There's a reason why an overwhelming majority of the College opts for laptop computers. With a wireless network blanketing the entire campus, from the library to the dorms to the middle of the Green, students can access the Internet and (more importantly) BlitzMail from anywhere on campus, without plugging in.
In October 2002, Wired Magazine even dubbed the college "Unplugged U." for its widespread use of wireless technology. As far as technology is concerned, Dartmouth has been pulling out all the stops for the past 50 years.
In 1955, four young mathematicians conducting summer research coined the term "artificial intelligence" for the first time.
Dartmouth was also the birthplace of the BASIC programming language, invented by mathematician and College president John G. Kemeny and Professor Tom Kurtzas in 1963, which soon became one of the most widely used general-purpose computer languages.
And of course the 1988 invention of BlitzMail, before the term "e-mail"even came into use, was a stroke of sheer genius.
Not even its inventors could have foreseen that the program would remain in use, 16 years after its inception.
BlitzMail now functions as the College's primary form of communication. Students and professors exchange instantaneous e-mails over the system and often choose to utilize Blitz instead if phones.
Earlier this year, Dartmouth placed fifth in a nationwide survey of the 'most unwired' college campuses conducted by microprocessor giant Intel.
Today, the College has 584 access points that use the 802.11b network standard. This school year, 98 percent of the Class of 2007 opted for laptop computers rather than desktops, a jump from last year's 88 percent and a testament to students' increasing Wi-Fi usage.
Future plans for the College's wireless network are still up in the air. According to Bob Johnson, Dartmouth's director for Telecommunications and Network Services, the College hopes to more than double the its access points, bringing the tally from 584 to 1400, as well as to improve network security and increase bandwidth.
More applications are being developed. Last fall, the College introduced the voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) software that allows wireless users to make phone calls on their laptops with a headset.
"The wireless network has always been viewed as an augmentation, something extra ... but after this summer, we hope it'll be viewed as a critical axis," Johnson said.
