Targeting Technology Where Students Live
By Bridget Agnello, Campuslink

At a time when two out of three high school graduates continue their education at a post-secondary institution, deciding where to go has become an increasingly complicated process. Not only are students and their parents looking at academics, location, costs, and activities, but increasingly they're asking about access to information technology on campus-local area networks, e-mail, voice mail and Internet connections.

"It has definitely become a more common question, especially among parents," says Peter Cross, Director of Telecommunications at New Hampshire College in Manchester, which offers undergraduate and graduate studies as well as a culinary and hotel/restaurant management school. "Not only do students and their parents want network access in the labs and libraries, but they want it directly from student residence halls. More and more, network access is seen as a necessity, not value-added."

How a school uses and manages technology and infrastructure can dramatically impact its prestige, competitive edge, and level of service to students and staff. Smaller schools and colleges, often operating with small telecommunications staffs and finite resources, are also managing the climb to cutting-edge technology. Bundling access to information technology with the traditional benefits of small school-small classes and personalized instruction, for example, significantly enhances a school's ability to attract and retain quality students, faculty, and staff.

University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Wagner College, and New Hampshire College all accomplished major upgrades to their telecommunications facilities, including the installation of new infrastructure and a cut over to new switches. Although each school faced different challenges dictated by existing wiring and technology, they all had the following similar goals:

Identifying the Issues

"We were woefully in need of updating," says Patrick Lepore, Director of Telecommunications and Computing at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia located in metropolitan Philadelphia. "We were using old telephone instruments with a Centrex system, with a scattered, haphazard wiring plan. Our system was overloaded serving our 800 residential students and 450 administrative users. What we really needed was a complete overhaul."

The school also wanted to offer students access to technology, a service that until now was very limited. "We had a small computing center, and the library had a few stations, but only with library-related information," Lepore continued. In short, the school's thirteen buildings required all new switching equipment, a new cabling infrastructure and new phones. An upgrade for University of the Sciences in Philadelphia would be a dramatic change for students, faculty, and administrators alike.

Wagner College, on Staten Island, was also struggling with a "discordant" system, as Mark Sedutto, Wagner's Director of Campus Technology labels it. The Wagner campus, which sits high atop a hill overlooking New York Harbor, includes seventeen buildings ranging in age from 40 to 70 years old. Wiring for each was done at different times, by different companies, with no single company responsible for maintaining the aging cable plant.

"We had installed a PBX system in 1978 for administrative users, and had pulled fiber to about 150 administrative desktops in 1993," says Sedutto, explaining the college's previous experience with upgrading its facilities. "But students were still served by a commercial Centrex system." According to Sedutto, student billing for long distance was an extreme administrative headache because Centrex is primarily used for business applications. "The college would frequently receive an aggregate bill for all long distance calls," Sedutto explained. "It became very tiresome listening to music on hold trying to affect a correction of this magnitude."

New Hampshire College in Manchester, New Hampshire was slightly ahead of University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and Wagner in that it had cut over from a Centrex system to a PBX in 1987, replacing the entire phone system as well as outside and inside cable plant. "We didn't drastically change our system as other schools have done, but we expanded it," emphasizes Peter Cross. "In 1987, we ran enough cable to the residence halls and had enough switch capacity to support student phones. But we didn't implement student phone service at that time because of cost considerations."

The long-term plan at New Hampshire College, however, was ultimately to provide telecommunications services to student rooms. When the school began to build three new buildings on its Manchester campus, the time seemed right. The three buildings-a residence hall, graduate school, and hotel/restaurant management school-would allow New Hampshire College to consolidate all services on one campus and target technology to students at the same time.

Deciding to upgrade their telecommunications systems, each of these schools recognized the opportunity and advantages of delivering technology to the residence halls. "It's not a luxury or enhancement anymore," says Sedutto. "It's quickly becoming an inevitable requirement. Network access allows us to be competitive and maintain our edge in the very technically astute New York City area. We decided that the sooner we accomplished this, the more cost-effective it would be."

