Extreme Apple Makeover: College Edition

University officials began the transition last fall and expect the process to be completed two years from now. Apple is providing volume discounts to help finance the PC phase-out. The campus was using Windows and Mac platforms in its administrative offices and student computer labs.

"We were looking to replace our existing systems. Rather than buy a combination of PCs and Macs, we found that we could get the best of both worlds by buying just one platform that now does both," Mike Salem, chief information officer at Wilkes University, told MacNewsWorld.

The school is replenishing 1,700 computers. Windows was well-embedded throughout the campus, while Wilkes had about a 5 percent Mac base with a few side-by-side labs, explained Salem.

"This is an aggressive technology refresh plan that will present students and staff with access to the latest technology," said Scott Byers, university vice president for finance and general counsel. "We're also creating a virtually virus-free IT network."

Graduates Did It First

University officials did not initially plan to undergo an Apple makeover. The school was due for its three-year replacement program for computers, explained Mike Speziale, interim dean of graduate studies. Several staff members were already familiar with the dual-core Macs. When Apple made an offer, the plan took shape, he said.

University officials have not detected much of a reaction from students or staff about the change, Speziale told MacNewsWorld. Most regular computer users are technical graduate students, and the university has been using Macs in its graduate programs for some time.

"We use a dual-platform product, so there has not been any push back from students. We are using Boot Camp so students and staff still have access to Windows programs if they insist on using them," he added.

So far, Wilkes officials do not see any need to switch from Boot Camp to the desktop virtualization program Parallels to run Windows applications on the dual-core Macs.

"We have done some experimenting with Parallels, but are not rolling it out because we are waiting for the next MAC OS release, which is rumored to have Parallels or a clone of it included," said Salem.

Popular With Faculty and Students

"The faculty is excited about being able to use richer tools than Windows provides," he added. "There has not been as much exposure from students yet. Students can use one platform, or the other, or both. Nobody is losing anything in the transition process."

Students will get more exposure to the Mac-only equipment when they return to classes in the fall. Meanwhile, deans and faculty are receiving ongoing training on Mac staples such as iLife, iMovie and iPhoto.

Wilkes officials survey the computer experiences of freshmen each year. This year's survey of 3,092 first-year students found 20 percent are using Macs, up from just 3 percent in 2002, according to the Wilkes media relations office.

Ownership of Apple computers among incoming classes increased more than five-fold in the past four years, with 605 out of 3,088 new students using Macs, compared to just 111 out of 2,757 among the incoming class of 2003, according to the survey.

The survey also showed 67 percent of the first-year students own an iPod.

Finance 101

Conducting a campus-wide computer transition was an exercise in basic financial management, according to Wilkes officials.

"We found that with the volume discount from Apple the cost of buying dual-core Macs was the same as buying a PC. So this was a no-brainer for us," Salem confirmed.

The overhaul will cost the school about US$1.4 million over three years, said Salem. University officials calculated the cost savings at about $150,000, which does not include the cost-free increase in functionality.

Philosophy vs. Pragmatism

There is no right or wrong answer in deciding to have an all-Mac campus, according Michael R. McPherson, associate vice president and deputy CIO of the University of Virginia. A decision to standardize on a single hardware platform would be a pragmatic choice based on the range of different devices an organization has the capability of supporting.

"The more computers your organization has, the more hardware variability you will have, even if you select a single vendor. Different models have different hardware details, and even within the lifetime of one model, there will generally be variability over time as vendors change details like graphics chipsets, disk controllers and Ethernet chipsets to keep their costs as low as possible," he told MacNewsWorld.

Each variation, even small ones, can require a different configuration of device drivers, he said. For example, too much variability decreases the advantages in having a single vendor.

"We certainly encourage our faculty, staff and students to buy from one of the small number of vendors for which we provide full support , but we believe that our scale means we wouldn't benefit all that much from a single-vendor model," said McPherson.

Operating Environment Zen

Personal preference clearly plays a role in choosing an operating system, McPherson added, noting that people are highly productive in the environment in which they're most comfortable.

Another factor can be external constraints. For instance, a researcher involved in a collaboration with colleagues at other universities may have little choice about what operating environment to use, McPherson explained.

Finally, the number of personal and portable devices such as cell phones, PDAs and home computers and the like probably already exceeds the number of university-owned computers, and the demand for providing services on those devices grows daily, he said.

"In my experience, for a complex research organization, standardization is an ideal that can't be achieved in practice," McPherson concluded.