'NET GAINS

The University is spending $25 million to build a new student center for September 1995 in Memorial Hall. The irony is that, although some may not realize it, Harvard already has one. And for students, it doesn't cost a thing.

Welcome to the computer network.

During this academic year, an unprecedented number of undergraduates, graduate students, professors and administrators signed up for accounts on Harvard's link to the internet, a global data communication network.

"There's no student center here, right?" asks Franklin Steen, who recently was hired away from Yale to become the newly appointed director of the Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS). "The computer has become a kind of student center."

Over the past nine months, in fact, student usage of the network doubled, with undergraduates employing the network to send e-mail to old friends, turn in problem sets and papers, read the newspaper and even fall in love.

"An e-mail address is almost socially required now," says Ishir Bhan '96, co-founder of the student technology group Digitas. "No longer are people who are knowledgeable about computers viewed as `geeky.' Rather, the student body seems to view computer skills as more `cool' than they once were."

Roughly four out of every five undergraduatesnow have accounts on the network. And with thefirst-year Yard Bulletin and the housing lotterybeing run in cyberspace, virtually every member offuture first-year classes is expected to log-on.

Most undergraduates use computers in theScience Center to connect with the network, butabout 800 students have had connections in theirrooms activated. Administrators predict thatnumber will more than double during the next year.

With a critical mass of undergraduates on-line,some instructors are requiring students to turnpapers and assignments in over the network. Andother classes, including Literature and Arts B-77:"Worlds of music--Africa," Physics 15c andComputer Science 50, communicate with thoseenrolled via electronic bulletin boards callednewsgroups.

The future is even more promising. Allregistration materials--everything from courseschedules to handbooks--are expected to becomeavailable over the network's World Wide Web serverduring the next academic year.

And some sources familiar with HASCS saystudents may be able to register for classes overthe network by the time the new Memorial Hallopens in the fall of 1995.

"It's gotten to the point that if you don'tknow how to use the Internet, at least to aminimal extent, you're really missing out on theHarvard experience," Bhan says.

John A. Dooley '97, for example, starts hismornings by reading USA Today on the Internet.Angela W. Pan '97 communicates with friends andfamily in Taiwan by e-mail. David S. Filippi '94even met his first college girlfriend, a studentat the University of New Hampshire, over thenetwork.

"Until it actually happened I would havethought it was the most ridiculous thing," Filippisays of the romance, which lasted three months. "Istill think it's pretty humorous."

Administrators have caught the bug, too.Outgoing provost Jerry R. Green uses not the phonebut a sleek, black Powerbook to communicate withthe outside world.

"I probably answer ten e-mail messages forevery phone call, just because it's much easier,"Green says. "Most of [the administrators] that Iknow are on e-mail."

"When you have a hammer, everything starts tolook like a nail," adds Steven W. Wardell '94-'95,who says he saves $15 a month on his phone bill bysending e-mail to his girlfriend in Texas. "Whenyou have e-mail, you start using it for everythingyou can."

Insecurity

Policing Harvard's student center has not beeneasy.

The College has so far struggled to regulateethics on the electronic frontier. And theAdministrative Board, Harvard's disciplinary body,is beginning to see cases for which there are noprecedents.

Last spring, for example, Kelly K.Johnson-Arbor '96 received an electronic mailmessage supposedly from her friend Grace S. Lin'96.

"Kelly, I know this is crazy," the messageread, "but I'm actually bisexual. I haven't toldanyone, but I think cunnilingus soundsgreat-Grace."

The message, however, was a fake missive sentnot from Lin but by Eric E. Blom '96 a student inQuincy House. Blom later apologized to the twowomen, and they did not take the matter to Collegeauthorities.

Still, in the same way that many undergraduatesremain concerned about crime on campus, studentssay they worry about security breaches on thenetwork.

"The system is too easy to beat," says WhitneyD. Pidot '96, a frequent network user andpresident of the Salient, a conservativemagazine. "And the ultimate enforcers, the Collegeadministrators, don't know what's going on [or]how to divvy out the penalties."

Regulating the network is difficult becauseit's fundamentally different from more traditionalmediums of communication. Users say they feel morecomfortable speaking their mind in cyberspace,freed from the constraints of face-to-faceinteraction.

The 'net effect has been to alter fundamentallythe nature of communication at Harvard.

"People are more free to say things theywouldn't otherwise say," says Samuel A. Hilton'94. "It lets you speak your mind."

But there are early signs that the nature ofdiscourse over the network is turning some peopleaway from it.

