Sure, Wake Forest is light years ahead of most other colleges when it comes to technology. But Wake Forest, to better serve its students and keep its high-tech advantage over other universities, is going wireless in a big way. When students return to school in the fall, they will be able to log into the Internet on their school-issued laptop computers anywhere on campus without having to plug in.
Their cellular telephones will work better, as Wake Forest has promised to get rid of the dead spots that force some students to roam campus to get a dial tone. The university might give a few lucky students the next generation of technology, personal digital assistants, or PDAs.
The school eventually plans to rip the telephone lines out of its dorms because so few students use traditional phones. A decade ago, the Internet was a novelty. Almost no one shopped online. Cell phones were rare. College students had access to computers, but they were mostly in labs. And students still had to stand in line to sign up for classes rather than register online as many do now.
Chemistry professor Bob Swofford remembers coming to Wake Forest in after 16 years as an oil company research chemist. Shortly after Swofford arrived, Wake Forest administrators pitched the idea of giving every incoming student a personal computer. Swofford and some of his faculty colleagues scoffed at the idea and offered an alternative: Give students portable computers, something they could bring to class or the library, and replace them every two years to keep up with the changing technology.
In , Wake Forest became the second American university to issue laptop computers to its first-year students. The university quickly expanded the program so each student got a laptop β and a color printer β and they got to keep them when they graduated. In , it installed the first part of its wireless network, which lets students and professors access the Internet without having to be plugged in.
