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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?"
I chose my University in part because they had network access ports in every dorm room, a good online paper (which I eventually ran), a bunch of computer labs, etc. And it wasn't even a tech-heavy school.
Academics? Athletics? Who the heck are you kidding? The choice of school hinges mainly on 1) chicks, 2) bars and 3) frequency of parties. It would be surprising if a free iPod didn't have a deciding effect on 95% of the applicants.
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"
The guys who use all this still can't get a date.
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.
Dear University of South Carolina - Columbia:
I know you just blew 100k on a completely useless GPS tracking system for your shuttle buses that don't leave campus. Next year, could you please consider supplying Nikon D70 packages to your returning sophomores?
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.
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.
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...
Don't trust any concentration of power.
Unfortunately, each one of the students had to try AOL and refer 5 of their friends first.
:)
Ok, that was a bad one.
I'm obviously in the 10% of campuses. I was informed last week that I'm not permitted to bring my laptop onto campus at all, even if I don't connect it to the wired network.
And the wireless network used to exist, but it was taken down because (holy shit!) students were sitting out in the parking lot using it.
Bastion of education, that.
Remove the caps and hold to a mirror.
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?
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.
She loves me: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 She loves me not: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688BF
According to Duke's website, it now costs in excess of $40,000 per undergraduate year at Duke. And all they have to do to get people to commit to that level of insane cost is to give away network access and iPods? If that's the case, look for every two-bit program in the country to be loading students up with $2,000 in "freebies", just before tuition goes up $5,000. Of course, college students today are mostly on the public dole in the form of grants, government-insured loans (many of which are defaulted upon, passing cost to the taxpayer), and federal aid to their school. So what do they care? This is even better than the sleazy "finance guy" at the car dealership, who is all too willing to sell you the $2,000 car warranty, rolling it in to your 7%, 6 year balloon note.
One of the biggest perks to my new college is that they have 802.11b in every building. I didn't really know this going in but was very happy to see it when i was looking around on their website after i had transfered and was checking out the IT website.
In fact from what I heard they were the first fully wireless campus in michigan. quite the feat.
I've found it very very useful. I can check out electronic resources for a book we're reading in class or in some of my classes we have electronic reserves, which are basically scanned documents a teacher makes available only online so they don't have to run off copies for everyone. Very useful having net access anywhere and everywhere, also means i don't have to sit around waiting for a seat to be free in a lab, unless i want to print a paper.
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
For those students who aren't on an athletic team, how are the athletics at a school any different from "perks" like internet access? I would actually argue that the ability for students to get work done more easily (like on laptops on a lawn on a nice day) should be more important for students considering where to go than the possibilty of the school's football team to go to a bowl game.
-"It seems like you're trying to exploit a security hole. Would you like help?"
The best campuses are offering Internet2 connectivity -- I wouldn't even consider going to a college without Internet2 access. The main advantage of Internet2, besides speed, is that it is separate from the regular Internet1, and less susceptible to monitoring by third parties such as corrupt administrators and the questionable activities of BayTSP and others.
I've been using I2Hub for a couple weeks at my college and am very impressed. All the benefits of fast Internet P2P at college, without the drawbacks (i.e., the RIAA suing you).
Personally I don't buy the subsidized Napster or other music service access. I would rather choose a college based on its academic credibility, performance, a rigorous curriculum and dedicated teachers. College is an investment, and while access to these services may seem nice, I doubt many students will choose colleges entirely based on this. You would get much more out of going to a well-respected established universe than a cheap fly-by-night college that gives out useful gadgets for free to lure you in to paying for a four-year education. That said, Internet2 and iPods are invaluable, but I think of them more as gifts than a deciding factor in choosing which campus to matriculate to.
