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Features
Technology Replacement Planning: How Refreshing!
6/27/2006
‘Hall’ of Fame
Mobile computing at Seton Hall is nothing new. The school launched its current laptop program back in 1997, and has been tweaking the program ever since. Today, Seton Hall charges students a mobile computing technology fee of $650 per semester, covering the cost of the laptop, insurance, software, network infrastructure, and support services. University officials also have been able to survey users about the impact of ubiquitous computing and where the effort needs to change. As part of this survey, all users—faculty and students alike—have the option of refreshing their equipment once every two years.
INCOMING
FRESHMEN at
Hartwick College
receive new HP
laptops, thanks
to $800K in
annual tech fees
collected from
the student body.
The most recent technology refresh was held this spring. Beginning April 18, and for the three weeks after that, the school replaced roughly 900 laptop computers for current sophomore students who are registered for the fall. Most students received a ThinkPad T60 laptop from Lenovo, but approximately 125 sophomore students in the physical and biological sciences got Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PCs instead. Approximately 45 students in the graphics and visual arts received Powerbook G4s from Apple.
According to Landry, the goal of the student refresh is to keep things current. “Our laptop program is that much more powerful if students are using the latest technology,” he says.
But students aren’t the only ones who get new laptops on a regular basis: All full-time faculty members are eligible to have a university-issued laptop or tablet PC. The laptops are replaced every two years, and about 200 of 400 faculty members will refresh this summer. While Seton Hall d'es not offer data transfers for students, Landry says the university’s faculty refresh has a more personal touch: Faculty members sit down for one-onone consultations with PC technicians who work with them to transfer data from their old laptop to their new machine using an external USB hard drive. Faculty members also get to keep the external hard drive so they have a backup of their old drive. Even adjunct faculty members are eligible to receive laptops every two years—used ones. The university recycles old student machines to adjuncts, giving these faculty members the option of getting a different, more sophisticated piece of used equipment every other year. This summer, for instance, Seton Hall is recycling old student ThinkPad R51 laptops from IBM.
Generally, those laptops the school can’t reissue, it sells. This has proven to be a valuable source of income; as Landry explains it, the university has found that the overall cost of the program is minimized by purchasing the computers and selling the used stock after two or three years. He notes that the program also has inspired a number of academic departments to undertake a technologyenabled redesign of their required, largeenrollment courses. “While a few parents and students do complain about the fees, most regard the education and technology at Seton Hall as a good value.”
AT A GLANCE
At Seton Hall University (NJ), students and their parents cough up a mobile computing technology fee of $650 per semester, but it covers the cost of a laptop, insurance, software, network infrastructure, and support services. Both students and faculty have the option of refreshing their equipment once every two years, and even adjunct faculty members can receive laptops every two years—recycled student machines.
Helping Out
The tech refresh situation at Coppin State is very different. Because the university is an inner-city institution in the heart of Baltimore, an overwhelming number of its students receive extensive financial aid and cannot afford the technology tools they need to help them succeed. With this in mind, Ahmed El- Haggan, VP of IT and CIO, explains that in 2002 the university launched a laptop refresh program whereby (based upon the financial needs of each student) the school pays up to 50 percent of the costs of a personal laptop from Gateway, giving students four semesters to pay off the balance.
Recommended Reading
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Enhanced Learning/ Assessment
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: High-Performance Computing
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Interactive, Remote Learning
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Mobile Learning
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Network Security
- 2008 Campus Technology Innovators: Social Networking for Admissions
