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Kevin Turner, a sophomore from Portland, Oregon, tries to figure out what's wrong with a donated computer. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES NOKES |
Oberlin Students
Resurrect Dead Computers
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Alex Kwanten, a senior from the Bronx, searches for a component he needs to fix one of the recycled computers. PHOTOGRAPH BY CHARLES NOKES |
OCTOBER 26, 1999-- During the 1998 spring-semester reading period, Methias Wegner, then a senior from Garrett Park, Maryland, was a computer consultant at one of the computer labs in Mudd. There he witnessed the sweaty, frenzied, end-of-semester skirmish of students grappling for available computers. At the same time, he saw the Center for Information Technology (CIT), which oversees the labs, throw out hundreds of perfectly good, albeit outdated, computers.
Wegner started
talking with the CIT about making use of the old computers.
He began recruiting other students, mostly computer-lab
consultants and residential computer consultants (RCCs), who
offer support for students‚ personal computers in the
dorms.
By fall 1998 Wegner had a small team of computer-savvy
students; a small office donated by Gary Kornblith,
associate professor of history and director of
OCTET;
and a few computers saved from the trash heap. The Oberlin
Computer Recycling Program (OCRP) was born.
The OCRP is now a student-run chartered College organization that loans out old computers to students who cannot otherwise afford them. The organization accepts hardware donations from faculty, students‚ parents, and the CIT. Students interested in borrowing a computer fill out an application on OCRP's web site and, in most cases, receive a computer for the academic year.
OCRP members spend most of their on-duty time removing parts from unsalvageable machines and piecing them together to form usable ones. They also bring computers to students‚ rooms, set them up, and offer computer support throughout the year.
An OCRP computer is rarely a specimen of cutting-edge technology.
"As long as it can run a word processor, it's good," says Mike Barthel, a junior from Clinton, New York, who is in charge of OCRP's client services--helping students set up their computers and offering them support later on.
OCRP's grand high poobah (president) Heather Van Aelst, a senior from Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, describes an OCRP meeting as "a bizarre geek fest."
At a recent
meeting, while she and fellow grand high poobah Mike
Cardiff, a junior from Towson, Maryland, attempted to
maintain order, others attacked the five or six dead
computers on the floor.
The confusion was such that it took a while for anyone to
notice Iz Oztat, a first-year student from Turkey, standing
at the door. She was there to pick up her hardware. A few
OCRP members scurried about, collecting various pieces of
computer, and helped a grateful Oztat take her new machine
to her dorm.
About an hour
into the meeting, OCRP members sat down to discuss business:
developing advertising, cleaning the office, making a
shopping list (which included canned air and sledgehammers),
and working on the group's plan to extend OCRP's reach into
the town of Oberlin.
Within the next few semesters, OCRP hopes to begin donating
computers to high-school students. The members are already
in contact with many community residents who not only need
hardware, but also are willing to relieve the OCRP of
hardware it can't use.
OCRP sees more computers and more student applications roll in each week. The organization has expanded from helping about 20 students last semester to helping a projected 50 to 100 students this semester. As more students learn about OCRP and apply for machines, OCRP hopes, fewer seats will be taken in the computer labs during finals time, and the more relaxed atmosphere just might make a computer lab smell less like a locker room.
Gabriel Carleton-Barnes, a junior from West Linn,
Oregon, takes a reconstructed computer for a test
drive. Sam Greenberg, a junior from Durham, North
Carolina, checks out the computer behind him.
PHOTOGRAPH
BY
CHARLES NOKES
Please send comments, questions, and suggestions about Oberlin Online news and feature articles to Linda.Grashoff@oberlin.edu.
