dwc@hou2b.UUCP (D.CHEN) (05/22/85)
i have seen many good reasons for giving the students access and use of pcs (actually, computing facilities). i don't dispute that point. the main question is whether it would be better to require that each student buy his own pc or whether the school should provide central facilities for the students. it has been argued that the student pays either way. but in the case of the central facility he is paying for a highly utilized machine. in the case of a pc, if the student spends 5 or 6 hours a day on the machine, then the machine is only 25% utilized. if accounting is done legitimately, then the student pays MORE in the latter case. plus i seriously doubt that the tuition will be going down in the university of vermont as a result of the decrease in demand on the school's central computing facilities when everyone starts using their pcs. the cost of education is a major problem facing current and prospective college students today. and the problem is growing. both students and colleges are feeling the crunch. the only ones excepted are rich students and rich departments. these days the rich departments are usually the computer science departments. the problem with wealth is that you tend to forget the problems of others not as fortunate. it is irresponsible for the school to dismiss the problem as an "unfortunate reality" when they are contributing to the reality by increasing costs. i'll take bets that if and when enrollment drops, the school will abandon their cavalier attitude and perhaps even cry for aid from the government (i.e. you and i). this brings up an interesting question. did the study that led to the decision to require the purchase of pcs (not the decision to pick the 6300) include a study of how it would affect enrollment and the student population (e.g. average income of students families before and after the requirement)? put another way, will the decision make it easier for rich students to become computer scientists (thru decreased competition)? i don't approve of my tax dollars (either directly thru aid or indirectly thru tax exemption status) going to an organization that is promoting a caste system. danny chen ihnp4!hou2b!dwc p.s.: i also think that the productivity issue is overblown. the pc would have to SAVE 200-400 hours of work (assuming the student can find work at $5-10 / hour) to make up the cost of the pc. i don't think that i even spent 400 hours doing reports in school (more like a total of 10 hours :-) p.p.s. finally, those people who claim that the 6300 is not adequate for the average students' needs have lost touch with the real world. i get the feeling that these people are bragging. if its operating systems work that needs to be done, then a standalone system per person is ideal. if its some type of discrete event simulation (or any compute bound work) then the 6300 (and other pcs) isn't bad at all (for the buck). i'd much rather be working on a standalone pc at the end of the semester than an overloaded mini or mainframe. the only limiting area that i can see in the way of pcs is the address space. even here, i've seen some ads for some software that does overlays for you.