ETSU may be one of the first colleges in the country to go completely wireless a little more than a year from now.
Mark Bragg, assistant vice president for information technology, said requests have been voiced to the Office of Information Technology to make the campus wireless, and Dr. Darryl Haley, associate professor of English and member of the committee submitting the bids for the project, said, “People have decided it’s doable and desirable.”
“We’ve been working on this a little over a year,” Bragg said. “We hope to start next spring (2008), but if things go well we’ll have a good portion done this fall. That’s if it comes within the budget we have identified.”
The project, which has been estimated to cost between $500,000 and $1 million, is being undertaken as part of the technology access fee and is currently undergoing a process called RFP, or request for proposals, which are requesting what companies would charge to install the wireless connections.
Bragg said there are several competing vendors interested in the proposals. “It’s a sealed bid so they don’t know how much other companies are offering,” he said. “Everyone has to get competitive.”
After the bids are put in and one is accepted, the next step would be to install wireless access points throughout the campus. An analysis has already been done to determine where to install the wireless access points, which could either be on top of buildings or light poles. “They’d be out of the way so you wouldn’t even know they were there,” Bragg said.
How much gets done, however, depends on the outcome of the proposals and the bids. “We may have to start smaller and do it in more phases than we think,” Bragg said. While parts of campus, such as the Sherrod Library and the Culp Center, already have wireless capabilities, he said, going completely wireless is “something we’re working toward.”
Going wireless would open up more opportunities for students with laptops. This wireless capability would enable students to go anywhere on campus and utilize campus resources.
“It would be like a big huge wireless connection all over campus . inside and outside of buildings you’d have a connection,” said Dr. David Currie, associate professor of health sciences and member of the committee. “If you’re sitting outside by your favorite tree or on a bench outside of Nicks Hall, you’d be able to get on the Internet.”
Some students shared their views of the proposals.
“I think in some ways it would be a good idea because it could be an advantage for some students,” said senior English major Erika Dick. “But it could also be a disadvantage with students in class getting online or checking e-mail, clicking on the keys and doing stuff that doesn’t even have to do with class.”
“I think if they went wireless, it’d be a good thing,” said Tim Denton, a senior digital media major. “It’d be a lot more convenient.”
Other students have wondered how and if this will affect the computer labs on campus, but Bragg said it’s not being done to reduce the labs. “It’s to give you more flexibility and functionality as you roam around campus with your laptop,” he said. He also noted that the project will not affect student fees. “We’re doing it so that your dollars as a student go as far as they possibly can.

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