Winthrop House had its initial meeting to discuss wireless last week, but Pforzheimer has not yet begun the planning process, Davis says.

“We’ve been working with each House as it has been a priority to them,” Davis says.

The Extent of the Plan

Wireless ethernet will be confined to common areas of the Houses, at least for the near future, and will not cover individual dorm rooms, Davis says.

“In terms of funding, our mandate is to cover common areas; spaces where students congregate,” he says. “If you’re on your computer in your dorm room, you have a data jack.”

First-years may also have a long wait before they have access to wireless ethernet in their dorm common areas, mainly because of restrictions on altering the buildings in Harvard Yard.

“We tried to do the Yard, but ran into some [Cambridge] Historical Commission problems, but we will work on that over time,” Steen says.

Since only about 10 percent of students ever bring their computers to class, HASCS is also not focusing on extending wireless to classrooms, Steen says.

“Instructors have also expressed concern over the distraction,” he says.

Beyond the Yard

Although they may not have wireless ethernet in all classrooms, soon students from across the University will be able to access a wireless network on any of Harvard’s campuses.

This larger effort was coordinated last year when the University administration’s information technology branch organized a meeting and offered preliminary funding to jump-start wireless projects at the various schools.

Representatives from each school agreed to create a cohesive system where users can access the wireless network at any school with their own username and password.

“We had a real interest in getting in front of this so common authentication can happen,” Assistant Provost Daniel D. Moriarty, chief information officer for the University, says.

“We met and decided that that wireless should be seamless; everyone should be able to authenticate in the same way,” Steen says. “Our wireless is available to everyone at Harvard with an ID and PIN.”

The project within FAS is significantly larger than those at the other schools, though, and works in a slightly different manner, Steen says.

“FAS wireless is far, far more extensive then the rest of campus combined, maybe ten times more,” Steen says. “We think the way they did it is very limited.”

—Staff writer Katharine A. Kaplan can be reached at kkaplan@fas.harvard.edu.