UCLA students without computers flock to CLICC Lab

Noren Popat, a fourth-year sociology student, has been without a
personal computer since early June, when an accident short-circuited
her laptop and made it unusable.

“I can’t afford to fix it or buy a new one at the moment,” Popat said. “Right now I have to use the computers available on campus.”

Popat lives off campus in Culver City with her sister, who also doesn’t have a personal computer. This change for Popat has made it difficult to get work done at home and has forced her to make some adjustments in approaching her academic and social responsibilities.

“I can maybe get a little reading done at home, but papers and assignments have to be done in the library because I don’t have a laptop,” she said. “I don’t leave campus until 8 or 9 p.m. and sometimes later.”

And Popat gets to school early, too.

Because of 8 a.m. classes, Popat will sometimes get up at 6 a.m. and take a 45-minute bus ride to campus so she can print out her work.

Throughout summer school and the beginning of this quarter, Popat has been relying on the College Library Instructional Computing Commons Lab and laptop rental services through Powell.

Gabrielle Mittelbach, an administrative specialist with CLICC, said that in addition to desktop machines and laptops, they offer media machines, scanners, printers, presentation kits, headphones and classrooms to students who need to utilize the libraries for their work.

With more than 35,000 students on campus, however, sometimes it gets difficult to access the machines.

“Sometimes I’ll wait like 10 minutes for a computer or laptop,” Popat said.

Michael Loo, a student worker at the CLICC Lab, said that at some points, students have had to wait as much as half an hour for laptops and desktops.

“We’ve run out of active pagers and had maybe 40 students waiting for a computer in the lab before,” Loo said.

On average, students will wait 15 to 20 minutes during peak hours, which are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“It’s also hard when you have a laptop and can’t renew it,” Popat said. “If they have less than three laptops available, then you can’t renew it. Sometimes I’ll have to leave in the middle of class to bring back a laptop, and it’s such a hassle.”

Mittelbach agreed it can be difficult to get a computer.

“I think the biggest complaints from students are printing costs and that they want more computers or more time,” Mittelbach said.

She added that CLICC is constantly discussing improvements. There have been talks about possibly extending borrowing time for laptops, which could be seen as soon as next quarter.

In addition to the academic constraints, Popat mentioned having to reduce online social time.

“I used to chat online and check Facebook all the time, but having limited amounts of time with the laptop or being in the library forces you to use your time better,” Popat said.

Popat admitted to doing much better academically because of the decrease in procrastination.

“I’ll still get bored out of my mind, and it’s still really inconvenient, though,” she said.