AECOM is Wired for Direct Internet Access

No Plans Underway at Yeshiva College

Marking the culmination of a summer of preparation, students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine arrived at their apartments to find direct hardwired connections to the Internet. The access now afforded to all medical students who reside in Eastchester Housing at the Bronx Campus of AECOM represents a concerted Yeshiva University effort to catch up with other major academic institutions that have offered similar service in recent years.

The final decision to provide connections to the apartments was made by the AECOM administration late in the 1997-1998 academic year. The technical task was then handed to the Research Information Technologies Department at the College. The actual wiring of the apartments and all cable connections were the responsibility of an outside company, referred to as USIS.

Workers from USIS spent the summer installing cable connections throughout the housing complex. The effort to complete the wiring of the twenty-seven floors in three buildings required days of continuous labor which often began early in the morning.

All students desiring direct Internet access must utilize computers which meet certain technical specifications. Most systems with either Windows 95 or Windows 98 are sufficiently equipped as are the latest operating systems from Macintosh. In order to receive access, students must engage in a connection process, which is run by CompUSA, the company chosen by the institution to handle first-time connections. For a $75 service fee paid directly to CompUSA, students' computers are checked for compatibility, several network programs are installed, the network outlet in the apartment is activated, and the connection is verified. Students must also purchase a compatible Ethernet card available from CompUSA or other major vendors.

All of this year's first-year medical students, who belong to the Class of 2002, are required to have the connection. This led to some controversy since the $75 fee was unexpected and not included in their tuition payments. However, opinion on campus was mostly positive and students looked forward to the enrichment of their four-year education at the College.

Exact figures regarding the cost of the effort could not be obtained at press time, however sources familiar with the process at the institution believed the expenses to have totaled something on the order of one million dollars, with approximately ninety percent of that allotted to the cable contract and the rest to the electronic aspects. Funding is believed to have come from internal College resources. Tuition was not specifically raised to bankroll the effort.

The success of the effort was somewhat surprising to students and administration officials alike, especially considering the magnitude of the project. A connection work-station was set up for incoming students in the lobby of the 1935 Eastchester Road building. At the present time, 138 students already have full access. According to Robert Lummis, Director of RIT at AECOM, "It has been a tremendous amount of work." However, he added that the result was a much needed success.

Currently, there is no such effort to connect the residence halls at Yeshiva College in such a fashion. George Sullivan, assistant director of Management Information Systems at YC, stated that "there are no concrete plans to do any of that [which was done at AECOM] here."

However, he believes that, "the University wants to do it. They are sympathetic to the needs of the students."

Sources familiar with YC and YU administrative decisions, have suggested that Internet connections at YC and Stern College for Women will become a reality within the next year or two, yet students at the undergraduate schools who often wait to use library computers for classes which now provide Internet access are not satisfied by mere speculation. One student, who desired to retain anonymity fearing administration backlash, wondered "why do they take so much pride in the [US News and World Report number] 42 ranking when they continue to compromise our education by denying us the technology available to our peers at other top-tier schools?"