| February 12, 1999 |
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Calvin College Chimes
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Student gets free laptop
Editor-in-chief Recently the Calvin College bookstore gave away a laptop computer as part of a promotional event. The bookstore and Follet, the company that buys back text books from students at the end of the semester, donated the computer. Johana Marich, the student who won the computer, said that she “didn’t fill it out [the form offered at the book buy back] for the purpose of getting the computer,” but was overjoyed when she found out that she won. The Compaq Presario 1230 was used as a model in the bookstore and came fully loaded. “We had the [fully warrantied] demo here in the store. We thought, ‘Why not have this [giveaway]?’” said Keith Johnson, a member of the bookstore’s management team. “It was kind of a fun thing to do,” he said. The event will hopefully publicize the computers that are on sale at the Calvin bookstore. Byron Thompson, student manager of the computer departcomputers began to be offered in August. These computers are the same as most of the computers in the Information Technology. “The student pricing is competitive ... and the Compaq computers are tested to work with Calvin’s network,” said Thompson. Thompson said the bookstore mainly offers computer sales as a service to students. A laptop giveaway seemed like the perfect way to tell students about the service and give them something to do in the long buy back lines. Follet was willing to go halfway with the promotion idea proposed by the bookstore, Thompson said. Because it was a last minute decision, the event was not widely publicized, said Thompson. Nonetheless, they received a box full of entries. When Marich’s name was pulled, bookstore workers called her room to inform her of the good news. Her roommate, who took a message, forgot to tell her for a week. “I think she forgot because her week was so stressful,” said Marich, who seemed to have forgiven her roommate, Ann Cumming. Since the computer was delivered last week, Marich has been very pleased with it. “It is basically quite easy,” she said. “Now they just need to give away a printer!” she said jokingly. “Otherwise, no complaints.” Marich said that she would recommend other students purchacing computers from the bookstore. “They are basically good computers, and I think it’s a good deal,” she said. |
