A LAPTOP FOR EVERY FRESHMAN AT URSINUS; NEW PROGRAM MAKES COLLEGE ONE OF NATION'S "MOST WIRED"
Contact: Sally Widman, [email protected]610-409-3300
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. -- Ursinus College has joined the ranks of the nation's "most wired" colleges this year, with all new students scheduled to receive laptop computers when they arrive on campus in three weeks. Yahoo! "Most Wired Colleges" has ranked Ursinus the 55th most wired college out of 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation, and with its new laptop initiative the college's ranking is expected to improve.
The 380 members of the Class of 2004 are the first beneficiaries of the Ursinus Laptop Initiative, to be phased in over the next four years, until all Ursinus students have the computers. As part of their orientation, each first-year student will receive an IBM ThinkPad 550MHz laptop with 64 megabytes of memory and ready to connect to the campus network and to the Internet. In each of the three succeeding falls, freshmen will receive the computers until the entire student body is equipped.
Faculty, too, are part of the program. Having been issued their laptops last year, they have had a full year to learn interactive classroom computer techniques. This summer, a number have had training in the BlackBoard software system, which streamlines the process of putting course materials on the web, provides online "chat rooms" discussion lists, research capabilities and the like. The program is expected to lead to widespread innovation in teaching and learning.
Not only will the initiative provide equal access to computing for all Ursinus students--a major objective of the program--it will also allow Ursinus students and faculty to communicate virtually any time and from any location. And, it will dramatically increase computer literacy and capabilities across campus, says John King, the college's chief information officer.
"We're excited about this program, and eager to begin," said King. "The laptop initiative brings Ursinus into the front ranks of liberal arts colleges. We are one of only a few colleges of our type with such a program in place."
The computers will remain under college ownership, but on permanent loan to students while they are enrolled. As juniors, they will turn in their original computers for an upgraded model, so that no one's laptop is more than two years old. Graduating seniors will be allowed to purchase their used laptops. During the first three years of the program, members of older classes not in the program will be given the opportunity to buy laptops at a discount.
The laptop initiative is being funded through tuition for those students in the program. As it is being phased in, those with laptops will pay a higher tuition than those without. In the 2000-2001 year, tuition for freshmen is $23,460, and for upper class students, $21,050.
Once up and running, "This program will cost about as much to maintain as our public computer labs currently do," said King. "The laptop initiative also has the advantage of standardizing students' hardware and software, making our maintenance and support far less complicated than it has been, with students bringing their own computers of every brand and configuration." Until this year, the college has maintained eight fully equipped and supported general purpose computer labs and several special purpose labs with over 300 public computers available for students' use. Most of the general purpose labs will be phased out by 2004 but the college will maintain labs with highly specialized equipment and software required in certain disciplines.
The computers for the initiative are being purchased through CompuCom. IBM Corp. has been promoting its "ThinkPad University" concept for several years, and the list of colleges encouraging or requiring students to have laptops is growing.
A full listing of this year's Yahoo! Most Wired Colleges may be seen at zdnet.com
King said Ursinus was selected for inclusion in this year's list for a number of reasons, "including the number of computers available for student use, residence hall network connectivity, computing support for students and faculty, provisions for student Web pages and file storage, and fully-featured online and Web services.
"Ursinus' commitment to support the use of computing and information technologies in teaching, learning, and research continues with the implementation of our laptop initiative and instructional technology support programs and with the implementation of a new administrative information system to improve the quality of student services," King added.
Ursinus, founded in 1869, is a highly selective, nationally ranked, independent, coeducational liberal arts college, located on a scenic, wooded 165-acre campus, 28 miles from Center City Philadelphia. It is one of only 8 percent of U.S. colleges to possess a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. The college's Web site is located at http://www.ursinus.edu
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