WSU, UI Wired For The Information Age Campuses Provide Internet Access From Dorms, Classrooms, Offices

A few years ago, students going to college would often call ahead and ask whether they should bring a computer.

Now, few ask. About 40 percent of students arrive with their own laptop or personal computer, area college officials say.

“Today the question is ‘How much access will I have?”’ said Washington State University President Sam Smith.

Long used for word processing on campus, computers are now gateways to information, research and experts via the Internet.

To ensure students have access, WSU and the University of Idaho have spent a combined $38.5 million in the past few years to wire high-speed data lines into dorms, apartments, classrooms and offices.

Some professors are skeptical about the benefits of wiring students into the Internet en masse.

“The Net is a vast wasteland,” said Don Orlich, WSU professor of education and science instruction. “I’d spend my time at the library long before I’d ever go to the Internet.”

Other college officials say the Net is increasingly essential for research.

“If you graduate from a university today, it’s just assumed that you’re familiar with the new information tools,” said Nancy Baker, director of WSU libraries.

At the UI, university and telephone company experts have just finished a 15-month, $7.5-million project. It ties virtually every dorm room, university-owned apartment, faculty office and classroom into a high-speed computer server and the Internet. Users just plug their computers in. The wires thread through steam tunnels to connect 75 campus buildings.

“We want people to have the same convenience and reliability they’d expect when plugging into an electrical outlet, picking up the telephone or turning on a water tap,” said Jerry Wallace, UI vice president for finance and administration.

A recent survey showed that 95 percent of UI students use the Internet. But until now, students used relatively slow modems to connect to a university server. Access was limited to an hour at a time.

In Pullman, WSU has spent $31 million over the past four years to add high-speed lines to most offices, all dorms and a new apartment complex. All told, the university connected 180 buildings, adding 11,000 computer outlets, said Mahmoud Abdel-Monem, interim vice provost for learning and technology.

“We have miles and miles of fiber optics in there,” he said.

To bring fraternities and sororities on-line, WSU alumnus and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen recently gave the school $300,000.

Each of the 41 Greek houses adjacent to campus will have the high-speed lines and a connection for 12 computers. All the houses should be connected by October.

Allen also recently bankrolled construction of a new multimillion-dollar house for the Phi Kappa Theta fraternity at WSU.

He lived in the original house, abandoned in 1980 because it no longer met building or fire codes. The new house includes a computer port in every room and a lab with six computers.

To accommodate students who can’t - or won’t - buy their own machines, WSU has about 1,250 computers in labs around campus, Abdel-Monem said. UI has 650 for 11,000 students.

, DataTimes MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: Campuses wired for information age