Tired of free ipod spam sigs? Opt ou
I chose my school not for it's scholastic qualities, I chose it because of all the fabled women that are there. It's a general college, nothing special except the fact it's near a beach and hot girls tend to want to go to the beach. Being less than 30 minutes from Virginia Beach and all the girls that come with it are all the perks I need.
girls > geek perks
(begin the "You're new here, aren't you" remarks)
What does an iPod have to do with education? The whole problem with this trend is like the free condoms, shavers and breath mints that people get at college. These are nothing but expensive articles being 'pimped out to the students' who have no idea what they are for and start using them and hopefully get them addictded and while they pay off there school bills they can buy 99cent Apple songs. All this is nice, I would love to have all this. But most of all students should have a better education, access to beer and psycadellics and some good college bands. Everything else is noise; a disturbance, college is an experince don't allow other groups ( financially, morally or religously ) motivated groups to sell your experince away. What happens in a religously oriented college you get 100 free religious/christian/islamic/bhuddist songs.... But maybe we should share the large corporate fees gained from these gimmicks to maybe towards other not so well off universites to just have computers with some software so people can learn how to type or learn programmig ...
Students would be better off getting PDA's with wireless...
But why be so philanthropic. Anyway I just wonder what happens to the poor college students who came to college to make a better life for themselves and their family, and they don't attend the more prestigious universities?
These are only my views and I can be wrong, but our lives are empty and we fill it up with music that we buy because we are unable to create anything new.
I decided to go to RPI because RPI requires that all students have relatively new laptops, and my family would have to no choice but buy me one. Boy do I wish that RPI's laptop program had never come around...
Tech freebies are good and all, but people should really choose their college based on how much they like the location and education and such. Tech freebies will only keep one entertained for so long.
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
Given the choice between a "free" iPod and having better teaching staff, I'd go for the college who spent *my* money on improving the education they can give me. If I was a music or media student then maybe an iPod would be a plus. Otherwise it's just a waste of my hard earned fees.
The Napster stuff is absolutely horrendous. To me, universities are the *last* place that should be bowing to corporate bullying and selling its students as dumb consumers. Especially using the students money to do so.
A good wireless network would seem to me to be a better alternative to larger computer labs, and I'd say that generally is a good thing.
I went to University to learn and have fun learning. Sure, I love iPods, but I'd rather have had more textbooks, or more teaching staff, or better equipment in the labs.
Or cheaper fees.
- MugginsM
As tuition prices skyrocket, and salaries decline, the value of a college education drops. It makes sense that campuses will start offering "perks" that appeal to 17 year olds to make them go to their schools.
I mean, students are paying $120,000 or more for that "free" iPod, but a high school student doesn't understand about student loans or what that money actually represents.
It seems that these days universities are corporations themselves. In this darwinistic neoliberal state that America has become, universities are practically preying on the students, like some sort of scamming ripoff joint. What differnce is there between the rapacious check cashing stores and tax refund outlets that prey upon the urban poor, and these fucking universities that set up these kids with tens of thousands of dallars in debt so they can get a BA from some cow college?
It is SO sad what has happened to this country. When I got out of the Navy in California in 1981, the education counselors at the exit interview told me I could attend university there and pay a pittance in tuition, all while drawing $1100/month to go to school. Back in those days, one could draw unemployment as a student.
It was all paid for by taxes back in those days--the top tax rate for the rich was like 70% back then.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
So at the school I work at, we just spent the last three weeks of the summer lighting up 12000 gigabit ports. It's never been faster to copy every single episode of the simpsons across the network. :)
A busy as hell summer, but we're being poised to light up things like VoiP, TVoIP and ubiquitous wifi.
-- There is no sig line, only Zuul.
short answer: no.
far more traditional factors determine choice of university in my i'm-a-first-year-student-in-university opinion. where i come from, its all about the reputation of the university in question, and the weight a degree from the university will carry in your resume.
between universities of similar 'repute' it then comes down to stuff like school culture, how 'happening' it is, the course-specifics (like whether Law is taught better in institution A or B) etc.
freebies? nah. these add to the overall first impression of the university (like cufflinks do on a shirt), but do not represent a material factor in decision making.
That do be lovely!
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
My campus - University of Alabama Huntsville - is not progressing in terms of offering tech perks to students. CNS (Computer and Network Services) has installed tons of new routing hardware to run dynamic VLANs on the residence hall and student apartments. Now we get to log on with our social security numbers and leave a java applet running in our system try 24/7 for network access.
Over the summer they extended port blocks that already included all filesharing and bittorrent to cover other connection types. Remote desktop no longer works, and neither do several major MMO games that rely on peer connections. So in the end we no longer have static IPs, our network usage is monitored, we get to send our social security numbers all across the network, and the network is slower than it has ever been. It is a good day if I can stream an NPR broadcast.
