Tufts will add wireless Internet technology this summer to all dorm rooms and common areas in West and Haskell Halls, responding to recent demands from students.
The wireless infrastructure in Tisch Library will also receive an update, which university officials hope will help prevent the network from slowing down during periods of heavy usage.
This semester, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Administration and Policy Committee teamed up with the organization Tufts Students for the Improvement of Residential Life and Community to compare the quality of Tufts' dormitory common areas to that of common rooms at comparable universities. The students found that, in not offering wireless Internet capability in many of its dormitory common rooms, Tufts lags behind peer schools.
The students wrote a report on their findings and met last month with Leah McIntosh, executive administrative dean for the School of Arts and Sciences.
But the administration has been working to bring wireless to more dorms since well before the student organization issued its report, McIntosh said. "AS&E has been thinking about wireless for several years," she told the Daily in an e-mail. "I had actually discussed this with [the TCU Senate] this winter well before the common space report was issued."
The students' investigation of other schools' common rooms called attention to the boon that an increase in wireless access could be for students.
"We looked at the way wireless Internet was being used by students at several other Boston-area universities and other universities comparable to Tufts across the East Coast," said freshman Chas Morrison, a senator who co-led the writing of the report.
According to Morrison, insufficient wireless Internet access makes Tufts less competitive with other universities in recruiting top incoming students. It also prevents students who need Internet access for group projects from working in communal spaces.
Whitney Wiegand, a senior and tour guide at Tufts, said that having a wireless campus would help attract prospective students.
"As a tour guide, I get a lot of questions from prospective students about the availability of wireless, and having it in some dorms will definitely be attractive for incoming freshmen," she said.
McIntosh said that she is aware of these benefits to having wireless in common rooms. "It clearly supports the study habits of the student body and the research of our faculty," she said.
Several years ago, the university extended wireless Internet access to the academic quad and the President's Lawn. Morrison said that West and Haskell were chosen in an effort to balance the new project with uphill and downhill residents and to improve the desirability of Haskell.
Morrison and McIntosh said Tufts has a long way to go before it has a completely wireless campus. "It is certainly my hope that we will achieve a fully wireless campus in the future, but I don't have a predicted date at this point," McIntosh said.
Senators worked with McIntosh and the University Information Technology department to identify the best way to increase wireless access on campus without disrupting the existing system.
According to Morrison, the improvements to the Tisch Library alone will cost $50,000. The wireless network will be updated and new hot spots will be added to improve the signal quality around the library.
According to junior and TCU Senator Elton Skyes, the university plans to continue adding to the wireless infrastructure as funding becomes available.
