LSU unprepared for laptop requirement
A couple weeks ago I bought my first laptop, and I love it.
At this moment, I’m sitting in Cafe Vieux Carre drafting my letter to the editor, courtesy of LSU’s excellent wireless network.
I just left my public administration seminar in CEBA, where I used my laptop to take notes directly onto the PowerPoint slides that my professor began making available on Black Board this semester.
I can testify firsthand to the wonders of the laptop, but I’m very glad they aren’t required. Everyone having one would make them unusable. In my CEBA class, for instance, there are only two outlets, and I know the same is true for the classrooms in the Quad, Lockett, Tureaud, etc.
Two outlets work perfectly right now because there are exactly two laptop users in the class.
And outlets are necessary because, even with my brand new laptop, I only get about 2 hours of battery life, fully charged. My batteries won’t last through one three-hour seminar, much less the full day of classes a freshman would take. Furthermore, can you imagine balancing a laptop on the half-desks you get in Lockett, or many of the Quad classes?
But let’s pretend, outlandishly, that the University rewired and refurnished all the classrooms to provide electricity and space for a laptop for every student.
Is the University prepared for the increased electricity bill? Is the University prepared to pay for additional professors to teach additional sections of courses necessary because the larger desks decrease the number of students you can fit in each room?
Hell, there are instructors in Arts & Sciences without telephones, much less computers; I think we all know the answers to these questions.
While laptops have huge potential to revolutionize education, LSU has neither the funding, nor the commitment, nor the initiative to enact such a far-reaching and sweeping change.
Until LSU has classrooms, instructors, administrators, and infrastructure to support every student with a laptop, designs a curriculum that implements this technology in a significant way that enhances the quality of education and the commitment to doing whatever it takes to support that initiative, it’s wrongheaded and abusive to mandate that all freshmen buy laptops.
Leave it to the individual academic departments to decide what they need (and can support) to teach their curriculum.
Christopher S. Broussard
Graduate Student
Public Administration
Get the facts about laptops before judging
I am writing this letter in regard to the Mobile Computing Initiative resolution that was just passed by the Senate.
All I have been reading lately is bad press about the initiative, and to this point I find it is justified to a certain degree.
As of now, most students are still very uneducated about what is going on, and while it is the senate’s job to educate, it is our job as students to ask the questions.
When I first heard about the idea of requiring all freshmen students to have laptops, I too thought it to be impossible and outrageous.
However, before I put the idea down too badly I began to do research. I went to committee meetings and the senate meeting on Wednesday night and heard some of the plans for this initiative, and I must say, while some of the plan is still being worked out as far as research, so far the ideas seem to be very good.
The authors of the resolution seem to be very knowledgeable about the topic at hand and are more than willing to answer any questions and concerns.
Now, I am not telling you to feel a certain way about the topic by any means.
What I am saying, however, is that before you disregard the idea completely you should contact your senators and find out what the plan is really all about. No one can make an informed decision until they have their tough questions answered, like I did.
So please, get educated about this initiative before you knock it down.
Lindsey Landry
Freshman
Marketing
All Americans not discriminatory
This is regarding the Letter “Indian Student Feels Discriminated Against,” published in Thursday’s Reveille.
I am also an Indian student and joined LSU last Fall. I never had any such experience so far.
I can understand how humiliating and degrading this incident must have been, but this shows the degraded mentality of people in that group.
This is what we call Idiosyncrasy. It does not mean that we can blame every American (or white, if skin color is the criteria) for this absurd and senseless behavior.
I had very good experiences here in the USA. I have been to a lot of places on vacation, and I can’t recollect anything like glances or stares or people leaving the chairs beside me.
Yes, one game-day while I was walking near Tiger stadium, a group of people passed by me. One of them turned towards me and said loudly, “Bobby, Bobbby!!”. I also cheered and showed a V-sign (it was pre-election time).
I found it neither discriminatory nor humiliating. Since LSU won that day, and everybody was in a happy mood I just took it casually.
In fact, taking this incident as humiliating never came to mind. So, these type of incidences do occur (which is bad), but by ignoring them we demonstrate our broad mentality and tolerance.
Moreover, using the phrase “Indian Student” in the headline does not encompass ALL the Indian students on campus. “An International Student Feels Discriminated Against” would have been a better alternative.
Again, that can be cited as my Idiosyncrasy, so nothing can be generalized or universalized except Laws of Physics.
Kanishk Rastogi
Graduate Student
Mechanical Engineering
Revelry’s sarcasm corrected
I suggest you call up Lady Godiva and ask her to tell you where the g-spot is, because it’s sure not in Switzerland.
Also, give America some credit. Ghirardelli happens to be a long-standing American chocolate company.
Thanks for advice, ladies, and I hope your men bring you Belgium chocolate.
Lauren Byrd
Senior
English