The Board of Trustees voted unanimously at a meeting held on Tuesday, Sept. 6 in favor of the procurement of an additional 150 laptops that will be part of the El Camino College Laptop Loan & Internet Access Hotspot Program.

El Camino College will pay $172,734.98 to purchase new 14-inch HP ProBooks to cover the needs of returning fall 2022 students.

President Brenda Thames strongly recommended that the Board of Trustees approve the purchase of additional laptops to meet the increased student demand this fall.

“It is anticipated that this increase will also fulfill the needs for spring,” Thames said.

The Laptop Loan & Internet Access Hotspot Program allows all El Camino students to borrow valuable electronic tools such as laptops, calculators and wireless internet hotspots for free.

During an interview with The Union prior to the meeting, Library and Learning Resources Specialist Erika Yates said that the global pandemic sped up El Camino’s launch timeline for the laptop loaner program.

“The laptops were originally bought with money we received for COVID relief and the [computers] were purchased in 2020,” Yates said.

Whenever a student needs a laptop or a hotspot, many times it is Yates who physically hands it to them.

Currently, Yates has a list of over 100 students waiting for additional laptops. The list is capped at 100 to ensure that everyone who is on the list will receive a computer.

“The demand is definitely more than 100 because I’ve had at least 50 to 60 students come in after I capped that list, still waiting and looking for laptops. My email is full of people who are asking me so I know the demand is higher than that,” Yates said.

Yates hopes the program is expanded to cater to a wider range of students, such as working parents who may not be able to take advantage of computer labs on campus due to family-related responsibilities.

“Having a computer that you can use at home is a great benefit to someone like that and it’s very equitable,” Yates said. “It is very popular, I really don’t see it going away anytime soon and I don’t really think it should.”

Associated Students Organization (ASO) Student Trustee Sidney Lee expanded on the origins of the loan program in a statement provided to The Union.

“Our laptops are actually funded by the Foundation and our Executive Director, Andrea Sala,” Lee said. “She’s kind of in charge of the Foundation and she’s done incredible work, just with making sure that she’s meeting student needs.”

The El Camino College Foundation is a non-profit organization first established in 1983. According to the El Camino College website, its mission is “to develop community relationships and raise funds to support student’s success in education and life.”

Annually, the Foundation provides over 600 scholarships to students and boasts over $2.3 million in funds raised during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Lee clarified that the Foundation is “not a part of the Associated Students Organization (ASO).”

Lee said that there might be more demand to come this semester from a personal anecdote shared with the Board, explaining that while touring new additions to the library on the first day of the fall semester, she received a message that the library had officially run out of laptops to loan.

“We got that notice that laptops were out and it’s literally the first day. Not even, it was just half of the day,” Lee said.

The large demand for the laptops meant that emergency meetings were held to ensure the Board of Trustees had an opportunity to vote on the additional 150 laptop purchases that would eventually pass.

“It was a bit disappointing to have to tell students that we didn’t have any more laptops. But only a few days later, our amazing Foundation director Andrea, had a special board meeting and we got that money that we just passed to [get] the 150 new laptops, so that was very exciting,” Lee said.

When asked after the meeting if it would be possible to purchase more laptops, should the need arise again, Lee clarified that she did not know and did not want to speak on behalf of the Board of Trustees or for the El Camino College Foundation.

“I don’t know,” Lee said. “But you know what? Andrea has done a lot of incredible things and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was able to pull it off.”

Editor’s Note: Updated placement of photo caption credit 8 Sept. 2022 at 7:54 p.m.

Editor’s Note: Quote in paragraph 10 was corrected for accuracy on Oct. 5 2022 at 6:32 p.m.