Campuses Expanding Wireless Coverage

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Campuses Expanding Wireless Coverage

9/16/2004

By Linda L. Briggs

As wireless networks rapidly gain traction on college campuses, more and more administrators are looking to expand their access points, upgrade to faster standards, and entice more students to use the wireless network.

With some sort of wireless network a given for nearly all colleges and universities in the U.S., the questions now become, how far to extend the wireless network? What wireless standards to choose? How to justify and pay for wireless in conjunction with wired? Indeed, what role should the wired network continue to play? And the bottom line: Whether a wireless network helps entice students to select a particular school - and whether it enhances the teaching and learning experience for faculty and students.

Schools that have had great success with wireless range from 35,000-student Indiana University in Indianapolis, named "most unwired campus" earlier this year by Intel Corp., to lesser-known success stories like Mayville State University in North Dakota, the smallest public university in the nation. Mayville has distributed notebook computers to all students for years, and this year moved to well-received tablet PCs - along with 100 percent wireless coverage across its campus.

Mobility Solutions Mushrooming

Changes in wireless solutions are pushing the technology forward rapidly. A new notebook computer without a wireless card is rare these days, for example - and most students tend to show up on campus with notebook computers rather than desktop PCs. At many schools, the steeply dropping costs of hardware - especially wireless access points -- is driving a push by administrators to add access points and encourage students to take advantage of wireless.

Like many campuses, Temple University in Philadelphia will be aggressively expanding its wireless coverage this year for its 34,000 students. "Most common areas have access points in them" now, according to Ariel Silverstone, chief information security officer at Temple. The school is using a marketing campaign to encourage students to use the wireless network. One fresh idea: Wireless laptop rentals for students to encourage them to try out the new technology. "They're being used," Silverstone says, but he'd like to see even more usage - along with more applications and ways to take advantage of wireless.

Indiana University in Indianapolis has what Brian Voss, the associate vice president for
telecommunications in the office of the vice president for IT and CIO, describes as "a rigorous program" in place to increase the number of wireless access points on campus this year. The school's ambitious goal is to boost the current 1,250 access points by up to 40 percent this year. IU has "a good quilt" of coverage, Voss says, but adding coverage will increase usability - and users.

Voss says he expects a major shift this year on his campuses to wireless use. There are about 35,000 students at Indiana University and another 35,000 at associated Purdue University at Indianapolis, 55 miles away. During the previous academic year, Voss says just 1,000 to 1,500 students were using the wireless network. This year, he estimates, there will be 5,000 to 6,000 - a rough estimate that he partly bases on inquiries from parents about what kind of computer equipment to purchase for students.