Mercyhurst Student Government (MSG) recently approved a proposal for a new laptop lease program at the Hammermill Library.

The laptop lease program will feature four Dell laptops and a portable projector, each of which can be rented from the library’s circulation desk for approximately four hours at a time.

The program is intended to facilitate group-oriented work and to assist those without access to laptop computers.

Students will be able to take out a portable projector on a cart to use in the group study rooms in the library.

The projector adapts to both Macs and PCs and will have an instruction booklet demonstrating how to display an image on a study room wall.

In order to use one of the laptops or the projector, students must present their Mercyhurst ID at the circulation desk.

The Services and Facilities Use Committee put forth and approved the proposal on Jan. 7.

Freshman Caitlin Selewitz, a member of the Services and Facilities Use Committee, explained why the committee developed this program.

“It’s really the easiest solution for emergency laptop situations that the college is willing to go to at the moment,” she said. “We believe it’s the first step in moving the college towards having a college-wide laptop program.”

The laptops will be higher-end Dell machines, with 4 gigabytes of RAM and 2.4 GHz processors.

They will include Windows 7 Home Premium and Microsoft Office 2010 and will have the same printing software used by the desktops in the library .

According to the MSG proposal, the program will not allow students to take the laptops outside the library. The computers will have security measures installed to ensure that they can be traced if they are stolen.

Freshman Senator Victoria Horning, a member of the Services and Facilities Use Committee, said the program was designed to allow students more flexibility and choice in choosing how and where to work in the library.

The laptop lease program is scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of spring term.