The ‘Computerless’ Computer Lab

Colleges were once the place where many students encountered their first computer -- and back then, the computer took up an entire room. Now, with computing power in every student's book bag and pocket, some colleges are finding the standard computer lab is no longer needed. St. Norbert College is one such example. The private Roman Catholic liberal arts college, located in De Pere, Wis., last year finished a complete renovation of its Gehl-Mulva Science Center. The last phase of the project included plans for a computer lab, but with the college about to phase in a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy -- requiring that all students bring their own laptops to campus -- filling that lab with desktop computers didn’t seem to make sense.