dwc@hou2b.UUCP (D.CHEN) (04/27/85)
the analog of the school forcing the students to buy hondas because of a shortage of parking spaces is an interesting one. i certainly would endorse that idea if my school could guarantee me a parking space. especially if they could get me a hefty discount and i could take a student loan out on the thing. another useful analogy is that of meal plans. some schools FORCE the students in the dormitories to take the meal plan that they offer. the reason the schools give is that only with 100% participation can the school offer a good price and good variety. in this case, the school may be offering a good price but hasn't gotten around to variety yet. at this point it would seem reasonable that the student could choose to purchase any other AT&T COMPATIBLE (heh-heh) system but they would not get any potential volume discount. is this the case? one other possibility is that the student could conceivably turn right around and sell the system to someone that wants it more than him. danny chen ihnp4!hou2b!dwc p.s. (really a somewhat long editorial) i personally feel that the price of pcs is not low enough for schools to start FORCING the students to buy them. i remember when i was in school studying physics and all the professors STRONGLY RECOMMENDED our buying calculators. i couldn't see myself spending all that money on them and wound up writing down expressions as my answers. the professors could evaluate them on their calculators. the point is that you have to distinguish between equipment that is necessary in the education process and equipment that helps in the ADMINISTRATION of the education process. forcing students to get calculators so that the answers can be checked quickly falls into the adminstration category. i also feel that the current state of the art in computer assisted education is such that the main function of these pcs in the universities will not be used to improve the education process but to improve the adminstration of the education process. (of course i could be dead wrong in this. i'm just speaking off the top of my head here. let me know if i'm wrong.)