections:

It is important to know the nature of your reservation so we can give accurate space availability data to walk-ins. We can set aside a small, specified number of workstations for your office hours, tutoring sessions or optional sections, but to make the most effective and efficient use of University resources, we will not reserve all workstations in a lab for these purposes.

If you know you only need the lab for a portion of the quarter or are unsure if you will have staffing for some sections, please include this information on your lab request in advance. Please note that onsite Lab Consultants cannot reschedule or cancel classes.

Responsibilities of ITS Staff and the Requestor:

We are responsible for:

• Evaluating and scheduling your request in terms of feasibility of software, hardware, facilities, and how it fits in the overall lab schedule. You will either receive a confirmation detailing your actual lab reservation and our understanding of what technologies are needed or be contacted if there is an issue prohibiting your request from being scheduled.
• Ensuring that the facilities and software are available for your course as detailed in the confirmation.
• Managing licensing agreements and limits for all software in the ITS computer labs.
• Maintaining a safe environment in the computer labs.

The individual requesting the lab is responsible for:

• Giving us complete information within the deadlines set when requesting a lab or software, such as (but not limited to) exact lists of required software, supplemental equipment, special dates your class will or won't be meeting (if different from the standard quarter), etc. This is especially important if you are scheduling the lab on behalf of someone else.
• Requesting lab time ONLY for times you know you will need.
• Responding to any follow up questions so that we can successfully schedule your request. If we do not hear back from you we may not be able to complete your lab request.
• Canceling your reservation immediately if you will not need it.
• Reading and following all policies, procedures and deadlines.

Course Software in the Labs:

Lab software varies from lab to lab and quarter to quarter because of limited licensing. If you are requesting scheduled lab time, you are encouraged to include your software requests at the same time.

If your course needs software to be available in our computer labs but you are not scheduling lab time (or already have at an earlier time), please complete the online Lab and Software Request Form by the appropriate deadlines. Please note, we no longer support software which requires special hardware peripherals, cables, etc. (e.g., hardware that must be attached to the computer where software is used. Without this special hardware, the software will not run.)