The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

The Independent Student Newspaper of St. John's University

The Torch

Battery recall won’t affect SJU

The IBM/Lenovo Corporation has confirmed that none of the IBM ThinkPad laptops distributed to St. John’s students were affected by the battery recall announced several weeks ago.
“It was important for us to get the confirmation from them,” said Chief Information Officer of Information Technology Joe Tufano. Tufano had previously said that although it was unlikely to be a large problem, affecting few if any St. John’s laptops, the University wanted to wait for the official word from IBM/Lenovo.

Tufano, along with IT’s Executive Director of user services, Ken Mahlmeister, said that the confirmation letter from IBM/Lenovo came on Oct. 7, although the University requested a clarification letter which was delivered on Oct. 9.

“We were waiting for the confirmation letter,” Tufano said. “It took them longer than we had expected.”

The letter said that although none of the batteries that came installed in St. John’s laptops should be affected, it is possible that if the batteries were ever changed, they could be among those that were recalled.

“If a student went and bought a battery and changed it, then we wouldn’t know,” Tufano said, although he added that if any student or faculty member does find their battery to be affected by the recall, the University will change it for them.

The University originally announced on Sept. 29 that some student laptop batteries could be affected by an IBM/Lenovo recall. Specifically, it was announced that the R52, R60 and T60 model laptops may have been affected.

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