FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  10/06/99

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Nation's First Campus-Wide Wireless Network "Liberates" Learning at Greenville College

GREENVILLE, IL - As seen in a page-one story in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Greenville College has mapped its way to the top in campus technology. This small Christian liberal arts college in rural south-central Illinois is one of the first colleges in the nation to equip students, faculty, and staff with wireless connectivity.

"To the best of my knowledge, Greenville College will be the first college in the U.S. to have such an extensive, campus-wide Aironet wireless network," says Ron Wills, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing for Aironet.
 
Starting this fall, the Greenville College community now has 24-hour access to the Internet, e-mail, and the campus network from nearly everywhere on campus, without the use of Ethernet or other network wires. This degree of wireless connectivity is enhanced through Greenville's laptop program, which had increased the use of notebook computers on campus.

Connections to Last a Lifetime ... No Strings Attached
It should come as no surprise that a liberal arts college would be the first to fully utilize the "liberating" innovation of wireless connectivity. Through the use of wireless network PC cards, one for each computer, and 52 radio frequency-based access points, strategically located across campus, students, faculty and staff have the freedom to work and study from almost any office, dorm room, or park bench on campus.
 
In place of the Ethernet and modem wired connections, wireless PC cards and network access points communicate through the sending and receiving of high-frequency signals within a range of approximately 500 feet. Interior access points have been placed in all primary administrative and academic buildings, residence halls, student union, and dining hall. Exterior access point locations, extending wireless coverage seamlessly across the main campus, will include the tennis courts, campus quad, and areas between buildings.
 
Liberated from wires and computer lab availability, student and faculty communication, research, and competence with technology have reached new levels. "It will be great for doing papers, when I have to do research on them and write them - I  won't even have to go to the library," says freshman Kristi Harms.
 
"When I talk to students who are using the new technology, they teach me," states Jack Chism, professor and head of the Department of Business Administration and Economics and faculty coordinator of the laptop program. "They are discovering new things the system will do. They're getting ahead of us. They are teaching themselves and helping each other."

Connection Receives State Contribution
A budget-conscious institution, Greenville College carefully considered the most effective system to connect the campus community with each other and the world. The Aironet wireless system was selected for both its ease of online and network access for each user, but also because it was less expensive than continuing to run hard connection lines through dorms not yet wired yet equal to the speed of wired connections. 
  
Funding for this project came primarily through the efforts of Illinois State Senator Frank Watson (R-Greenville). Watson was instrumental in the state decision to give Greenville College a $200,000 technology grant used to finance the wireless project, as part of Gov. George Ryan's Illinois First technology initiative. 

"Senator Watson secured substantial funds for a significant project," states David Hoag, vice president for College Advancement. "His investment of time and energy further facilitates the college's ability to enhance student learning through valuable technology improvements."

Coupled with the previously initiated laptop program, the new wireless network equips Greenville College to more effectively pursue its mission of preparing students for lives of character and service in the new millennium. Chism states, "The overall shape of this program is still undetermined, as the students and their explorations will play such a role in the shape the program eventually takes. We can't begin to anticipate the breakthroughs they will make in learning how to use this system."

Greenville College is a four-year Christian liberal arts school with more than 1,100 traditional, adult degree completion, and graduate students. It is located in Greenville, Illinois, 45 miles east of St. Louis. Founded in 1892, Greenville College is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church of North America.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch article 

Last updated: January 19, 2000