Interesting development in this article.  What happens if the mandated
technology doesn't work with access products?  what about mandating a
given screen reader or other access device?


Posted at 7:43 p.m. PDT Thursday, April 16, 1998
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Texas Grad School Mandates Dell PCs, Microsoft Software for Students


By Lori Hawkins, Austin American-Statesman, Texas
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Apr. 16--Choosing a notebook computer will be easy for next year's
University of Texas graduate business school students.

They will be required to buy or lease a Dell notebook computer that runs at
a minimum speed of 233 megahertz. The system will come with Microsoft
Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer 4.0 and Microsoft's Web
publishing software, FrontPage 98.

"The idea is for students to use the same technology that corporate America
is using," said Larry Leibrock, chief technology officer for the graduate
school of business. "When they get to the real world, we want them to have
zero start-up time."

A growing number of business schools are streamlining their computer
systems, but UT is among a few that mandate a particular brand.

Dell was chosen because the Round Rock company offered the best price and
value and is serious about creating a partnership with the school, Leibrock
said.

Students will get an undisclosed discount on the Dell system -- which
retails for about $3,500. Using a standardized system will make it easier
for students to collaborate, while reducing technical problems created by a
mish-mash of technology, said David Naismith, a 27-year-old MBA student at
UT.

"Now we won't run into incompatibility between systems and software, and
that has been a problem," he said.

It also will make for a seamless move from school to work, said David
Abramowitz, a 27-year-old MBA student at UT who will intern at Cisco
Systems in San Jose, Calif., this summer. "This will let students parachute
into any corporate setting and really make an impact," he said.

In the past, the school has required students own a computer, but has not
mandated a type or brand.

Efforts to standardize aren't always successful, as the University of
California at Los Angeles found out in 1995.

The graduate business school required students to buy a Hewlett-Packard
notebook, but the students rebelled.

"What we realized is that changing platforms is very difficult for people,"
says David VanMiddlesworth, assistant director of UCLA's computing
services. "Besides, the Mac users almost killed us. People complained that
we didn't give them any choice."

UCLA relented, and students can now use either an Intel-based or Apple
Macintosh laptop.

Leibrock doesn't think UT -- which once boasted it had one of the highest
concentrations of Mac computers in the nation -- will have that problem.
"We have no Macs that are operational in the business school, and that's
because corporate America has a Mac penetration rate of less than 5
percent," he says. "My mission is to prepare students for the business
world, and you don't do that by giving them a Mac."

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(c) 1996, Austin American-Statesman, Texas. Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Business News.