About six months ago, journalist Alex K. published the article “Do Not Borrow Loaners From the IT Center” on the Beacon. This article criticizes AISG’s loaner system and urges the IT center to make necessary changes to fulfill the student body’s demand. Until this article was published, there had not been any changes in the school policy caused by Beacon articles.
With respect to Alex K.’s article, the IT center did recognize the problem and rectified it. Mr. Bauer said, “[The IT department] purchased the computer from 2017 and replaced all the seven years old computer with three years old MacBook Air.” He also mentioned that the only difference between the computer students use and the loaner computer is the storage capacity; the loaner computer has 128GB. The IT center did make students’ lives better and met their demands by replacing all the shoddy, unpleasant computers with new ones. More and more students are borrowing loaner computers, and they are satisfied with the quality of the new loaner computers.
However, this change caused some problems. He said, “since the loaners are only three years old, they are speedy, and most kids wouldn’t return the loaner on time.” Now, the IT center has to chase the students and ask them for back, which they find extremely cumbersome.
He also commented on the power of words and media. He said the piece was honest and pointed out the real problem. He felt that “this was a textbook example where student newspaper played a very honest and natural role in pointing out a problem.”
As a student journalist, I wish more and more suggestions made in Beacon articles are reflected to make the school a better place.