The Cowell Apartments Lab is located on the first floor of Cowell Apartments Building 1 in room 101, just across from the Quarry Plaza parking lot. It contains both Windows and Mac computers and two printers, and is one of the busiest labs during peak hours. 

Cowell is open 24 hours: it is staffed during the day, and open unstaffed all night. When the opening consultant arrives, it is very important to diligently scan the lab for damaged equipment, vandalism, or missing items. If any of the above is discovered, please report a Tech Issue immediately. Remember to include important information such as the item, its location, and the extent of the damage. Please be as detailed as possible when describing the situation.

The Cowell lab also has two areas where lab supplies are stored: the supply cabinet near the consultant station which contains all of the regular supplies and a locked storage room that contains extra paper and toner. To open the storage room you will need the key in the supply cabinet. The key has attached to an orange laminated tag that says “key for paper storage room”. Please be sure the storage room door is secured and locked when you are finished moving any paper.

Cowell Express Stations and Wait Lists

Unique to Cowell are the Express Stations located across from the consultant station. The Express Stations were created to relieve the flow of traffic at Cowell by allowing customers to complete quick tasks (printing, checking email, etc.) without waiting for a more permanent slot at one of the other stations. There is a 10-minute limit for Express Station use. It is very important that when working at Cowell to carefully monitor the use of the Express Stations. The Express Station has a timer that automatically launches when a customer logs in. The timer will NOT automatically log-out customers, but will pop up reminders when the 10 minutes are up so you will be able to see when the customer’s time is up.

During a busy shift, it is vital that you encourage customers to fully fill out the Waitlist. The Waitlist can be printed out for daily use from the Admin Printing page on the LTweb Consultant website; anything printed from this page will not charge your account. This will help you to determine who needs what type of station and for how long.

When Closing Cowell … 

Please be aware that you will need to perform the temporarily unstaffed lab procedure when leaving at the end of a shift when the lab remains open and unstaffed, which can be found at the beginning of this section.

*Note: that Cowell has two “lab unstaffed” signs: the first one announcing that the lab will be temporarily unstaffed (this sign can be found in all staffed labs) and a sign explaining that Cowell will be unstaffed for the rest of the night. Be sure to use the correct sign, and be sure to put them away once their duty has been fulfilled.

Thunder From Above…

Sometimes the students in the dorm above the lab are so loud that it may disrupt the lab. If this happens, call the RA at 502-5496. If you can’t get a hold of the RA, call Dispatch and ask for the CRE or CSO and explain that someone needs to deal with the noise issue. The apartment number above the computer lab is room 201.

Upon calling one of these numbers, please report a Facilities/Tech Issue with the following information:

• Day/time called
• Who you called
• Was the problem resolved?
• If so, how long did it take?

Because this lab is air conditioned, the door should remain closed at all times. When the lab is at an uncomfortable temperature, defined as above 72F or below 66F, consultants may adjust the temperature in the lab. When taking any action, please allow 60 minutes for the ambient temperature to equalize before trying another action. Computer lab environments are difficult to control due to several factors, including heat generated by computers, peripherals and bodies, external weather conditions and inadequate or insufficient heating.

Since the thermostat has a locking cover, the key is labeled and stored in the Consultant cabinet. Consultants may adjust the thermostat within the range of 66F-72F, or turn off the HVAC system (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning). Do not adjust the thermostat outside of this range. Please also use common sense when adjusting the temperature in the labs and try not to waste energy. Do not crank up the HVAC system while windows and doors are open. Doors and windows must be closed in order for the HVAC system to function properly. If the lab temperature does not seem to improve be sure to report a Facilities Issue in the Support Request System.