The idea for this came to me over spring break. I was in my living room, talking to friends on AIM when my computer started acting slower than usual. I restarted it down thinking maybe it was just being slow. Once it turned on, all I saw was a blue screen with ERROR across it. Great.

Not too big of a deal if you just call up Dell and school will take care of it, right?

Well, not in my case. Yes, I am one of those students who opted to not buy a Quinnipiac Dell computer.

My reasons for it were logical at the time. I bought a new laptop months before starting college. Why would I just go purchase another one? After a year that one slowly died. Low on money, I bought one with my savings from the summer. Nowhere close to $2,000. Nowhere close to being able to afford a QU computer.

My HP and I got along perfectly. We never fought and I never wanted to throw it out of a window. But I suppose I jinxed myself saying, “I never have problems with my computer.” About two weeks later, the hard drive crashed.

I understand the laptop purchase program and that the school cannot fix computers that are not in the contract. But what I don’t understand is why the school won’t provide any support for students like me.

My computer was sent away to North Carolina for a week, which left me me computer-less. True, it’s not the end of the world, but it is an inconvenience when projects and papers are due.

I think the school should try and provide some kind of support to students like me. And I don’t mean just handing them a paper with a phone number of a company to contact and the “reasonable” price for it.

For more information regarding the Laptop Purchase Program, visit:
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1209.xml
or e-mail questions to: [email protected]