Employees inaugurate laptop loan program

There wasn't a snowflake or greeting card in sight, but for two University employees, the holiday season began early.

Thanks to Chancellor James Moeser's generosity, a committee's hard work and relentless assistance from campus technological support, 10 brand-new laptops will be available for UNC employees to check out, free of charge, for six months.

"I think it's just wonderful; it's like Christmas," Iris Greene said as she waited for her laptop Friday afternoon. Greene works in the University Cashier's Office and is one of the first two employees to receive a loaned laptop through the program.

Erin Marcinowski, the second employee to benefit from the Employee Forum's initiative, is an office assistant in the Department of Family Medicine and previously worked at Durham Technical Community College.

On Friday, as the two beaming women picked up their laptops, Katherine Caudell-Graves, vice chairwoman of the Employee Forum and initiator of the project, couldn't stop smiling.

"I'm so excited about these two women; they're both single mothers and are working and going to school full time," Caudell-Graves said.

Moeser refused to accept a $25,000 salary bonus last year, then decided to have that money placed in a one-time startup fund that would support recommendations from the Chancellor's Task Force for a Better Workplace.

That act coincided serendipitously with Caudell-Graves' and the task force's brainstorm to implement a laptop loan program here at UNC.

The program was inspired by a similar one at East Carolina University, and laptops were bought for employees to hone their computer skills or further their education.

Any full-time UNC employee who makes less than about $22,000 annually, working at a pay grade of 61 or lower, is eligible to apply for a laptop rental, Employee Forum Chairman Tommy Griffin said earlier this month.

"It's a nice cooperative effort - we're working with Katherine and the Employee Forum," said Bruce Egan, associate director of Academic Technology and Networks. He said that this program has been in the works for a long time.

Egan and Cortina Harris, a computer consultant in the Information Technology Response Center, are the support structure that will keep the program and the laptops running smoothly.

Egan said it took a lot of behind-the-scenes effort to get the program off the ground.

As Harris demonstrated for Greene and Marcinowski the basics on their new computers, she mentioned that the wireless Internet capability on the laptops will allow them to go online, even in the Pit. Greene uttered a slow and sincere "wow," and the expression on Marcinowski's face mirrored the sentiment.

The program will enable Greene and Marcinowski to balance work and family life while continuing their education through online courses.

Marcinowski has a 6-year-old daughter, and Greene has two small children. "(The laptop) saves me time to be home with (my daughter)," Marcinowski said.

Employees borrowing laptops can keep the machines for more than the initial six months if no one else is waiting for a computer. Caudell-Graves said she encourages any departments that can donate laptops to the program to do so because 10 machines will only go so far.

"There are a lot of good things coming out of the task force, slow and steady."

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