To the Editors:

I am writing in response to the announcement that the Biggs 24-hour computer lab will be closed and replaced with wireless access in East Hall. While I doubt that CIT intended any harm, the Biggs shutdown has classist implications.

The students who frequently utilize 24-hour computer labs tend to be students who don’t own computers themselves. It is of no use to this group of students to install wireless access in East — rather it is a slap in the face. What use is wireless internet if one doesn’t own a computer?

Students who can’t afford computers often work long hours at jobs that restrict when they have time for schoolwork. If someone works until midnight, then he or she probably needs a computer lab open past 2 a.m. If Biggs closes, there will only be sixteen public computers that are available 24 hours a day. These are within Lord Saunders and Kade.

This is not enough. As a student who went through four years of college without a computer, I can say that 24-hour computer labs are not a luxury, but a necessity. If Biggs closes, another computer facility should be made available 24-hours a day. Anything else would be a regressive tax on the student body.

–Danielle Gelfand
College senior