BY KRISTIN BRITTAIN
Lions’ Pride Editor in Chief

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are not honor students must return their laptop by April 30.

“We don’t guarantee students a laptop for four years; Saint Leo provides a laptop if you are a full time student living in residential housing,” said Les Lloyd, Associate Vice President and Chief Information Officer at University Technology Services (UTS).

Saint Leo provides laptops to full time residential students at no charge. The school pays monthly on a three year lease for the IBM laptops.
“There are 1,100 laptops due back to IBM, this summer,” said Lloyd.

“The turnover is at odd times. In the past, some were collected during the summer and some were not. It is all based on when the lease is up with IBM. Last year they were due back in September, so we let students come back and return them in the fall.”

However, the problem with that is when the deadline is close to when students return to campus, many either don’t return the laptop or don’t return to campus at all. For any laptops that are not returned the university gets significantly fined by IBM and the student is charged $1,400.

“In the past four years , about 30 percent of students did not return their laptops. This year we spent a lot of time chasing after students from past years who did not return their computers. Obviously when stuff is not returned, it is the university budget that gets hit hard and that takes away from other things,” said Lloyd.

Currently, UTS is 100 laptops short of what they need to supply juniors and seniors with laptops next year. So, UTS decided to get a little creative with the laptops they currently have. They are presently offering seniors, juniors, and sophomores (freshmen are not included unless they are not returning to housing next year) the ability to return their laptop to UTS and receive $125 credit on their Saint Leo account. If their account balance is already paid in full, the student will receive the supplemental money. Honor students, based on their year, will also have the ability to sell back their laptops.

“One of the things we heard from many students is that they already have a personal laptop. So the IBM just sits around and never gets used,” said Lloyd.

Also, for any student who wants to purchase a dell laptop, the university will offer them a “pretty substantial discount.”

“What I’m trying to do is give the students the max amount of credit, so they can buy a laptop if they feel it is something they are going to use, or make it so that they can get some cash back if they already have a computer they use,” said Lloyd.

It is not clear yet which laptops the juniors and senior will receive in the fall.

“Based on my assumption, in the fall we will have some IBM R60s and R61s and some Dells. We haven’t decided yet on who is getting what,” said Lloyd.

Students have many concerns regarding their laptops especially those who are taking an online course over the summer.

“As a student who is heavily involved in organizations on campus, I use my laptop over the summer to work on things for the upcoming semester,” said junior Sarah Sharina.

“Without my laptop, I will be unable to do this work and this is a big inconvenience for me and students like me who need their laptops to prepare for fall.”

Other students believe that returning the laptops shouldn’t be an issue.

“I think students are overreacting about it,” said junior Stacy Lloyd. “There are plenty of other computers to use, and unless you have summer classes, it shouldn’t be a big deal.

UTS is aware of the situation and has made an exception for students who are taking an online course or any other Saint Leo courses over the summer. For any students enrolled in any such course, they must bring a copy of the registration to UTS and sign a form agreeing to return their laptop by September 4. Also, students must be signed up for housing in the fall. Otherwise, the laptops must be returned.

“We know that this is not the ideal situation. But if we left all of the computers out there and did not offer any of these deals, it would cost the university $150,000 and that money will come out of somewhere else. So by doing this, we will save the university some money and try to make it so that students get something out of it too,” said Lloyd.

Laptops are due back to UTS no later than April 30. The laptops can be dropped off at UTS or there will be a place in the cafeteria lobby on April 27 - 30 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. where a member of UTS will be present.