The network, for example, may not be asattractive to women as men. During one randomsurvey in April of all posts to the Widely readnewsgroup "harvard.general," an electronicbulletin board, only three of 98 messages were putthere by women.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science MargoI. Seltzer '83 says this discrepancy may resultfrom a cultural bias against women in Science morethan the nature of communication on the network."This problem starts much sooner than high schooland college," she says.

Still, many are worried about the effect ofincreased network use. An official of onetechnology group on campus privately expressesfears that many users he knows are addicted to thenetwork and spend so much time with theircomputers that they become anti-social.

"I think we will see more [problems]," says Dr.Randolph Catlin Jr., chief of mental healthservices at University Health Services. "It willbe a problem in terms of people feeling moreisolated and people not feeling part of a groupbecause they spend all of their time talking to amachine."

The Cutting Edge

The University has always prided itself forbeing on the cutting edge of technology. Harvardstudents had telephones in their rooms in1877--just one year after Alexander Graham Bellinvented them.

But the generation of Harvard students weanedon video games, Macintoshes and cable TV hasn'tbeen so lucky. Network use at the University isnot nearly as sophisticated or as common as atDartmouth or MIT.

After years of dragging its feet, Harvardfinally began serious planning for expanding thenetwork three years ago. The move was prompted bythe realization among members of the Board ofOverseers and some professors that the Universitywas falling behind in computer services.

"The University as a whole likes to be thoughtof as playing a leadership role in [developing andusing] tools for readership," John A. Armstrong'56, chair of the Board of Overseers' ad hoccommittee on information technology, said in a1992 interview. "Harvard is not yet playing itsleadership role in the varied use of computers."

With Harvard's high speed data networkvirtually complete, the computer infrastructurethe University once lacked is now in place. Theproblem is that Harvard may lack the will and theresources to develop its program further.

At the top, there is precious little direction.President Neil L. Rudenstine has promised, but hasyet to deliver, a new vice president to shepherdthe University through changes in informationtechnology.

Arthur A. Hartman '47, a member of theArmstrong committee who took an important role inplanning the expansion of the network, now says itis up to computer users to determine what shouldhappen next.

"I think this has to be user driven, or wecould find ourselves wasting a lot of money,"Hartman says.

But the University has been reluctant to giveup the basic resources needed to expand networkservices. In fact the process of promoting andmaintaining Harvard's link to the Internet hasbeen a victim of such gross underfunding thatserious problems remain with services as basic ase-mail.

A 'Ship' Takes On Water

Two years ago, the acting director of theHarvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services,Richard S. Steen (no relation to Franklin),predicted the dire situation now facing theorganization, which is in charge of expanding andmaintaining the network.

In an April 1992 memo to the Faculty of Artsand Sciences (FAS) Committee on InformationTechnology, Steen wrote: "HASCS is in no positionto handle the extra user services and networkingload generated by such a dramatic increase ofusers."

HASCS struggled to meet student needsthroughout the year, but the extraordinary demandwore down an already weary group of technicalwizards within the organization.

Several Staff members spoke openly of having towork 80-hour weeks without the benefit of overtimepay. HASCS, they said, suffered from a lack offunding, poor working conditions and staff andspace shortages.

These problems hurt the quality of servicestudents received. HASCS's computer serversregularly crashed, leaving e-mail inoperable forours. And the organization's user assistants, whowere assigned the task of answering studentquestions and introducing them to the network,were badly trained and ineffectual.

A frustrated Steen acknowledged the gravity ofthe situation in a confidential January 31 memo tothe FAS information technology committee.

"Faced with immense challenge, our small grouphas pushed on over an extended period of time inexhaustion, stress due [to] constant pressure andlow morale for about one-half the staff," Steensays in the memo, which was obtained by TheCrimson. "In the last several months, several havespoken with me about work induced health issues ornegative effects on marriages, families, andrelationships due to the constant burden of tightdeadlines."

"This pace will not abate, only increase," thememo continues. "Despite the best efforts toimprove efficiency, HASCS is a ship taking onwater faster than it can bail it out."

The ship seemed powerless at times toaccomplish basic tasks. Thousands of dollars worthof Hewlett-Packard computers donated to theUniversity sat in their boxes for weeks becauseHASCS staff had no time to install them and noplace to put them.

'A Necessity'

Last month, Franklin Steen was appointedpermanent director of HASCS.

One of his first acts was to take a newHewlett-Packard computer out of its storage boxand to set it up in his new office.

Steen, a lithe, middle-aged man who wears ayarmulke over gray hair, thinks computers arevital. He just has to complete the job of makingevery last student believe it.

"I think having an e-mail account is anecessity. Not like food and water, but anecessity," Steen says. "It would be very hard totake computers away. Imagine. I mean, you justcouldn't do it."

