The computer lab in the Student Services Building permanently closed its doors Friday, moving the computers to the Gregg Triad lab.

Don Braswell, a senior applications analyst, said Monday the 50 computers at the Student Services lab will be moved into the Triad within two weeks in hopes that the new location will be more convenient for students and alleviate staffing problems at the location.

The move will bring 30 PCs and 20 Macintosh computers from Student Services Building to the Triad so a total of 100 computers will be available at the location, said Braswell.

Bill Witsman, associate vice president for Information Technology Services, said Monday that the move is part of a “strategic plan” to combine both labs into one building. The move has been planned for more than two years and was contingent on the opening of Booth Library.

Witsman said he hopes the move will provide students with more computers available at a 24-hour facility and at a central location on campus.

“Students will have at least the same amount of machines with more hours,” he said.

In addition, Witsman said the Triad is also handicapped accessible and equipped with color printers, which were not offered at Student Services.

Another factor in the move is a lack of staffing at the Triad lab due to the opening of the Booth Library on February 15.

When the library closed for renovations, Witsman said 63 computers from the library lab moved to the Triad and both ITS employees and Booth staff shared responsibility for managing and operating the lab. Booth personnel managed the first and second shifts, while ITS employees manned the third shifts.

Booth staff has now moved back to the library, leaving ITS and the Triad lab with many positions to fill. Braswell said that the “only way” to solve the problem was to move staff from Student Services to the Triad.

“We want students to have assistance and computers to be managed well,” he said. “We didn’t have enough staff to man both facilities.”

The outdated Booth PCs at the Triad will not be moved back into the library because they were replaced with 63 new machines that were purchased with funds from the Student Technology Fee, John Henderson, director of ITS, said Monday.