Despite the $12 million budget cut which forced the University to shorten its library and computer lab hours, students will actually have more access to University computers, Deputy Director of the University's Center for Academic Computing Jim Kerlin said.

Three new computer labs will provide greater access for students who use computers, Kerlin said.

New labs in Sparks Building and Health and Human Development East Building were opened last November and a third lab in the Pollock Library opened on Feb. 4.

An official ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place today at the Pollock Library lab, Kerlin said. Executive Director of Computer Information Systems J. Gary Augustson, said the new lab houses about 30 microcomputers and will immediately operate on a 24-hour basis.

The three labs add about 100 new microcomputers to the University, Kerlin said.

Kerlin said 1,733,822 hours per week were available in the labs at the beginning of the Fall semester. But with the addition of the new facilities, the total number of available hours rose to about two million.

"I think we're doing pretty good if we can increase the hours available to the public by 300,000 hours despite the budget cuts," Kerlin said.

Presently, the University has about 600 computers operating in 13 facilities and only 65 computers are housed in Pattee and the Mineral Sciences Building, he added.

"The total number of computers affected by the cut hours has very little impact overall," Kerlin said.

Kerlin said some computer lab hours were cut, however, as a result of the shortened hours at Pattee and the Mineral Sciences Building.

"We have no control over those facilities," Kerlin said. "If the building closes, the lab has to close also."

Unlike past years, Findlay and Redifer labs will not begin operating on a 24-hour basis until the sixth week of the semester. Usually the expanded hours start during the fifth week, he said.

"Opening the labs on a 24-hour basis later in the semester really has nothing to do with the budget cuts," Kerlin said. "Those two labs just weren't being used very much."