Computers at Harvard

After several years of fits and starts. Harvard is finally beginning to lay the foundations of the 21st century campus. Officials can now see only the outlines of that campus, but a confluence of events this year suggests that Harvard is, for the first time, trying systematically to solve the computerization riddle that has confronted colleges around the country.

The underlying impetus for this development, both at Harvard and elsewhere, is the unrelenting advance of technology. Each year brings manufacturers the increasing ability to pack more and more computer power into smaller and smaller machines. The personal computer has become almost as commonplace as the typewriter on many college campuses.

This trend has made the centralized system for distributing computer power to students at Harvard increasingly absolete. Harvard's system of terminals tied to powerful mainframe computers is no longer as cost-effective as a decentralized network of smaller computers tied together by wires or telephone lines.

The problem arises when the question comes up of what exactly this decentralized network--which professors and administrators describe as inevitable--will look like. A number of institutions--principally Brown, MIT, and Carnegie-Mellon--have already sunk millions into wiring their campuses. Harvard has preferred, however, to take a wait-and-see attitude, anxious about the logistical difficulties of the move and fearful of technological obsolence.

Still, the past year has seen a number of developments that mark perhaps the most significant moves Harvard has taken to integrate computers into undergraduate life.

The most important have been the striking of several deals with major firms to bring computers to students for cut-rate prices. The most publicized was the deal Harvard and 23 other universities signed with Apple last January, under which students can now obtain the much-touted Macintosh, listed at $2400, for about $1400. And just last month came news of a deal with the Digital Equipment Corporation, which will allow students to purchase various of the firm's models for up to 40 percent off the standard retail price.

The impetus for such deals on the part of the companies is clear--they are looking for places to test new equipment: as well as get students accustomed to using their equipment.

Conversely, Harvard hopes to take advantage of market forces. Administrators believe that the cheapest and most economical way to handle the computer boom is to let students decide for themselves how much computer use they want and are willing to pay for. In this view. Harvard doesn't have to rely on one particular brand--as some other schools have done--thus minimizing the chances of an expensive technological mistake.

Harvard is also progressing with exploration of different options for tying together these personal computers. In the fall, workers began installing a cable network to link computers and terminals in several major administrative buildings on campus. Networking is crucial to any system of computerization on campus, as students and professors will want to communicate with one another, as well as retrieve data and other information from central computers--for instance, library materials.

But the business of networking is tricky. The question of compatibility--that is, how to make different brands of computers "talk" to each other--is still befuddling scientists in both academia and private industry. Until this happens, networking--here and elsewhere--will remain primitive.

While Harvard has come in for some criticism for its relatively cautious approach to the computer question, officials here are satisfied that it is justified. "A lot of places are using computing to change the style of the place," says Administrative Vice President Robert H. Scott, a bit scornfully. "They're putting in computers first, and figuring out second what they're going to do with them."

To make sure Harvard goes about figuring what to do with computers first, Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky last fall set up a series of task forces for examining various qustions raised by computers--from how they're going to be used in large-scale research to how they will be used for administrative purposes. The blueprint laid out by these committees will determine to a large extent the way Harvard continues to try to deal with computers in the coming five to ten years.