Scott Wright, vice president of student auxiliary and business services, is in the early stages of installing wireless Internet in all undergraduate residential spaces. For Wright, this project is a top priority.
This year, he proposed setting aside some of the capital money from the housing budget for wireless. Most dorms on campus do not currently have wireless, requiring students to use Ethernet cables or airport routers.
Wright worked with Candace Fleming, vice president of information technology, to scope out what the budget would look like, how the project would work, and what it would cost. The two collaborated on a proposal, and Wright included money for installing wireless in his projected budget for fiscal year 2011.
Though it is early in the process, Wright said the budget office will soon review the budget, a process that takes around 30 days.
He hopes to get the budget approved in time for room selection in the spring, so students will know which residential halls will have wireless before they submit housing requests.
“Somebody gives me a gift, I’m going to do it for wireless,” he said.
Student Auxiliary Services is set to complete renovation projects in Broadway and Wien residence halls this summer, and Wright said now is a better time than ever to put wireless in the buildings before starting similar projects in other residence halls.
“I want to prioritize wireless over furniture, carpet, or paint,” Wright said. “I would do just a little bit less of all those things to create enough money to begin putting wireless in.”
For many students, it is also a major priority.
“I don’t know what I would do without it [wireless],” Isabel Ricker, CC ’12, said. She added, “It’s random where it is and where it isn’t.”
R.J. Assaly, SEAS ’12, agreed, saying, “It really makes no sense that you can be on your laptop connected to the University’s network on the lawn in the middle of campus, but you have to be connected to the Internet via Ethernet cable when in your room.”
Some students feel that Ethernet cables are troublesome, and often inconveniently placed. According to Katharine Abrams, CC ’10 and resident of Woodbridge residence hall, the layout of rooms makes it very difficult to actually get online.
“Before I had an airport, the Ethernet cord would run across my room,” Abrams said. “I would trip over it all the time.”
But not everyone supports wireless in Columbia undergraduate residential halls.
Sabrina Lopez, BC ’10 and an academic computing expert at Barnard Resnet, said that wireless can sometimes cause technical problems. “Maintaining the bandwidth limits how much you can download or watch, and you can’t really repair the wireless because the signal’s very weak.” She added that wireless also “doesn’t work on all operating systems, and Macintosh computers can steal the signals from PCs.”
Wright, though, said that most students appreciate wireless because it allows multiple computers to have Internet access at the same time.
Collaborating on schoolwork would be a huge benefit of wireless, Wright said, adding that the proposal “is strictly around the academic need.”
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