Laptop Initiative

Laptop Initiative FAQs

If all freshmen are required to have laptops in Fall 2005, will the faculty members also get a laptop each?

During the pilot year (04-05) faculty chosen to develop courses will be provided a laptop, as will their students. Funds have been allocated for that purpose. In '05 we will have many of those laptops available for use as check out machines in the library, as loaners and to distribute to faculty. Once the replacement process begins again, faculty will be given the option of a laptop or desktop. One computer per faculty member.

Will we have enough web and server capacity to handle multiple classes going online at the same time, so as not to waste extremely valuable class time in waiting for web responses?

Yes, internal support will be increased, however if by web capacity you're talking about going off site to other web sites, we cannot control the capacity of those servers.

Will we provide any hardware/software support to students? If so, how?

Hardware support is part of the agreement with the vendor. We will facilitate as needed. Software support for normal "office/email" types of products will be available as it presently is. Decisions made about such things are made by the Deans. Academic specific software support will remain the responsibility of the department.

What software will be installed on the laptops? Will individual departments be consulted on the software issue? Will departments get money for site licenses for the software needed in their departments?

As part of the program, we will be obtaining licenses for the Microsoft office suite, a virus protections and email client for student to be distributed with the laptops. See question 3 for departmental software acquisition process.

Will faculty members also be able to buy their personal laptops at student prices?

All College personnel will be able to take advantage of the pricing negotiations/vendor selection made by the state college collaboration when buying their own computer. There will be a web site established later this summer where individuals will be able to "shop" online for what they want. This year's partner is Dell. Remember these are individual not college purchases. The consortium of State Colleges specified a robust Laptop with 3-year warrantee and Dell won the bid at $1199. This is the base price and can be upgraded. This machine would cost $2000 to $2200 on the market. This is not a low-end machine and is intended to last 3 to 4 years.