Can computer science students do without the desktop?

Prompted partly by potential space release and reuse, and also by international trends in moving away from desktop computer learning environments and traditional classroom set-ups, we have begun exploring alternatives to computer science (and other) students' use of fixed desktop computers in traditional computer laboratory configurations. Although many studies and reports detail how mobile computing, especially tablet and smart phone use, have been replacing desktops, certain disciplines (particularly engineering and sciences) have continued to rely on the greater computing power available in the desktop. This has resulted in, amongst other things, a continued enforcement of older classroom seating arrangements where rows of individual students face a single teacher at the front --- an arrangement widely viewed as non-conducive to optimal student collaboration and learning. This paper looks at a new institution of higher education in the People's Republic of China, HEI A, and examines how suggestions of reallocation of computer laboratory space are being received by some students and staff within the computer science department.