From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!lime!burdvax!coltoff
Newsgroups: net.general
Title: How can they do this
Article-I.D.: burdvax.242
Posted: Thu Oct 21 13:40:13 1982
Received: Fri Oct 22 02:17:01 1982

There was a story in the Phila. Inquirer this morning about Drexel
University requiring **ALL** incoming freshman, starting next year, to
buy personal computers. Now,while I can't come up with good solid
reasons why this is a dumb, stupid, idiotic, ^&@&*, &*#*&@, etc.
idea something about it rubs me the wrong way. I think it is great
to teach computer literacy but this is different than requiring
everyone to take Phys Ed.

The article claimed that the school sees this as a good way for
handing in homework assignments and projects. (do they think that
everyones disks are compatible? or do they want to `diff' to find
cheaters).

What they are doing is buying large quantities of one machine to offer
a good discount to the students. What if you don't want to learn CPM
or whatever but must to meet school requirements. Why should liberal
arts students have to by a computer to learn computer literacy?

Some may say that you can always sell them when you graduate but the
used computer market is not like selling a used text book. Floppy
disk drives get tired and chips can get amnesia. What about the
serious student who buys what is a decent machine now and finds
that the courses are structured around a differnt one in two years.

Enough said by me. Anyone out there want to give me better reasons
for being bothered bt this. Does someone want to justify Drexels'
position?

By the way they claim that Carnegie-Mellon and other schools will
be doing the same in the next few years. I really hope this isn't
a new trend.