The Harper College Board of Trustees has postponed a vote to join a community college consortium aimed at garnering a discount on a $1.5 million purchase of computer hardware and software.
The consortium, the American Association of Community Colleges, is seeking colleges willing to pool their purchasing power to get a better price on computers from Dell Computer Corp. But several Harper trustees said at their meeting Wednesday night that they were reluctant to join the group because they believe the college might get a better deal on its own by soliciting bids from several suppliers.
The board postponed a purchase until it could solicit bids to buy the equipment. The college is seeking to buy 500 to 600 personal desktop or laptop computers.
David McShane, Harper’s vice president of information technology, told the board that, by joining the consortium, Harper would get a discount of 17 percent to 30 percent from Dell.
McShane said he will open bids to other suppliers, compare their offers with Dell’s through the consortium, and then bring his findings to the board in August.
McShane told the board he had hoped to buy the computers in time for them to be installed in early August, when the campus is closed. Opening the bidding would delay the process, he said, and the computers couldn’t be installed until during the fall semester.
Palatine resident Paul Cook, who unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Harper board last spring, urged the trustees to seek other bids for the computers.
“The $1.5 million purchase is clearly a major expense,” Cook said. “By way of comparison, if we could save only a few such expenses a year, we could quickly pay for the cost overruns on the new buildings. This expense clearly merits careful attention.”
Harper is building a performing arts center and a conference center.
