The Changing Face Of Campus Tech

SeaDour writes "CNET News has an interesting perspective on the changing face of technology on campus. These days, students are showing more interest in the tech perks that campuses have to offer, and universities are taking notice. Duke University, for example, just gave away free iPods to each of their 1,650 incoming freshman. Penn State offers subsidized access to Napster 2.0 for all students, and many other schools are now considering similar programs with Rhapsody and Cdigix. Perhaps the best offering is wireless internet access, which 90% of campuses now offer in some form. Are we seeing the day when college students make their school of choice not based solely on academics or athletics, but also on tech freebies like these?"

Comments

Freebies ?

[Anonymous Coward]

thousands of dollars a year in school fees is not really "free"
its about as free as in "buy 1 get 1 free"
you are paying for it, maybe you should ask questions like
"why are my school tuition fees being spent on frivilous sundries benefiting 3rd party companies instead of improving my schools educational resources"

insert subject here:

[Izago909]

Are we seeing the day when college students make their school of choice not based solely on academics or athletics, but also on tech freebies like these?

"Freebies" my ass. Do you have any idea what tuition is up to these days? Anyone who thinks that either the students or taxpayers didn't pay for that nifty Napster service or shiny iPod's must not have majored in Econ. The iPod's I don't much care about; at least Apple has a record of being kind to educational institutions and new uses will be devised. To hell with the industry lapdog known as Napster; the only reason the schools purchase it for their students is to get a reprieve from the flood of lawsuits. I guarantee, even if the p2p traffic from the campus doubles, we won't see any new lawsuits.

How are they free?

[DAldredge]

How are they free? They cost money and all that will happen is that tuition will go up to cover it. That is why tuition is going up at 7% - 10% per year.

Freebies?

[Demogoblin]

I dont really consider wireless acess a freebie, as that is part of the school's network.

Even most schools that have these Napster like services make the students pay for music. I wouldn't exactly call that free.

Good schools will still attract students based on academic reputation, not on freebies.

Scholarships?

[AtariEric]

Wouldn't that money be better off putting up scholarships for peeple who can't afford college? Or are these "freeebies" just a start of the new College Marketeering? Not even colleges seem to be immune to the ubercapitalist drumbeat these days...

Of course

[daveschroeder]

Students already make choices based on things other than academics or athletics now. Size of the campus, feel of the city, things to do, proximity to (or distance from) home, significant others, etc. And yes, they've made it on the basis of technology as well, long ago: when the University of Michigan started wiring its dorms for ethernet in the early to mid 90s, surveys of students showed some picked Michigan over other alternatives, in part, because of the availability of ethernet in the dorms. This increased with the advent of the web, and eventually came to be something students *expected* in most University dorms. (Incidentally, private housing owners are realizing students want this and are adding it in greater frequency to their buildings).

But it seems to me that these technology items really fall into "academics"; e.g., some schools have better facilities or faculty than another for some particular discipline, and it could be argued that decisions based on that fall under the general guise of "academics", so why not this?

Not the way I see it :-P

[douthat]

Are we seeing the day when college students make their school of choice not based solely on academics or athletics, but also on tech freebies like these?"

This depends on your definition of free. If I were a student at Duke University or Penn State, I would be worried that the school decided to use my hard-earned tuition money to buy things that are not directly associated with learning. Sure, the iPod makes a great portable hard drive, but is the data it is intended to hold somehow better stored on a $300 iPod rather than an inexpensive USB Key? At least the iPod, as a storage device, has some scholastic merit. Penn State subsidising Napster subscriptions using student tuition and fees is absoutely appaling. If I wanted a Napster subscription, I would buy one!

On a separate note, if Penn State jumped on the iPod bandwagon, it would be not be compatible with its new Napster agreement. Screw that.

Re:Welcome to a decade ago

[r0xah]

I believe that these are reasonable expectations for a university. I think that any modern university should have internet access in dorms and more than likely they should have wireless as well. The new little "perks" such as getting a "free" iPod when you go to a school like Duke is not going to influence any intelligent person. You are already paying so much for school, the iPod is more than likely included in the price on top of that. If you look at the iPod as an expense to go to any school you may choose, then it wouldn't change the tuition cost over 4 years in any real way.

Re:Welcome to a decade ago

[jm92956n]

I'd furthermore be insulted if my school possibly spent my tuition money on lures for people who may not really care about school or take it seriously.

Did you go to a school without a sports program? They haven't much of a point, other than to draw in prospective students and build the college's name up ("they have such an excellent basketball team that I can't imagine they'd employ professors of poor quality!").

Nearly every school spends money to attract students; often they'll intentionally misrepresent the school to in one way or another to attract students. Why? Because, like every other institution, they must perpetuate or die. The latter alternative is the less pleasant one.