Is This Fair?For those students who have purchased a laptop through the school, read this!!!!!! Those computers given out before and during the fall semester are 390Es, containing a hard drive of 3.2 Gigabytes. The school charged a fee of $385 each. Computers given out during the winter semester contain a hard drive of 4.8 Gigs. The school also charged $385 each. Students renewing or maintaing their computers from first semester to second semester paid another $385, and kept the computer with the smaller hard drive. Is this fair? I pay the same fee as others, and have a lesser computer. The school informed me that nothing can be done, and basically told me to deal with it. They didn't plan on telling anyone about the update, and I found out only by accident. If this is not bad enough, the laptops will be updated every six months. Those who paid for the laptops first semester will keep them for two years before they will recieve a new one. By the time they recieve a new one, three updated versions will already be out. Students who have paid much lesser fees and have been in the program for a shorter time will have better computers. Is this fair? Below are the e-mails to the President and others and the responses that I recieved: >>X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.1 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 11:17:43 -0500 >>Now the point of my letter: New computers were issued for the Winter Semester, which were 4.8 Gigabytes....None of the students who previously recieved laptops were notified that a higher version was available. I found this out only because a friend was comparing our laptops. I have paid a total of close to $800.00 so far for this computer. Those who recieved theirs during Winter semester have only paid about $400.00, yet have a much higer grade of computer. I find this to very unfair. Personally, I run out of hard drive space at least once a week. Those almost 2 Gigs of space could be of extreme help. I think that the Think Pad initiative is a GREAT idea, however maybe something in the system needs to be changed. It is unfair to those students who have been paying for the computers longer to have the lowest grade. I have talked to the help desk about this problem. However, they were unable to issue me an updated laptop, as there are none available. If it is not possible for this to be resolved, I would like a partial refund of my fee. I should not be paying the same fee as others for a lesser computer. Also, I would like to think that the University will take this into consideration in the future with other students. It's a great program and I would love to help promote it to friends and family. Please get back to me on this.
>>Thank you, Dear Brandy: I regret you are unhappy with the program and that I did not initially answer you myself. However, I felt the most accurate and up-to-date answer would come from Dr. Joyal, since he is in charge of the program and is closer to the implementation plan than I am. Judi Bailey At 06:02 PM 2/14/00 -0500, Brandy Lehto wrote: >You can be sure that I am no longer in support of this program and will not recommend it to anyone. I understand that next year the computers will be mandatory, but I do plan on buying my own. I also plan to write a letter to the NorthWind concerning this, as there are many students who do not even know of the situation. I believe that they should. >If there is anything you can do for me concerning this matter, please contact me. I do however expect that by fall semseter next year I will be able to have an upgraded computer.
>Thank you, >At 12:37 PM 2/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
>>Brandy - >>Let me try to provide you with an explanation of the program so that you might better understand how it works and why it works the way it does. >>The university leases laptops from IBM for 24 months. That is, when we sign the lease we are obligated to pay for the computers ordered whether we use them or not. This means we need to make sure that we only order what we will actually use. If we had a stockpile of computers not being used the students in the program would be paying a much higher price. If we return the computers we lease prior to the 24 months, IBM will charge us a higher price for the time we had them, and the students would have to pay this higher price. We cannot run the program on an individual order basis because the costs would be much, much higher. Our "best in the industry" price is based upon our quantity. >>We get the best model for the money we can at the time of the lease. IBM (and every other vendor) comes out with a new model every 6 months because Intel comes up with a new central processor chip every 6 months. This is the nature of this very competitive and fast moving industry. We order the largest number of computers for students enrolling in the fall and a smaller number for new winter enrollments. >>The majority of students that enter each fall (and a few who enter in the winter) will receive a new computer (whatever model is current at the time we order in July and October) and will then receive a new computer 2 years later. Some 1st year students leave during their 1st year, and turn their laptops in when they leave. These one-year old computers that have been turned in are still under the 24 month lease if they are less than 2 years old so we are still obligated to pay for them. We will reissue these to entering students. These few students will receive a new computer in 1 year (since the computer they were issued is a year old at the time of issue), and then another new one 2 years latter if they are still full time at NMU. >>So, the entering class will always receive a somewhat "better" computer than those in use (there are new models every 6 months). If we replaced all computers in use with the new model it would be a logistics nightmare which would add to the price, and the lease rates would be significantly higher. >>We might try to restrict the models we get so the new model is not the best for the money but as close to the old model as possible. This doesn't seem to be a course of action that a university wanting to a leader in the 21st century would do, and not something I would support. >>I do understand your frustration, but it is something we will all have to learn how to deal with. There is no solution I am aware of that would not raise the price to all. There are others on campus, I am sure, who are experiencing the same frustration, and this will be the case for students in the future (remember, there will be a new model every 6 months). The faculty and staff are in the same situation. We distributed laptops to faculty in two parts, half one year, the other half the next. The 2nd group got a computer with somewhat better features than the first. Now, the 1st group is due for replacement and their new computers will be better than those of their colleagues, and so it will go.
>>We can take your computer back if you have no use for it, but we cannot refund the fee because we are obligated to pay the lease costs once we ordered the machine (based on your indication of wanting to participate in the program).
>>Fred Joyal, PhD Brandy Lehto Editors Note: We should all just buy Macintosh Laptops anyway. But, this whole hard drive space thing wouldn't be an issue if we weren't soaking up the space with MicroSoft "run your life" suites.
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