MANKATO — In this day and age of every college student having a laptop and an iPhone — and seemingly having no need for something as ’90s-ish as a computer lab — you might figure the days of Minnesota State University’s Academic Computer Center are numbered.

Well, 900,000 student log-ins on the lab’s computers last year would beg to differ.

While it’s true that across the nation some colleges and universities have scaled back their computer labs and, in some cases, shut them down completely, demand for use at MSU’s computer lab is higher than ever. And this comes at a time when a majority of students have laptops.

But as ACC director Wayne Sharp and students point out, it isn’t simply about access to a computer. It’s actually, in many cases, something even simpler.

“I use the computer lab so I don’t have to carry my laptop around,” said Korede Amusan, a third-year chemistry major from Woodbury.

Amber Jensen, a senior nursing student from Paynesville, said she prefers to use the ACC because, with a handful of bulky textbooks, her bag is already heavy enough.

She said she comes to the ACC to print documents or when she and other students need to work together on group projects.

Students such as Amusan and Jensen are typical ACC users, and Sharp says use of the ACC, situated in the basement level of MSU’s Wissink Hall, has risen steadily.

In 2003-2004, the ACC’s computers accommodated about 350,000 users. During the 2008-2009 year, that number was about 900,000 and he doesn’t foresee a time in the near future where the ACC would be, to use a term popular with computer junkies, obsolete.

“We haven’t satisfied demand yet,” he said.

The trend seems to be going the other way.

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported recently that the University of Virginia plans to eliminate its series of computer labs. Penn State University recently converted one of its computer labs to a gaming room with Xbox and Wii gaming systems. Wake Forest University got rid of its labs a decade ago in favor of a laptop-rental system.

But not all colleges and universities are scaling back. The Chronicle’s report also cited Temple University, which in 2006 opened its TECH Center with 600 desktop computers, 100 laptops and a coffee shop.

Sharp said they’ve tried to adapt to the changing ways in which students use technology. One major change they’ve made is to put computer kiosks in hallways and situate them so that groups of students could work at them together.

For example, Sharp said they’ve been looking for areas where students congregate to work together or socialize. When they find those areas, their plan is to put kiosks there.

“We’re leading the nation, or right up there in the nation, in creating student study areas in the hallways,” he said. “Anywhere we’re finding students sitting and studying, we’re saying, ‘Let’s put technology there.’”

In some ways, the technology already is there. Just about every inch of campus is covered by the university’s wireless network, and anyone with a laptop can tap into it.

But for students who choose to not lug a laptop around and who want to hang out in the hallway where they can spot friends or classmates walking by, kiosks have been a good addition.

They’ve also been a highly used addition. Kiosk use peaks at just less than 1,200 users daily between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

In addition to the dozens of kiosks around campus already — including in the student union, Memorial Library and the new Ford Hall — Sharp said he plans to add about 20 more around campus.

At Bethany Lutheran College, the situation is a little different. They don’t have a massive space with hundreds of computers. But they are considering the future and assessing the role of their smaller 20-computer labs.

John Sehloff, Bethany’s director of information technology, said about 90 percent of students come to college with a computer, and the vast majority of those are laptops. But in many cases, students need costly and memory-hogging applications, such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator to complete assignments, and most either can’t afford the programs or don’t have a laptop with the necessary hardware or software to run the programs properly.

Sehloff said the college has considered getting rid of what it calls its Writing Lab, which has a handful of computers.

Next fall, when the Rudy Honsey academic building opens, it will feature various computer stations, many of which will be used for complex editing in the college’s communications program. Graphic arts students also rely heavily on college-supplied computers. Many of those students use Macintosh computers loaded with the latest graphic-design software.

Sehloff said the college is also considering a server-based system where so-called “dumb terminals” placed around campus would be connected to a powerful server. Students then would access the applications and other things they need via the server instead of having it on the hard drive of a machine sitting next to them.

But even then, Sehloff said, the cost of computers has come down considerably, and they’re lasting longer. On average, a Bethany computer has a life-span of about four years. (At MSU, computers spend several years in the ACC before they’re passed along to others on campus. They replace computers after about five years.)

In general, however, Sehloff said demand remains strong for the machines in Bethany’s computer labs

“The computer lab in Old Main, where are about a dozen computers, is very heavily used,” he said. “You really don’t see that many students carrying laptops around.”

Sehloff said that while laptops haven’t changed, the status of computer labs on campus, smart phones and other emerging technologies might.

Tablets, electronic book devices, iPhones and other mobile devices that allow students quick access to the Internet could be, as Sehloff says, a game changer.