Targeting Technological Changes

The actual installations were typical of major upgrades and expansions of this caliber. University of the Sciences in Philadelphia abandoned all its old wiring and installed new telephone instruments, new data-networking capabilities, and cable TV jacks to all residence hall rooms. "We moved from Centrex to a PBX system, essentially becoming our own telephone company," says Lepore. "This move gave us increased functionality on all three prongs of the equation: voice, data, and video."

The video arm of the cutover at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia is particularly significant, because it's a brand new capability for them. "Not only have we taken control of our phones, but we also now act as our own cable TV company, with satellite dishes on top of several buildings," says Lepore. Lepore's department currently collects more than 35 channels for students, including a movie channel, and produces programming for a campus channel. The school also offers service to classrooms for video conferencing and other educational applications.

Wagner College replaced all of its outside and inside cable plant to all buildings, also on a tight time frame. "It's as if the buildings were built yesterday," Sedutto says. Wagner also installed voice and data jacks to every location where students live, creating a plug-and-play environment.

New Hampshire College initially planned to reuse cabling in the existing residence halls for phone service and wire the new residence hall for phones, network access, and cable TV. "This would have created a discrepancy between the services offered at each location," Cross explains. "We didn't feel comfortable providing students in one building with network access and not others. Because we wanted uniformity, we felt the best thing to do was rewire all buildings with an entirely new cable plant." The installation at New Hampshire College touched every building on campus in some way, including connecting 100 percent of the administrative users to the data network and an upgraded cable TV system. 

Considering the Budget

Both University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and New Hampshire College funded their projects through a small increase in housing fees as well as a technology fee assessed to both residential and commuter students. However, these schools emphasized that the additional cost to students is very small when considering the functionality they receive.

"Our students receive excellent access to technology directly from their rooms for very little additional cost," says Cross. "When they show up on campus, students are asked to bring a phone and their computer. Each unit is pre-assigned a phone number with unlimited local calling, with long-distance service provided by the same vendor who designed and installed our system. When students check in, they get a PIN and are ready to use long distance immediately. If the student arranged for these services individually, the cost would be considerably higher."

Wagner did not want to increase costs to students. "Whatever we paid previously to vendors for our old system was consolidated and applied to our new system. We did not seek to add more charges to the students, but we still wanted to increase their access to technology," said Sedutto.

Focusing on the Future

For Lepore at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, working within a tight time frame was one critical factor. The ability of a third party to bill the students for long-distance services was another. "We required a turnkey system," Lepore explains. "We wanted a system that worked when it was installed. We had very high expectations for the phone system in particular——we expected it to work and it does. It's as simple as that."

Feedback from students has been favorable on all three campuses. Students who currently own a computer are definitely taking advantage of the network connections, and each school saw an increase in requests for connectivity after the first semester. Their systems have been designed to accommodate growth and development at each campus.

With their major cutovers behind them, Lepore, Sedutto, and Cross recognize that their new systems have a tremendous impact on students, faculty, and administrators. "We changed the way people are accustomed to communicating in a positive direction," says Sedutto. "We have more lines, better service, and definitely fewer headaches with billing. As a system administrator, what I like best is we now have one system," Sedutto continues. "Before, we had three types of systems, which were very difficult to coordinate. Now everything is very manageable."

"The key to addressing the technology challenges facing higher education is developing a strong working partnership with your communications technology company," said Rick Cunningham, Campuslink Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "For small-to-mid-size schools, communicating with your communications partner is especially important because it can enable you to save a great deal of money in the future.

"By working together, systems will be designed and installed to satisfy schools' needs today and position them to expand as technology races ahead. Ideally, schools will be able to adopt new technologies more quickly, align their information technology strategies with their institutional goals, and provide efficient and reliable on- and off-campus communications for students."

About the Author

Bridget Agnello is Marketing Manager of Campuslink Services at PaeTec Communications Inc. Campuslink is a leading provider of full-service information technology solutions (integrated voice, data, video and cable communications services) to higher educational institutions, privatized student housing, planned communities and multiple dwelling units throughout the U.S. and Canada. The author may be reached via email at bridget.agnello@paetec.com