PCs for NVIT

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The Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Central British Columbia will be booting up its courses this year, thanks to an unexpected donation of nearly 200 used computers.

The computers are part of a $354,000 total donation of almost 600 machines by Montreal-based Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited to three Native colleges, and will mostly be used by NVIT to upgrade existing student and faculty systems and support higher learning programs.

The donation came out of the blue for NVIT, which has just completed a new campus.

The Merritt-based institute, which has received so far 184 computers, couldn't be happier with the windfall, said President Casey Sheridan.

"As we move in to our new campus and as the need for access to computer technology increases, students and staff will definitely benefit from this equipment," Sheridan said. "Funds to purchase new equipment is limited and as such, this donation is much needed and appreciated."

The donation was made through the Assembly of First Nations, which determined which colleges should receive the computers. The other two recipients are the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology, headquartered in Saskatoon, and the First Nations Technical Institute on the Tyendinaga-Mohawk Territory near Deseronto, Ont.

The computers are IBM Pentium 223s, complete with 17-inch monitors, and are about three years old. Instead of trading in existing computers when the leases were up, they were purchased, serviced and shipped out to the colleges.