Bemidji Tech shares laptops

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Feb. 28, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

Northwest Technical College-Bemidji President Ray Cross says part of his job is to provide public services to the communities in which his college campuses reside.

Playing a role in the exchange of training and computer equipment to the Bemidji City Council is one such service that he said he is excited about.

However, this summer NTC-B will be providing a larger opportunity for others in town to lease laptop computers as well.

Partnering with the chambers of commerce of the five cities in which NTC campuses are located, the college will lease laptop computers to businesses -- or their employees -- that belong to the chambers.

Cross said students who attend NTC colleges are required to lease computers until they graduate, allowing them the option to buy them at that time. However, many students do not lease their computers when they break for summer sessions. This leaves the NTC colleges with many idle units.

Using the idle units, Cross said NTC, in conjunction with the chambers of commerce in Bemidji, East Grand Forks, Detroit Lakes, Moorhead and Wadena, will lease the extra computers for the summer months to chamber members for $100. Along with the computer, the lessee would receive several sessions in computer training, the number probably depending on the users need.

The program, he said, benefits all of the communities and everybody involved, but for the college it offers three main perquisites. First, it is good community involvement. Second, it is good public relations. And third, it demonstrates to the public how aggressively NTC has moved into the technology market.

Cross said he would like to see the training sessions held some time in the third week of May, which would give the lessee three months of use until the unit needed to be returned sometime in August.

He added should the Bemidji City Council decide to test the purchasing of laptops proposal this summer, it would be an inexpensive trial opportunity for them.

"It's going to be kind of fun," Cross said. "We're going to experiment with it, and it should produce some good community cooperation."