Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Saint Leo U. Offers Apple's iBooks to Its On-Campus Students By BROCK READ In recent years, many institutions that had embraced Macintoshes have moved to diversify their on-campus computing, but Saint Leo University, in Florida, is bucking the trend -- by offering an iBook laptop to every incoming residential student and full-time faculty member. So far, 850 students and faculty members have received the computers, which run software -- including Microsoft Office and Virtual PC -- that the university purchases through site licenses. The iBooks also are equipped to connect to a wireless network that serves most of the campus. The cost of the computers is factored into students' annual room-and-board expenses, and students return the computers at the end of the academic year. University administrators had initially planned to give the students laptop PC's, but opted for iBooks largely because Apple representatives promised ample technical support for the machines, according to Frank Mezzanini, the university's vice-president of business affairs. Mr. Mezzanini, who coordinated the laptop project, says he knows of only a few other universities that offer students iBooks instead of PCs. The most vocal opponents of the plan to use Macs were faculty members who feared that specialized computer programs they relied on would work only on PC's, according Mr. Mezzanini. To assuage their concerns, the college allowed professors to use two computers -- a PC and an iBook -- for a year before deciding which machine they would work on. Many chose the Macs. "So far, everything that the PC can do, the iBook has been doing," Mr. Mezzanini says. Some students who prefer to use their own PC's refuse the iBooks, while others accept the laptops and use two machines. Saint Leo maintains some labs with Windows-based machines and allows students who use PC's to connect to the campus network and receive help-desk support. But as a symbol of their commitment to Apple, many administrators -- including the university's president and its vice-president of academic affairs -- switched to the Macs. Mr. Mezzanini says that his decision to use Mac laptops has been less controversial than his decision to offer the computers only to residential students, which critics say puts commuters at a disadvantage. Off-campus students are encouraged instead to use the institution's computer labs. "The iBooks are pieces of furniture, in our eyes," says Mr. Mezzanini. As with dorm-room dressers and desks, students use the iBooks on loan from the college and must return them intact at the end of the academic year. Damages not covered by warranty -- including broken computer screens and keyboards -- are charged to the students. The only students who are given the machines to keep are those who complete two years of work in the university's honors program. Mr. Mezzanini says that the draw of the iBooks has encouraged some of the more than 1,700 students at the university's main campus who would otherwise commute to live in dormitories, which makes the program a success in his eyes. "Students spend the majority of their time outside of the classroom, and we wanted something that they would play with and have a good time with on campus," he says. Background articles from The Chronicle: A Mac-Centric Campus Shifts to Windows (6/14/2002) Despite Raves for IBook, Tide Still Turns Against Apple (8/3/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Relief and uncertainty follow U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear 2 affirmative-action cases North Carolina State U. reprimands a professor for violating conflict-of-interest policy Mormon scholar may be excommunicated for questioning belief about American Indians' ancestry Knoxville College failed to pay some employees for as long as a month Finnish composer wins Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition Saint Leo U. offers Apple's iBooks to its on-campus students