TO THE EDITOR:
Last week’s announcement of CCI including Macintosh computers drew criticism from the editorial board (“A CCI Mac option is a much-needed addition,” Mar. 23).
The claim was that a cheaper MacBook should be offered. There is a bigger issue that prevents this option: The minimum computing requirements are too high.
Four years ago, I purchased a T60p through CCI. It was a top- of-the-line machine at the time, and was a terrific machine for the entire time I used it.
But it was also much more powerful than I needed. A much older, cheaper computer could have handled everything I did that related to my coursework. It doesn’t take a top-of-the-line machine to access the Internet, type up Word documents, work in Excel and handle most of the chemistry software I used in completing my majors. Any computer made after 2000 would have satisfied my needs, as well as the needs of the vast majority of the UNC population.
Yes, a simple MacBook would satisfy the needs of a UNC student. Yes, it would be cheaper. But no, it would not satisfy the “minimum requirements” set forth by CCI.
Our University needs to reconsider how it determines the “minimum requirements” for incoming classes, especially when the actual minimum requirements could be handled by a netbook that costs at least $1,000 less than every single CCI option.
Scott Neidich
Senior
