by KEVIN PAMBA
Divine Word Uni’s small deed of global significance
THINK globally, act locally. This
slogan from those concerned with the environment of our ailing
planet is being put to practise at Divine Word University (DWU) in
Madang.
The university has been cutting down the use of paper to help
reduce the cutting of trees to make paper.
Scientists say among benefits such as food, medicine, shade and
support for life, trees are a ‘carbon sink’ that absorbs enormous
amounts of carbon dioxide and release oxygen in return.
In the global scheme of things, the actions of DWU are small. But
the university is, in its own way, thinking globally and acting
locally.
DWU has invested heavily in information and communication
technologies (ICTs) in the last few years to replace work done
traditionally with paper and books.
The ICTs facilities are continuously being upgraded at the
university.
The university has been encouraging its staff members and students
to use the ICTs more and reduce the need for papers.
President of DWU Fr Jan Czuba, repeated his call for students and
staff members to make use of the ICT facilities and cut the use of
papers, when he welcomed them to the new academic year last month.
He said the university had to demonstrate responsibility and care
for the wider community by cutting down the use of paper through
the use of ICTs.
He said the university community must demonstrate to the world
that it was equally concerned with the health of the planet, which
is under threat by relentless environmental degradation.
In an unprecedented move, DWU provided every student and academic
and administrative staff members a 128-megabyte flash-drive or
memory stick last year.
New students and staff members also received the flash-drives this
year.
The flash-drives can be replaced after two years.
The memory sticks have been handed out free of charge.
DWU invested in flash-drives to ensure students and staff members
download and safely store academic and administrative work in them
and avoid the use of papers.
The free distribution of flash-drives is among various ICT-based
services available for the growing number of students and staff at
DWU.
The traditional notice-boards on walls of buildings are being
phased out by electronic notice boards.
Staff and students now read and place notices on their respective
DWU intranet notice boards.
Paper notices are only put up when they are unavoidable.
The staff and students also exchange messages and information via
email on the intranet.
They are also being encouraged to use the intranet to exchange
academic and administrative information, including the posting of
course descriptions, assignments and readings.
Fr Czuba has been a staunch supporter of online library and
databases for research and teaching and this is being made
available.
The DWU president had been saying that with online library and
database access, the physical book made from paper is not really
necessary for research and teaching.
He said a book became obsolete in a matter of months or couple of
years and was costly to replace, whereas online information were
updated quicker with minimum of costs and are only a click of a
computer button away.
The president’s vision and emphasis on online information has seen
the growth of the university’s Friendship Library, now housing the
most modern computer equipment, data bases and an e-learning
centre that includes an internet café and data scanning equipment.
More computers are being added to the library to make access
easier.
Across the Madang campus, the student to computer ratio stands at
three to one and attempts are being made to reduce this further.
All academic and administrative staff members have a computer to
themselves in their respective offices.
These computers are linked to the DWU intranet and the academic
and senior administrative staff have further access to the
internet for a five-kilobyte per day quota.
The university is also investing in bringing its other campuses up
to standard with ICT facilities and link up with the main campus
network.
The university feels that when its external campuses are hooked up
with the main campus, it will reduce the use of faxes, telephones,
surface mail and even transport cost and time.
The university has also reduced access to the two PNG daily
newspapers to only limited copies in the library and selected
offices.
The newspapers’ online versions have been linked to the DWU
intranet and students and staff members have unlimited access to
them.
DWU in its own way and capacity is taking a responsible step
towards a global concern – the welfare of the earth’s environment
that is threatened by all forms of degradation.
It is a step that stems from the university’s vision: “Our vision
is to be a Christian university, open to all, serving society
through teaching and research in a Christian environment”.