The best part is they instituted the logins and java monitoring applet AFTER student leases were renewed and without telling us beforehand. So now I and some friends are stuck in our 9-month leases under network usage terms we don't accept. Am I pissed? yeah.
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
During the dot-com boom, Stanford was getting about a 20% return on the endowment, and they got carried away. Then when the market tanked, they started hitting on us alumni for more money.
someone remind me why i'm going to a small, cheap-ass liberal arts school, again? something about useful education?
My sister was given a brand new Thinkpad for choosing her school. All I got was a license plate!
Huh?
Where the hell is the "-1, Just Plain Wrong..." moderation option?
It's the HP music player that's identical to the iPod, not Dell's.
I'd mod this comment down, but I wanted to correct such gross misinformation.
CyberDave
My school (UNO) is currently implementing 10Gbps lines into the College of IS&T. However, being a sophomore, I don't get much chance to play. We've also got a super computer, and a lot of other fun toys. All that really was the selling point. The prospect of being able to eventually play with that stuff sold me instantly.
To hell with free iPods. If I want one of those (which I do), I'll go to FreeiPods.com. For a school to entice me, I don't want gimmicks or handouts, I want hands-on experience with bleeding-edge technology that I wouldn't get to touch otherwise.
Ditto here in Baton Rouge, TANSTAAFL, what's offered as "free" is pathetic and getting more costly and dumber all the time. LSU has charged a "tech fee" for years that's a significant percentage of the actual tuition. This fee is getting larger and they are now considering a laptop requirement on top of it.
The money is being spent but it's all controlled tightly and not very flexible. They have more computers than they can shake a stick out, most running Winblows, monitored and wired to your account. Linux is making a showing, and may take off, but you must press "I submit" every time you use one. They also have Internet2, federally funded, and a great local net, even wireless, but all of it is non free and strictly controlled. IT won't let you put so much as a hub onto a line and the wifi requires some goofy client. In short, I do better and feel less monitored elsewhere.
For all the control, you would think things would run well. Nope. Worms actually shut down their email system this summer and they have banned attachments. The control does little other than inconvenience honest users.
Napster? I hope LSU is not dumb enough to pay that extortion, but they keep talking like greed heads. A great emphasis has recently been placed on "IP" and they now claim ownership of all student ideas as well as faculty and staff. Well, OK, you can keep your poetry and other work of marginal monetary value because the RIAA or big publishers will get it. Chummy, eh? You rape these, I'll rape those.
The dumbest thing I think I've heard so far is that the student government is considering a laptop requirement. They think they can hook everyone up to a M$ Active Directory, so Winblows is part of the requirement and neither of my fully functional laptops will do. Yes, this ignores the excellent Paws system run by IBM, but don't all clueless "I want M$ crap" initiatives like that ignore less costly and superior available services? While I can't imagine any network able to hold 50,000 instances of Active directory, I can imagine what will happen when 50,000 wormy laptops hit the net every fall. NOTHING. No email, no class registration, nothing but mass pandemonium and sleepless nights for the campus IT staff.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Well, the technology services available on my campus definitely had a major effect on me. I moved off campus. Among other things, certain policies changed from my freshman to sophomore year (without them telling anyone, or updating their posted policies until after students had come in, and a certain someone (myself) asked because what worked freshman year didn't work anymore.)
Anyway, I moved off campus. In fact, the company that I have internet with right now really stinks... they claim it's high-speed, up to 1.5 mbps, but my last dslreports.com speedtest pulled 22... thats 22 kilobits a second, not bytes.
If I want 28.8 access, I'll get my DeLorean and move back to 1997. So anyway, I'm about to drop this company and pick up another one. Living off campus is nice, and honestly, after I figured in all of the costs that your 'room&board' on campus doesn't cover (like parking), it was actually LESS expensive to live off-campus.
Hibbert: [chuckles] Your playing days are over, my friend. But, you can always fall back on your degree in ... [reads chart] communications!? Oh, dear Lord!
:)
Lubchenko: I know! Is phony major. Lubchenko learn nothing. Nothing! [cries]
Oh, and guess where the full-ride scholarships go? Yup, football. Which is part of why one of my favorite schools is my favorite - no football team