Excellence in Networking 1997Award Winners

Cedarville College

Cedarville College is continuing its commitment to campuswide networking, based on a philosophy of making information available to people who need it when they need it and where they need it. The outworking of this philosophy is installation of networked computers in each office and each residence hall room. The underlying network, called CedarNet, serves as a vehicle for revolutionizing education at the College. CedarNet phase I was completed during the summer of 1992 through a business partnership with IBM, and included all twelve academic buildings and two residence halls. Subsequent phases have resulted in placement of computers in all of the 1,000 residence hall rooms and over 300 offices. Each residence hall room includes a college-owned computer and printer. CedarNet has been implemented as the result of intensive strategic planning efforts. A task team with representatives from various academic and non-academic departments met over a 15-month period during 1990-91 to identify information requirements on campus and to outline a vision for how those requirements could be met. The College's emphasis on a defined mission and a history of strategic planning helped provide an essential basis for the task team's work. The task team's report recommended a campuswide network to be funded by a student fee. This recommendation was validated through a survey of the student body, an in-depth study project with the faculty, and through external consultants. A second task team met during 1995-96 to evaluate progress on the network and to identify a vision for the future. Currently, strategic planning is coordinated by a standing internal committee and by an advisory board with membership drawn from business and industry.

The networking project has been more successful than what the 1990-91 task team envisioned. Over 95% of the faculty and 90% of the student body use the network daily. The network is handling 30,000 electronic-mail messages daily (approximately 8,000 of these messages are to- or from the Internet). Students and faculty have access to over 150 software packages on CedarNet, ranging from general packages like WordPerfect to specific applications like human anatomy. Use of the network at Cedarville has become as essential as using the telephone or post office!

One of the most popular areas of CedarNet is the library resources section. Students can access the library's on-line catalog from their dorm rooms 24-hours a day. Access is also provided to a variety of CD-ROM based resources, including full-text newspapers, periodical indexes, and application-specific databases. The network also provides access to subscription research databases on the Internet and to the vast resources of OhioLINK. Through OhioLINK, Cedarville students can search the catalog of any public university library within the state, and can have identified materials delivered to campus for personal use within 48 hours.

Another frequent use of CedarNet is access to the Internet. Cedarville students and faculty have direct access to Internet/Web resources from their residence hall rooms and offices via the College's T-1 connection. Because of the ubiquitous and high-quality access, many faculty members have integrated Internet resources into their required coursework. Students often incorporate Internet materials in research papers and in classroom presentations.

The College has placed a major emphasis on providing special-purpose hardware and software for graphics production. Laser printers are available in each public laboratory and several flatbed scanners are available for student use. Students and faculty also have ready access to color printers, digital cameras, a slide-scanner, and video-capture equipment.

CedarNet is based on Novell Netware 4.x software running on a dozen Compaq servers. Software applications are made available from these network servers, rather than loading the software on individual computers. The Netware servers are supplemented by various special-purpose servers which handle Web pages, news groups, and network management.

The physical network is based on a twisted-pair distribution system within the buildings and fiber-optic cable between buildings. Major buildings are connected to the network center via 100Mbps fast Ethernet, while smaller buildings use 10Mbps Ethernet. Switching technology is utilized to segment network traffic and maintain good performance.

CedarNet has been more successful than anticipated. Even with computers in each residence hall room, the computer labs are often full. Faculty members who previously did not use a computer at all are now using the network to prepare course materials and communicate with students. Many campus committees and organizations are using the network as their primary means of communication. CedarNet has already changed the educational atmosphere at Cedarville College.

Virginia Tech

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a publicly supported, comprehensive, land-grant University, serves the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the international community. Virginia Tech's main campus is located in Blacksburg, Virginia, and is surrounded by rolling pastures and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Current enrollment is more than 25,000 students, with more than 2,500 faculty and a University budget of approximately $475 million annually.

Virginia Tech's 2500 acre campus now forms the nucleus for a state-wide network which benefits all faculty members, researchers, students, administrators, and staff members. Virginia Tech's state-of-the-art communications system links nearly every dormitory room, laboratory, office, and classroom to computing capabilities, audio and video data, and the vast store of information available on the Internet. The entire campus has high speed access to super computers across the country, worldwide libraries and data systems. The University and the surrounding community is one of the most computer-saturated in the nation.

The network's growth can be measured by many factors -- the universal adoption of electronic communications, particularly the growing dependence on e-mail, the growing number of workstations with Ethernet connections, the growing usage of the modem pool, the comprehensive web sites hosted on campus, and software site licenses for networking products such as e-mail clients, web servers and on-line meeting organizers.

The campus network is a reflection of the ongoing commitment and leadership of Virginia Tech's management. Communications Network Services (CNS) is the auxiliary arm of the University responsible for voice, data, LAN, WAN, satellite, microwave, and video communications. CNS has a staff of approximately 100. In addition to on- campus networking, CNS has a strong pro-active role in outreach, state-wide and national communications, research, and technology transfer.

The future of Virginia Tech's network is very exciting. Future plans include continuing improvements to the ATM infrastructure on campus and throughout the state, including voice over ATM, exploring wireless communication options, mobile IP, and integrating videoconferencing technology into the classroom.

Fortunately, Virginia Tech has positioned itself well to take advantage of the incredibly rapid changes being brought about through technology. We must make use of the most advanced technology in order to ensure that we are teaching students what they should know and must be able to do if they are to live productive lives in the next century. At the same time, we must also acknowledge our roots, while emphasizing the education of the whole person and acknowledging also that not all education takes place in the classroom.