By Megan Mansell Williams

It’s your daughter’s first day of class and her teacher requires word-processed homework assignments. No big deal. Unless she doesn’t have a computer and doesn’t know how to use one.

Bruce Buckelew (B.S.’66 IEOR) of Piedmont, California, a former IBM systems engineer, is trying to solve such quandaries with Oakland Technology Exchange (OTX) West, a nonprofit computer refurbishing service he founded to keep urban students and their families in the technological swing of things. So far, the program has supplied more than 30,000 computers to those in need and prevented all that e-waste from piling up in landfills.

“It’s like Best Buy, only better,” Buckelew says. “These machines are better than when they were new.”

Here’s how it works: Donated computers are cleaned, sorted and installed with (free) Microsoft operating systems and the requisite bells and whistles. Middle and high school students in Oakland city schools are eligible to attend a three-hour class on computer basics, after which they receive a voucher for one computer. If they experience a problem, free tech support is included. Schools, YMCAs and rec centers can also participate by paying a small fee for the refurbished gear.

After retiring 17 years ago, Buckelew earned a master’s degree in educational technology from San Francisco State University. He started volunteering, installing computers at Oakland city schools, and says he was appalled by the “abominable condition” of technology available in their classrooms.

“People assume that everyone has computers and Internet access,” Buckelew says, “but I once came across a class that was teaching keyboarding on broken typewriters. The inequity astounded me.”

In 1995, Buckelew called on his industry friends at Bechtel and IBM to donate older computers that he and a group of students at Oakland Technical High School could fix up and distribute. He has since found a home for the program at a West Oakland warehouse and now offers classes and outreach throughout the community.

Reusing just one computer saves 30 pounds of hazardous waste and 1,333 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted, the equivalent of taking one car off the road for three months.

“Computers are so cheap, but that feeds the throwaway society,” Buckelew says. “Reuse is the key. Solving the problems of e-waste and the digital divide go together perfectly.” http://www.otxwest.org