Power. Everyone may have a laptop, but the capabilities of said laptop will vary greatly. This isn't an issue for everyone, but it can be for anyone taking a co

Power. Everyone may have a laptop, but the capabilities of said laptop will vary greatly. This isn't an issue for everyone, but it can be for anyone taking a computational / media editing / engineering type of degree. I can picture tons of students wondering why AutoCAD / Photoshop / Final Cut runs like crap on their $400 Celeron system. Standardization. Dedicated labs provide the assurance that every student has the ability to use the same software on the same platform. Software Licensing. Even if you could assume that all student were running the same OS / hardware platform, you'd still have to make necessary software available to all of them, which would be a licensing nightmare. Laptop use works for very general purpose / light-duty work, which is what many college students do. So I could see the argument for making certain areas more laptop-centric (such as libraries). But at most unis, there will always be enough demand from those in more "hardcore" majors that getting rid of labs in general won't work. In fact, I've actually seen an upswing in lab use due to students buying netbooks.