The Changing Face Of Campus Tech 346
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?"
Welcome to a decade ago (Score:5, Interesting)
Wireless Access (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:insert subject here: (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, as a student preparing to go to college in a year, I'm rather unhappy about all the "freebies", too. No student should be looking at such things when choosing a college because it should be blatantly obvious that these "freebies" are coming straight out of your own tuition. People don't want to buy a bundle including things like free music when they pay for college, they want education.
Incidentally, I think this is a really good example of how a few colleges, like Duke, are really riding on, what I would say is, irrational demand. In the last few years, Duke has really gotten a surge in interest from students and it definitley doesn't correspond to some sort of surge in Duke's educational record. Duke sees that its making money off just being "cool" and its trying to keep this wave going a bit longer with scams like this.
Re:Welcome to a decade ago (Score:1, Interesting)
I liked the fact that my university had excellent internet connectivity (rare in '86) and pretty substantial computers (a dec running ultrix, various TOPS/20 systems; and a couple years later, lots of Sun and Dec workstations) even undergrads could use.
If I went to a univ. today; Beowulf clusters and Internet2 would be the tech benefits I'd look for.
{ps. mod parent up. universities were always good places for state of the art technology - duh)
Athletics? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Not only WiFi, but Internet2 as well (Score:5, Interesting)
The best campuses are offering Internet2 [internet2.edu] 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 [i2hub.com] 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.
Re:insert subject here: (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Freebies ? (Score:5, Interesting)
"why are my school tuition fees being spent on frivilous sundries benefiting 3rd party companies instead of improving my schools educational resources"
Better question is how come that money isn't spent equally on diverse platforms (i.e. Mac, Linux, Sun, whatever). Instead, MS buys out the entire college.
At my school the technology desk used to send Mac users to me whenever they needed help setting up their wireless connection or accessing the school network. I had no problem with that, because their alternative policy was "not Windows, not supported." To the school's credit though not everyone was incredibly closed-minded. I guess this is what happens though when corporate interests become infused with curriculum and budgeting.
I wrote them a complaint after graduation.
Not exactly a freebie, but.. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
I'd choose *against* such colleges (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:Scholarships? (Score:5, Interesting)
Most schools are actually not-for-profit organizations, however they do need to be capitalistic, not for money, but for students. Schools always want to get students with the best qualifications, so they'll dangle things for them to come to their school over another. Duke for example, is competining with Harvard and Yale and other similar schools for the cream of the freshman crop. Thus it's in their interest to say "Come to Duke, we'll give you a free IPod", and all other things being equal, this could be enough to sway a guy who has to pay $30000 a year to go to Harvard, or to pay $30000 a year to go to Duke, but gets a cool toy out of it. The school figures that spending a few hundred bucks per student will improve the quality of the student body more than giving one guy a full scholarship.
Re:Athletics? (Score:2, Interesting)
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 wouldn't consider student athletes to be receiving any perks at all. Sure they may go to school for free or for reduced cost, but look at that they are getting in return:
Contrary to popular belief though, collegiate sports is a huge money-maker for any given university. A profitable athletic program can easily subsidize the academic activities of a university... provided they don't waste the money giving away useless freebies like iPods and Napster subscriptions to students.
How about free text books? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not exactly a freebie, but.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Welcome to a decade ago (Score:2, Interesting)
Technology is also a great way to gauge the school's general attitude toward students. If they screw you over in internet access, they'll screw you over in other things you care about too. If they're willing to spend money to give the students first-class technology, other things will probably be decent too.
UAH missed that boat (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Stanford went overboard on that, too (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Scholarships? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Welcome to a decade ago (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Deeply obvious (Score:3, Interesting)
My school offers free colocation to students. Had I known that before I enrolled, I wouldn't have doubted so much about whether or not to go there.
Re:Buying students (Score:3, Interesting)
"Pulic dole" for a $40,000 / year school? No fuckin way. the default rate on student loans was ~5% in 2003, so I don't know where you get this "many of which a defaulted upon" figure from. Do you know what happens to you if you default on a student loan? Try not paying taxes for about 5 years. Defaulting on a student loan is worse; much worse.
What you are seeing is evidence of increasing wealth disparity. These students are "subsidized" by mommy and daddy and usually no one else. No one gets 40,000 a year in fuckin grants.
Old Europe (Score:1, Interesting)
It is a matter of the preferences a society takes. Many people in Europe feel that education (basic and higher) is a human right and that it therefore is right to expend large sums on it out of the common instead of the student's pocket.