A $12,000 dollar investment for what could be a life-changing campus-wide improvement.
For about $3 per undergraduate, Tufts could install a wireless Internet network on the two quads and the President's Lawn. Imagine how much better life here would be if instead of spending hours updating Facebook profiles and checking away messages while locked in the seclusion of a dormitory room , students could continue these noble pursuits while laying in the middle of the quad, or sitting on the library roof. Imagine laying outside transferring the contents of JSTOR directly into a bibliography while sunbathing, instead of having to cram into a messy, unlivable dorm room or maneuver through a Civil War reenactment to find a spot to work in the library.
Now forget about it. Tufts will not become wireless before this year's freshman class graduates unless the administration pulls its collective head out of its derriere and realizes that investing $12,000 on wireless has a far greater relative utility than a $20 million investment on a new dormitory, or a multi million dollar long term investment to make admissions need blind.
This is not to say that Tufts is not in need of more residential space or that need-blind admissions are not a noble goal. Both are clearly necessary and should be pursued wholeheartedly. However, the comparatively miniscule cost of implementing wireless Internet and almost effortlessly improving the lives of just about every student at Tufts immediately makes it unthinkable that money for Wi-Fi should not be earmarked today. But don't hold your breath.
Tufts is committed to sinking large amounts of money into building Sophia Gordon Hall and increasing available funds for financial aid. Both projects affect only select portions of the campus population. A wireless Internet network would be a universal boon to the community.
If Tufts honestly cannot scrounge up $12,000, the Daily has some suggestions for raising or saving the necessary money:
-Increase tuition by a few cents a year. Once the network's installation is paid for, use the increase in revenue to maintain and service the network.
- Stop paying Busta Rhymes to come and not perform every year. In fact, cut funding for PBoard in general. Tufts does not need more than one anonymous comedian per year, and certainly should not be paying homophobic dancehalls stars to perform in dining halls.
- Cut funding for the TCU Senate. Is whatever they do honestly more important than being able to access the Web from virtually anywhere on campus?
- Encourage students to use the bathroom less. A roll of toilet paper costs about 75 cents, so this will have to be a campus-wide effort.
- Institute a small tax on the ice cream machine in the dining halls. This is a way to encourage healthy nutritional behavior and raise funds at the same time!
In all seriousness, $12,000 is a piddling sum for a university and student body as large as Tufts. In an environment and era when information is such a vital commodity, it is inexcusable for the University to hold its students back from universal and immediate access.
