At a town hall meeting on the issue of wireless internet access, Associate Director of Academic and Information Services Donna White betrayed a disturbingly resigned attitude regarding the University’s investment in technological progress, declaring, “Georgetown is never going to be on the leading edge.”
It’s not as if Georgetown lacks for recent developments to take pride in, like the recently completed Hariri building for the McDonough School of Business, or progressive plans for a new Science Center and the expansion of graduate student enrollment.
But this defeatist attitude from University Information Services toward reliable, campus-wide internet access—coupled, admittedly, with an underwhelming endowment—threatens Georgetown’s success as a modern university. The ambivalence about technological advancement helps explain why many academic buildings have spotty or non-existent wireless service. Worse, while announcing a pilot network—serving only the current UIS office locations in St. Mary’s and the Harris Building just off Wisconsin Ave.—White announced no dates for the addition of service to students residence halls.
But most unsettling was White’s defense of the University’s piecemeal, limited investment in wireless technology. By expanding so slowly rather than building an extensive wireless network as other schools have, she said, Georgetown has avoided having to reinvest in costly new technologies on a regular basis.
For a UIS official to argue that any wide-scale investment is not worthwhile because it will eventually necessitate reinvestment is wrongheaded and alarmingly Luddite. Georgetown’s finances may be tight, but eschewing current technology to avoid the cost of upgrades down the line essentially guarantees that the University will be stuck with sub-par technology for the foreseeable future. For UIS to support such a policy is incredibly disappointing.
The administration needs to accept the necessity of improving Georgetown’s wireless network. Campus-wide Wi-Fi is no longer a luxury, but the norm, particularly at top ranked peer universities. While UIS officials did announce at the town hall meeting that there is a project underway to slightly expand wireless service, the lack of a timeline and the disheartening comments from White do little to instill confidence in the future of wireless at Georgetown.
