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College of William and Mary: Wireless Access Aids Displaced Students
3/25/2003
Scott Fenstermacher
Like many educational institutions, the College of William and Mary (W&M) undertakes regular renovations, improvements, and additions to its campus facilities. However, as America's second-oldest college established in 1693, W&M's campus renovations often encompass special considerations due to the historical nature and age of its buildings.
Prior to the beginning of a new academic year, the university was renovating one of its residence halls when they uncovered an asbestos problem that forced college officials to postpone opening the building. Unable to complete the renovations before the students arrived for the fall semester, the administration scrambled to find temporary housing for 400 first-year students.
W&M contacted the Governor's Inn, a hotel located near campus, to inquire about possible housing, and rented half of the Inn's three buildings to provide students with temporary accommodations. After tackling the question of where they would live, the school turned its attention to preparing the Inn for 400 college students, with only weeks before the students were scheduled to arrive at its doorstep.
Equal Opportunity
Recognizing that these incoming freshmen needed and expected the same services
and resources as on-campus students, W&M set the goal for each displaced student
to receive all of the services available on campus, including W&M's extensive
technology resources. To accomplish this formidable task, W&M had to find a
way to connect the students to the existing infrastructure, which included the
university network, phone system, and CATV. Luckily, W&M found they could use
the Inn's CATV system and could forward the Inn's phones to the on-campus voice-mail
system, but the challenge of connecting the students to the network remained.
"The network is an integral part of the teaching and learning experience here at the College of William and Mary; it's used for presentations in class, Internet research, e-mail, and much more. It is essential for all students—especially first-year students just starting out—to have network access to school resources in order to make their transition to college successful," explains Scott Fenstermacher, Network Manager for the College of William and Mary. "Plus, these students are our customers—they pay for high-speed Internet access as part of their tuition and fees—and deserve the very best in service and support."
A Temporary Solution
Unlike the school's residence halls, the Inn did not offer high-speed Internet
access, forcing W&M's IT staff to find a way to create a fast, reliable connection
to the campus infrastructure. At the same time, the IT team needed to watch
project expenses, as W&M officials wanted to keep costs down for a temporary
solution that would only be in place for one semester.
First, W&M reviewed wired options to connect the students. This option was discarded because the Inn is surrounded by historical structures near a restored area of Williamsburg, Va., where a wired solution would be extremely invasive, expensive, and labor-intensive under the time constraints.
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