Deadline For Laptop Fee Waiver

Just in case you haven't been spending several hours a day looking for information on the laptop policy, or if you're one of the thousands of students who have not received any notice about the deadline, The...TRUTH has found the following info for you:

"Northern Michigan University students who are eligible to apply for a waiver from the laptop computer program must do so by March 31."

"The Teaching, Learning and Communication (TLC) initiative will be fully implemented in the fall, making NMU the first university in Michigan and the largest public university in the nation to issue laptops to full-time undergraduates."

Editor's Note: Never mind that they're going to make a mess of it.

"The waiver is available to continuing NMU students who accumulate 56 or more credit hours by the end of the winter semester, pre-register for fall courses, and can meet NMU computing requirements with their own equipment."

Editor's Note: Translated, "If you don't use our laptops, don't expect us to give you any help."

"Eligible students who do not apply for the waiver by the March 31 deadline will forfeit any opportunity to opt out of the laptop computer program. University officials say non-fee general computing labs will not be available beginning in fall 2000."

Editor's Note: Not that they were all that "available" in the past, anyway.

"Details about the waiver application process will be available on the TLC Laptop Initiative page prior to fall registration. For more information, contact the HUB at 227-1775."

So make sure if you're one of those who don't want to have anything to do with the IBM Doorstops.. uh, we mean Thinkpads, make sure you sign that darned waiver ahead of time. Otherwise you'll not only get no laptop, you'll still have to pay for it.

Oh, and if you look at the picture on the right, you'll notice the evil spirit of Microsoft showing up in the photo as a blur behind the student. We never thought we'd have proof about NMU's new bed partner, but there ya go.

(We think the other blur on the far right of the photo is the spirit of Tom, a student who died from a heart attack a few years back in a line waiting to pick up his overage.)