Creating Treasures From Trash: Carleton Students Refurbish Old Computers For Students in Need

As we become increasingly more dependent on newer and faster computers, a computer is considered “outdated” soon after it leaves the store, and after a couple of years, many computers are relegated to the attic or set out on the curb. Often, those of us who rely on these machines don’t quite know what to do with an old computer once we’ve purchased its replacement.

Now, two seniors at Carleton College have come up with a solution. They’ve designed a volunteer project to refurbish some of the College’s discarded computers, collected from Carleton’s computing services and from individual students and staff. The “new” computers are then sold at a
reduced price to fellow students who couldn’t otherwise afford their own.

Chris Doten and Clint Bitzer and members of the newly-formed NEO Electronics Organization (NEO is a nod to the character Neo in The Matrix,
a favorite movie of many ‘techies’), have established a workshop in the basement of Goodhue Residence Hall. There they will repair and update
the computers for resale, and the nominal fee they collect will help NEO recoup enough money to cover the inevitable costs of replacing broken
pieces in some of the machines.

“For all the talk of the internet and computers in general being the next big thing, they remain very much class-based resources,” Doten said. “Organizations like NEO throughout the country are helping narrow this ‘digital divide’ and prevent the emergence of a permanent technical
underclass; we just took a good idea and imported it to Carleton.”

Denise Myers, director of Carleton’s Student Support Services, approves of the program and will let deserving students know that NEO has computers available to them for a small fee.

“It can be very convenient to have a computer at your beck and call, and once this program gets off the ground, my students can really benefit from
it,” Myers said. “Making use of existing computers is certainly better than trashing them.”

“As a ‘techie,’ I know that owning your own computer is an invaluable part of the process of learning about them. We hope to supply these students
with the means to develop their own knowledge of computers, and possibly come back to NEO and use that knowledge to help refurbish computers
for others,” Bitzer said.

Acting in the Community Together (ACT), an organization that offers volunteer opportunities to the Carleton community, will support NEO by
providing advice on the logistics of running a volunteer program. Doten and Bitzer staffed a table at a recent ACT volunteer fair, and were overwhelmed with the response; approximately 80 people expressed interest in working with them. NEO has received additional support from the math and computer science department and the Carleton Student Association.

“It’s been very exciting to see how much energy there is here for a good idea, particularly one that lets people help each other, and turn garbage into a valuable resource,” Doten said.

Many of the people who have shown interest in helping refurbish computers don’t have a great deal of previous computer experience, and to make it possible for them to help, Doten and Bitzer have been recruiting students with technical experience to help with training.

“I think that this training is another way for NEO to help the Carleton community. NEO will give these volunteers, people who might not otherwise learn technical skills, an opportunity to gain computer expertise while contributing to NEO’s primary purpose: providing low-income students with computers,” Bitzer said.

As seniors, Doten and Bitzer will have to train their successors at the same time as they try to get the program off the ground. “We’re very concerned to make sure those who come after us will maintain and grow NEO. We hope to make it a part of Carleton for years to come,” said Doten.