On Oct. 15, Congress passed both a resolution creating the Select Committee to Evaluate the CCI and a resolution requesting the formation of a chancellor's task force to review CCI in terms of students' needs.
Chancellor James Moeser said Wednesday he would "give (the task force) every consideration" but only after consulting with Steve Jarrell, interim vice chancellor for information technology, and Dean Bresciani, interim vice chancellor for student affairs.
The Congress committee, headed by junior Tim Hensley, consists of three to four Congress members, one ex officio member from the Freshman Focus Council appointed by Student Body President Jen Daum and one ex-officio graduate representative appointed by Branson Page, Graduate and Professional Student Federation president.
"Student Congress has a responsibility to students to be an advocate on issues that students care about," said Carey Richter, chairwoman of Congress' Student Affairs Committee. "We felt that the student voice had become loud enough and that we had to do something."
Student Congress has found five major reasons to evaluate CCI, she said.
The first reason Congress finds it necessary to evaluate CCI is because all incoming undergraduate students must own a laptop. After asking students what they used their CCI laptops for, Hensley said, he found that most people used their computers for word processing, e-mail and Instant Messaging.
Many students are not required to bring laptops to class, and because desktop computers are less expensive and do most everything students need, Hensley said, it is not in students' best interest to spend money on laptops.
Second, CCI only offers two laptop models from IBM.
Third, the resolution passed Oct. 15 states that the average cost of a CCI laptop raises student costs more than $700 a year.
