[550] in Resnet-Forum
Charges for service....and Residential Consultants
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (June R. Quackenbush)
Wed Mar 8 11:28:48 1995
To: resnet-forum@MIT.EDU
Cc: qtjrq@mailbox.syr.edu
Date: Wed, 08 Mar 1995 10:48:58 -0500
From: "June R. Quackenbush" <qtjrq@mailbox.syr.edu>
At Syracuse, we charge $50/semester for the connection. The students purchase
the ethernet adapters/transceivers. The cost of the latter is indeed a
problem for many, but it's a trade-off of sorts. That is, they have a choice.
They can purchase a modem and dial-in for services for just the cost of the
modem. Or they can purchase the adapter/transceiver. Right now, we are
finding the students who opt for the latter are either new students (with new
Macs that require only the transceiver, or with PC's where the adapter costs
about the same as a modem) or are older students who rely heavily on using
the Internet and are frustrated by busy signals on the dialup lines (and want
the faster service the direct connection will give them).
(Note that we only support the adapters/transceivers that we sell through
an arrangement with the Bookstore. We will put a connection in a room where
the student has his own card, different from ours, but he really is on his
own making it all work together.)
We are still relatively new in the game..just past the pilot project. We have
four halls wired and have fewer than 100 connections. I expect that we will
grow faster than I am prepared for!
Following Stanford's lead (I guess we all learned a lot from Dane last summer!),
we have a residential consultant program in place (RESULTs). This is only
partially related to the ResNet program. We decided that if we we were going
to "strongly" encourage students to own their own computers...and what's more,
we were going to "strongly" suggest what models they should purchase...we had
to be prepared to support them where they live. Right now, our ratio of
consultant to student is in the 1-400 range..as far as consultants living in
the halls in which they work. The number gets skewed somewhat because they
also "float," backing each other up when necessary. I believe that we are
getting away with that ratio, though, only because the program is new and
people haven't yet discovered it. I think we will eventually have a similar
ratio to Stanford and Wellesley.
What works for us, in protecting the students who live in the residence halls
is that we have a central dispatch number (that is staffed from 8:30am until
midnight most days...it's in our largest computer lab that is most heavily
staffed) that we tell the students to call. It's ok for Tom to call Leland
and tell him he has a problem....but Leland's response will be that Tom should
call the central number so the call is logged and, therefore, will be taken
care of more quickly than if Tom has to rely on Leland having enough time to
get to him (not mention just plain forgetting!). Students have, for the
most part, been very receptive to this. Partly, I think, because Tom *does*
know Leland and sees him as a student...who is balancing classwork and
consulting work along with rest of his life...
There are, naturally, emergencies....where Tom will bang on Leland's door at
2am....and Leland has to be able to figure out how to respond. He might opt
to help Tom because he figures it really is that urgent or he may send him
away. We do spend a considerable amount of time with the consultants telling
them that *they* have to decide when which action is appropriate....and
let them know that if they make a reasonable decision, we will back them up.
I should mention that I was very wary of students living in the same centers
in which they provide the support. But, to my surprise, I find that the
students are much more considerate of that guy who lives down the hall than
they are of someone they do *not* know, who they just see as a technician
whose job it is to fix their problem.
-June
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June Quackenbush Syracuse University 315-443-4385 qtjrq@syr.edu
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