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Hampton U. Preparing to Go Wireless

By Ieesha McKinzie
Black College Wire

Photo credit: Hampton University Hampton's Virginia Beach campus is already fully wireless.

Hampton University students will soon be able to Google in the gymnasium, surf in the Student Center and send instant messages in the infirmary.

In an effort to improve student life and maintain its reputation as one of the nation�s most technology-savvy college campuses, Hampton University is planning to equip itself with wireless computing capabilities.

This means users can access the Internet with their laptop computers or personal digital assistants (PDAs) from almost anywhere on campus. Students will no longer have to hook computers up to a wired line or use an Ethernet connection to get on the World Wide Web.

Historically black colleges and universities lag behind other schools in going wireless, according to an April 2004 survey by Intel Corp.

Its list of the 100 �most unwired college campuses� includes only one HBCU, Howard University, which ranked 24.

Twenty percent of the Hampton campus is wireless-ready, but by this time next year, the school should be 100 percent covered, said Debra Saunders-White, assistant provost of technology.

She said all classrooms and �green spots� around campus will be connected to the network. Green spots are non-academic spaces, such as the student center and cafeteria.

The success and timing of this project depends on the school�s ability to secure funding. Graduate students at Hampton�s fully wireless Virginia Beach campus are conducting research to complete the funding proposal, researching other tech-savvy schools such as Drexel and American universities.

Students in the School of Pharmacy don�t have to wait until next year to get unplugged. The Airpharmacy network, situated throughout Kittrell Hall, gives students wireless access in classrooms, hallways and the rotunda.

Third-year pharmacy student Immanuel Watkins from Portsmouth, Va., said he enjoys the ease and convenience of the wireless network.

�All I have to do is open my laptop, cut the power on, and as long as I am within range (of a wireless pod) I am connected,� Watkins said, adding that he would rather work in a wireless area than be bothered with the cords and plugs in the library.

Across the rotunda in Freeman Hall, home to the School of Nursing, the wireless network is still a work in progress.

Network administrator Tremis Skeete said the Nursing School was not far behind its neighbors in the School of Pharmacy.

�We have about 20 wireless-ready laptop computers that we will loan to students once our hardware is installed,� Skeete said. One drawback of the wireless network is the strength of its signal in certain places. As with cell phones, there will be dead spots and areas where a connection might be stronger than others.

�Naturally, your signal will not be as strong on the waterfront as it might be inside a building,� said Saunders-White.

She said the wireless network was being created as a supplement to the existing network, not as a replacement, and that students should remember that the standard wired network is preferred.

Most laptops and PDAs made within the last five years should be compatible and wireless-ready, she said.

Ieesha McKinzie is a student at Hampton University who writes for The Script.

Posted March 7, 2005