Most people think Northwestern students who spend all day couped up in their dorms, surfing the Internet, bathed in the soft glow of their computer screens, are unhealthy, maybe a little weird. They don’t get out enough, right?
Well, NU is investing in a motivating force that might change that: wireless Internet access.
The university is slowly increasing the number of places on campus where students can connect to the Internet without being tethered to wall sockets. Although the administration has no officially recognized plan to roll out wireless Internet technology across campus, several administrators acknowledge that the entire campus is moving in a wireless direction.
William Banis, vice president for student affairs, said he can foresee a day in the not-so-distant future when students can chat online while tanning on North Beach or watching a lacrosse game on the Lakefill.
“In the long term, we hope to have outside areas on the net, so students can sit outdoors with a friend (and browse the Web) … and classes can be held outside,” he said.
The administration’s first priority was to put wireless network access points in areas such as Searle Student Health Service where students congregate and have to wait in lines, he said.
“Waiting times get to be long and as pressured as our students are, with a wireless network card they can do work and be productive,” Banis said.
Several wireless locations have been added since Norris University Center went wireless a year ago, and schemes for new wireless locations are in the works.
Information Technology workers have installed wireless access points on the first two floors of Norris, Searle, Tech Express, Mudd Science and Engineering Library and the dining area of the Foster-Walker Complex.
The Music Administration Building, the Infrastructure Technology Institute, 1801 Maple Ave., and parts of Leverone Hall are also wireless, but these locations were installed by individual schools and departments.
‘What’s the point?’
Despite all the wireless locations added over the past year, only about 1 or 2 percent of the undergraduate population — about 80 to 150 people — are using the wireless network, said Tom Board, NU’s director of technology support services.
“If you build it, they will come,” Board said.
Students need three pieces of equipment for wireless access: a laptop computer, a wireless card and a piece of software called a Virtual Private Network client, or VPN.
Most students are already a third of the way there — about 60 percent of students own a laptop, according to the most recent survey conducted by the Office of Student Affairs. But few own wireless cards, which go for between $80 and $150, or have downloaded the VPN software free from NUIT’s Web site.
It’s hard to gauge whether students think the cards are cost effective. At a recent Computing Open House in Norris, several Residential Consultants manned a booth dedicated to wireless computing on campus. They fielded questions like, “So, what’s so great about wireless?” and listed over and over the wireless locations on campus.
“I get the feeling that not too many people know about this,” said Aaron Johnson, senior ResCon and McCormick sophomore.
Akhil Gulati, a Weinberg senior, owns a laptop and is interested in the convenience of wireless Internet access, but said he isn’t ready to commit to buying a wireless card.
“What’s the point of spending the money when you can hardly use it anywhere?” he said.
ResCons, it seems, are the most avid users of wireless Internet at NU. Johnson, Prashant Velagaleti, Justin Koh and Josh Anon all say they use laptops wirelessly around campus. So does Dan Black, a student representative for Apple Computers.
Library network
Lack of use is not the only problem hampering wireless access throughout campus. Administrators are uncovering technical problems along the way.
NUIT workers last month started to research the possibility of wireless access inside the University Library Core and in the towers, but are encountering difficulties due to the unusual architecture of the building.
“We’re investigating it, but because of all the steel and concrete, we don’t have an answer yet,” said Frank Cervone, assistant university librarian for NUIT. “It’s complicated because we’ve got to get people up on top of core and test the transmitters. In the towers, the stacks are metal and in a spiral pattern. It’s hard to tell what kind of coverage we’d get.”
If the technology works well enough, Cervone said, they’ll then have to look for funding. “We’re looking at cost. … I don’t know if the university would fund it.”
Carnegie on ‘cutting edge’
While NU is busy discovering the potential uses for wireless Internet access, a few other mid-size private universities have already adopted wireless computing into campus culture and even school curriculum.
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has a nearly wireless campus. “All the dorms, all the green spaces, all the academic buildings — all wireless,” said Peter Hill, a network engineer for Carnegie Mellon computing services. “I think it helps foster student community.”
Since academic buildings are wireless, many professors include lectures and lesson plans that require students to use the Internet in the classroom. Students are not required to own wireless-equipped laptops, so those who don’t have them can borrow them from the library.
Takford Mau, a senior economics major at Carnegie Mellon, describes his school’s wireless network as more than convenient.
“Sometimes my friends and I play computer games on our laptops outside,” he said. “I really think almost everyone here takes advantage of it. It’s sweet.”
Hill said Carnegie Mellon’s position as a “Lucent Partner” has helped it become a leader in campus technology. Lucent Technologies helps fund many of the school’s technology programs, such as the laptop computer rental program.
Board says NU is not behind the average university in wireless areas covered.
“I think we’re in the mainstream,” he said. “There are schools that have a culture of being on the leading edge. Northwestern may be preparing to break out and be an early follower of those front-line schools.
‘Different way 0f learning’
At the end of last quarter, the year-long Industrial Engineering and Design class completed its major research project, called “Northwestern University: A Campus Without Wires.” At a meeting March 14, the class presented its findings to University President Henry Bienen and other university officials. They had researched the logistics of covering the entire campus with wireless access, as well as implementing a mandatory laptop program.
“We walked all around campus and found that there is a lot more coverage here than we thought,” said Mike Badalov, a McCormick senior who worked on the project. “The campus is heading in a wireless direction and our project’s goal was to expedite it.”
Badalov believes a wireless campus will reap rewards for NU much greater than the school’s investment.
“If we are to compete with top universities for freshmen, we can attract more people with a wireless campus,” he said. “Or, we can get an edge in the rankings and give Northwestern a better image — aside from all the advantages for students.”
Wireless technologies are so new that educators can’t yet tell how it’s going to affect higher education. Images of students instant messaging each other during a lecture might strike fear into some professor’s minds.
“You open up a laptop at a group meeting and it’s a whole different way of learning,” Board said.
