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From: mjl@ritcv.UUCP (Mike Lutz)
Newsgroups: net.college,net.cse
Subject: Re: Univ. of VT chooses AT&T pc's
Message-ID: <45@ritcv.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-May-85 20:52:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: ritcv.45
Posted: Wed May  1 20:52:01 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 3-May-85 04:48:17 EDT
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Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
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We had a big go around like this about 3 years ago at RIT.  At the
time it was all the rage to have every student purchase a PC:  it
provided nice publicity for the institution (makes you look futuristic)
and solves big space and facilities problems.  (A faculty member from one
of the first schools to require PC purchases told me it was great:  now
he could get *his* work done on the main computers!) The faculty
committee I was on, however, recommended that we not require students
to purchase PC's.  Our reasons, among others, were:

1. Obsolescence.  Anything a freshman bought on credit would be out of date by
the time he or she graduated (5 years here, given our co-op program).

2. Curricular rigidity.  If everyone *has* to buy a BANANA PC 9000, then, by
God, the school has to *guarantee* that it is useful.  In particular, 
this means many classes (in our case, computer science courses) would
be taught using this equipment whether or not it was appropriate.  Given
that we and many other departments have a heavy financial and philosophical
investment in sophisticated, professional equipment, we viewed this as
an infringement on our control over our programs.

3. Diverse needs.  This was a particularly tricky one.  What we wanted in
computer science -- a modern s/w development system -- was not at all what
the College of Business wanted, and their needs, in turn, were distinct from
those of the Engineering College, etc., etc.  No one system then, and
none since, was appropriate for all these clients.  The slide-rule
analogy breaks down here -- there are only a couple of things you can
do with a slide rule (and only one it was designed for :-).

So --  we punted.  We arranged reasonably attractive deals on some PCs
in our bookstore, and we are working to make the main systems more
accessible to those with micros.  We hope to have a larger variety
of PCs around, and we'd like to encourage (but not require) our students
to purchase "appropriate" systems.  Even now, though, the price of a
UNIX-based system that would stand a CS major in good stead for 5 years
is beyond the means of most of our students.  In retrospect, I think
we made the right decision, and I believe it is still correct.

	Mike Lutz
-- 
Mike Lutz	Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY
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