Friday, May 21, 1999

A Computer in Every Room: At Ohio U., P.C.'s Become Standard Issue By KELLY McCOLLUM The dorm-room trinity -- bed, dresser, desk -- is being joined by a new essential: the personal computer. CYBERCULTURE: Are P.C.'s ready to be dorm furniture? Unlike a desk, a computer needs regular care to function properly. Robert Glidden, president of Ohio University, announced this week that starting in the fall, freshmen would find new P.C.'s in their residence-hall rooms when they got to the campus. The university recently decided to institute a student computer requirement, says Mr. Glidden, and putting computers in the rooms is a way to jump-start the process. "This is a way that we can assure faculty that every student has ready access to a computer," he says. Freshmen and sophomores at the university are required to live on the campus. The university is still hammering out the particulars, but the plan is to put one computer and one printer in each freshman room by the end of the summer. The new equipment, which should cost about $1,000 per room, is to be paid for with money set aside for residence-hall improvements. "We had plans for some residence-hall upgrades anyway, and we decided to move this up to the top of the list," says Mr. Glidden. But are P.C.'s ready to be dorm furniture? Plenty of people in the computer industry seem to think so. Computer makers have gradually begun to move away from the beige-box design standard in favor of curvier surfaces and fruit-flavored cases. Computers that are easy on the eyes, the theory goes, are more likely to find a prominent place in people's living spaces. But there are issues other than looks to consider when putting computers in the same category as dressers and desks. One concern for housing administrators at Ohio will be maintenance. Unlike a desk, a computer needs regular care to function properly. Constant tinkering by college freshmen and their friends could cause problems for any computer system. That's why Douglas Lawrence, the university's interim associate provost for information technology, is thinking carefully about how the computers will be set up. "We want to standardize the configuration of these machines, much as we would for laboratory computers, yet give students the flexibility to adapt some of the configurations to their liking," he says. But, he adds: "We don't want them to start changing things to the point that the computers start to malfunction. That would be a support nightmare." The university's I.T. department will handle the care of the computers, but the student-housing department will be responsible for buying new ones as the machines become obsolete -- a problem that has not affected dressers anytime recently. Ohio expects to replace the computers every two years and is considering a plan to let students purchase the old ones. Another issue is sharing. Rooms at the university come in one-, two-, three-, and four-student configurations, but each room is receiving only one computer and one printer. Can students get by with some digital equivalent of "You take the top drawers, I'll take the bottom"? "Students have learned to resolve those kinds of resource-sharing issues with other university-furnished equipment in the dorms," says Mr. Lawrence. "This will be another thing that falls in that category."