"Room desks are being outfitted with keyboard trays as each House comes offline every couple of summers, or are being replaced entirely if the keyboard trays don't fit," she says.

Where's the Paper?

Many student concerns aren't focused on the model of the computers or the chairs, but rather on maintenance of the labs.

Maya S. Turre '00, of Dunster House, complains that "at least half the time half the computers aren't working in either of the two labs."

"A lot of times the printers are out of toner,so you get a nice processional stripe down halfyour term paper. I know because I've turned themin like that," she says.

Osterberg says the best way to get problemsaddressed is to contact the House UA, who shouldeither fix the problem or pass it on to him.

But he warns that many of the lab computerproblems actually come from students themselves.

"Paper theft is an enormous problem for usaround campus. We keep track of how much we putinto the printer trays and how much is actuallyprinted out, and about one-third of it is stolen,"Osterberg says.

He says another major problem is studentsbringing food and beverages into the computerlabs.

"It's not a fun job for the UAs to go walkingaround the computer labs telling people to puttheir drinks away, but it really does make theequipment age earlier. All it takes is one can ofsoda and you lose a $50 keyboard," he says.

On the whole, Osterberg says the upgrades havebeen successful.

"My opinion is that the labs are in a very goodsituation...We'll continue to make minoradjustments, like upgrading all the 32 megabyteRAM machines to 64. But on the whole, we think thecomputing facilities can stay this way for alittle bit longer.