Her Carolina Computing Initiative laptop comes standard with a wireless Internet card, CD writer, DVD player and 256 megabytes of memory.
Junior Kerry Killoren's CCI computer doesn't.
"Compared to the new ones, my computer has none of the special features -- it's out-of-date, and it's slow," said Killoren, whose laptop is about 2 1/2 years old.
With four different years -- eight different models -- of CCI laptops in use, a wide variety of technologies can be found on campus. In general, CCI laptops are faster, hold more memory and boast more all-around amenities each successive year.
"A faster computer doesn't affect the student's ability to use the computer," said John Oberlin, executive director for Academic Technology and Networks.
Students still see differences, but mostly in the extra amenities successive models have standard.
This year's ThinkPad T30 model laptop has a high-end operating system, 8x DVD drives with swappable CD writers and built-in wireless cards.
"It's a better computer, it's faster, and it has all the nifty stuff," Kling said.
The models owned by seniors who participated in the pilot program and juniors, the first class to fall under CCI guidelines, have outdated operating systems, a slower DVD drive and no CD-burning capability and require a wall outlet to connect to the Internet. Many of the batteries also have failed, forcing students to special-order replacements because they aren't covered by the limited warranty.
"These computers are worthless by the time you graduate," Killoren said.
Marian Moore, former vice chancellor for information technology and the first official to oversee the CCI program, acknowledged that there is an inherent technology gap in the CCI program.
And CCI officials also said it is inevitable that each year's computer will be better than the one before it.
"Every class will get a better machine than the last class for the same or less money," said Steve Jarrell, interim vice chancellor for information technology. "The machines are designed to be compatible with each other, both for the cheaper and nicer models each year."
Despite the technology gap, CCI officials say the program's purpose -- to provide students with the ability to perform basic computational services --
