Nearly 6,000 freshmen will move onto campus this fall, ready to wave goodbye to mom and dad, say hello to their new roommate and plug in their Ethernet-ready computers.
They don’t have a choice.
MSU’s computer requirement begins this fall, insisting all students entering with freshman status bring along a computer prepped for Internet access.
A 1998 proposal by Provost Lou Anna Simon would have required freshmen to enter with an Internet-capable laptop computer. Opposition to the bill by ASMSU, the undergraduate student government, and other campus groups altered its content to allow desktop or laptop computers.
While students are required to bring a computer, they are not required to buy it.
Paul Hunt, vice president for Libraries, Computing and Technology, said students can buy, lease, borrow or sign on with hand-me-down machines.
Because different majors cater to different operating systems, like Windows, Macintosh or UNIX, students may use any format they feel comfortable with.
“We’re unlike some universities that use rigid ‘Everybody must do the same thing’ policies,” Hunt said. “There are differences discipline to discipline in what the preferred operating systems are.”
But the mix of computers and operating systems can cause extra headaches for technicians trying to keep the university’s network up and running.
With more than 60 percent of students bringing computers to campus anyway, Hunt said the university is prepared for whatever technical tasks come its way.
“We have been running in a heterogeneous environment at MSU for years now,” he said. “We would like students to be comfortable using whatever technology confronts them when they take their first job from college. That’s an advantage that students at good universities have.”
And residence hall rooms won’t be the only areas filling with more computer equipment.
MSU’s computer labs stock more than 1,600 machines in each residence hall complex and in academic buildings around campus. Although every incoming student will bring along a computer, the labs will remain intact for all students at the university.
Instead of purchasing more computers, Hunt said more peripheral devices will be added to the labs, like color printers, scanners and digital cameras.
“I think it will be an emerging trend,” he said. “The labs will shift from the computer being the ‘end all be all’ to a larger range of peripherals.”
MSU’s requirement follows the example of other colleges and universities around the nation that have already experimented with the technology change, like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Although Georgia’s Clayton College & State University lost money by purchasing laptop computers for students to lease, university officials say they will continue with their requirement.
“It’s not a profitable thing,” said Ron Barden, executive director for Clayton’s Office of Information Technology and Services. “Academically, it’s been exceptional. We’ve seen our students collaborate more. We used to take a textbook and a yellow pad over to a friend’s house to work together. Now, by the time they finish the evening, they can have a finished product.”
For the 2000-01 school year, Clayton students paid $300 to lease a state-owned laptop from the college. Next year, students may choose between five different laptops, allowing the school’s fee to drop to $38.
“You have some students driving a Mercedes to school and some who have a hard time walking to class because they don’t have shoes,” Barden said. “There are some ways that we can address that, but still give them that edge.”
Like Clayton’s requirement, MSU President M. Peter McPherson said he expects to see the computer policy improve and change as the years go on.
“The first year of a major change you always learn some things that are helpful the next year,” he said. “A computer is so essential to being here. I consistently hear that students could not function without one. I was for this, and I think it is a good move.”
