$10,000 initiative provides 20 tablets for students to rent
When second-year European studies and biology student Caroline Hendricks’ organic chemistry class ended at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday, she hurried from the Coker Life Sciences Building to the Thomas Cooper Library, just a short walk away.
She wasn’t on her way to study for an exam, catch up on reading or even use one of the computers in the multiple labs the library offers; Hendricks was on a straight path to the student technology lounge on the fifth floor, where she planned to pick up one of the 20 brand new iPad 2 tablets available through Student Government’s $10,000 “iPad Checkout Program.”
Hendricks, a student senator from the College of Arts and Sciences, beat the rush to check out one of the tablets.
“I knew I wanted to get one at some point, and when I found out the launch date was today and the ‘Meet the iPads’ event was next week, I knew it would be a good window to get one before the whole campus knew about the program,” Hendricks said.
She said when she arrived at the library, about half of the iPads had already been checked out.
Marna Hostetler, the director of Thomas Cooper Library, said the iPads were checked out from 7:30 a.m., when the technology lounge opened, until 2 p.m., when the last one was gone.
When students check out the tablets, they can keep them for up to three days and renew the checkout once, giving them a total of six days with the device. Faculty and staff get a longer checkout period of five days, with a five-day renewal policy.
Every time an iPad is checked out, the student, faculty or staff member must sign a loan policy agreement that binds them to a $15 late fee for each day late until the device is returned. Lost, stolen or damaged iPads will cost $600 to replace. Lost power cords and adapters carry a fine of $40 each, and a lost iPad case costs $50.
Hostetler said Coastal Carolina and Furman universities offered similar programs.
Lance Dupre, the student technology lounge director, said USC looked at programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, West Virginia University and California State University-Poly Pomona.
“We discussed having them for building-use only, like the laptops are, but the iPad is a more personal device, so if students checked them out for four hours it would not be as useful,” Dupree said.
Student Body President Joe Wright was excited about the launch of the program he helped champion last semester.
“There was a lot of hype,” Wright said. “Obviously — they were all checked out by 2 p.m.”
Wright said he hadn’t seen anyone with the iPads on campus, but the program had created a good deal of buzz on social media.
“I’ve seen on Twitter a lot of people are excited,” he said. “It’s refreshing. People love new technology, especially Apple products.”
Hendricks is no exception; in the eight hours since she had picked up the tablet, she said she’d tried out the Angry Birds, Nook and Brushes applications, some of the 50 preloaded on each iPad.
Angry Birds, she said, is as addicting as its reputation suggests.
“I’ve had an iPhone for six months, but I didn’t have the app for it,” Hendricks said. “It was one of the already-downloaded apps (on the iPad), so I thought I’d play around with it.”
Hendricks didn’t know if she would use the tablet in her classes, because she hadn’t yet tried the Pages app, which is the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Word. She planned to play around with it to see if the interface was better than her Mac for note-taking.
But for now it seems Hendricks, like many other students, is content to enjoy the “cool factor” the iPads offer with their apps and touchscreen interface — she said she’s used it mainly for games and social media.
Case in point: Less than an hour after she checked it out, Hendricks tweeted from the device: “checked out an iPad at the library today! they’re awesome! #iPadcheckoutprogram @uscstudentgovt.”
Wright feels the launch was a success and is looking forward to the Meet the iPads event next Wednesday.
“I hope it continues to run smoothly,” Wright said. “Moving forward, we hope to purchase more to accommodate demand.”