Steen could be the person who helps pull HASCSout of its hole and makes the network even moreaccessible.

He says over the next several months he willfocus on three priorities: getting the network to"work well," meeting the heavy student demand fore-mail and newsgroups, and improving services for'net users.

Steen says he will also put a training programin place for user assistants. And he has movedquickly to fill two of four empty positions withinhis staff. The other slots, he promises, "Shouldbe filled shortly."

"Standards have to be maintained. We have tounderstand that we can't support everything, but abase knowledge has to be imparted," he says. "Youdon't come in with a service mentality--you haveto be trained."

Steen knows, however, that more Harvard moneyis necessary to get what he wants: a "ubiquitousnetwork" comprised of several top-of-the-linecomputers. But to secure big dollars, the newdirector will have to do a better job lobbyingthan his predecessor.

"They are all financial issues," Steen says."How much we can provide depends on how much theUniversity wants to spend."

Source: An Institute of politics Crimson pollof 148 randomly selected students. Only the 119students reporting that they use the Internet wereasked for what purposes they use it.

Source: An Institute of Politics/Crimson pollof 119 randomly selected students.CrimsonHyung J. ChunInfohighway "Generation Gap"

Roughly four out of every five undergraduatesnow have accounts on the network. And with thefirst-year Yard Bulletin and the housing lotterybeing run in cyberspace, virtually every member offuture first-year classes is expected to log-on.

Most undergraduates use computers in theScience Center to connect with the network, butabout 800 students have had connections in theirrooms activated. Administrators predict thatnumber will more than double during the next year.

With a critical mass of undergraduates on-line,some instructors are requiring students to turnpapers and assignments in over the network. Andother classes, including Literature and Arts B-77:"Worlds of music--Africa," Physics 15c andComputer Science 50, communicate with thoseenrolled via electronic bulletin boards callednewsgroups.

The future is even more promising. Allregistration materials--everything from courseschedules to handbooks--are expected to becomeavailable over the network's World Wide Web serverduring the next academic year.

And some sources familiar with HASCS saystudents may be able to register for classes overthe network by the time the new Memorial Hallopens in the fall of 1995.

"It's gotten to the point that if you don'tknow how to use the Internet, at least to aminimal extent, you're really missing out on theHarvard experience," Bhan says.

John A. Dooley '97, for example, starts hismornings by reading USA Today on the Internet.Angela W. Pan '97 communicates with friends andfamily in Taiwan by e-mail. David S. Filippi '94even met his first college girlfriend, a studentat the University of New Hampshire, over thenetwork.

"Until it actually happened I would havethought it was the most ridiculous thing," Filippisays of the romance, which lasted three months. "Istill think it's pretty humorous."

Administrators have caught the bug, too.Outgoing provost Jerry R. Green uses not the phonebut a sleek, black Powerbook to communicate withthe outside world.

"I probably answer ten e-mail messages forevery phone call, just because it's much easier,"Green says. "Most of [the administrators] that Iknow are on e-mail."

"When you have a hammer, everything starts tolook like a nail," adds Steven W. Wardell '94-'95,who says he saves $15 a month on his phone bill bysending e-mail to his girlfriend in Texas. "Whenyou have e-mail, you start using it for everythingyou can."

Insecurity

Policing Harvard's student center has not beeneasy.

The College has so far struggled to regulateethics on the electronic frontier. And theAdministrative Board, Harvard's disciplinary body,is beginning to see cases for which there are noprecedents.

Last spring, for example, Kelly K.Johnson-Arbor '96 received an electronic mailmessage supposedly from her friend Grace S. Lin'96.

"Kelly, I know this is crazy," the messageread, "but I'm actually bisexual. I haven't toldanyone, but I think cunnilingus soundsgreat-Grace."

The message, however, was a fake missive sentnot from Lin but by Eric E. Blom '96 a student inQuincy House. Blom later apologized to the twowomen, and they did not take the matter to Collegeauthorities.

Still, in the same way that many undergraduatesremain concerned about crime on campus, studentssay they worry about security breaches on thenetwork.

"The system is too easy to beat," says WhitneyD. Pidot '96, a frequent network user andpresident of the Salient, a conservativemagazine. "And the ultimate enforcers, the Collegeadministrators, don't know what's going on [or]how to divvy out the penalties."

Regulating the network is difficult becauseit's fundamentally different from more traditionalmediums of communication. Users say they feel morecomfortable speaking their mind in cyberspace,freed from the constraints of face-to-faceinteraction.

The 'net effect has been to alter fundamentallythe nature of communication at Harvard.

"People are more free to say things theywouldn't otherwise say," says Samuel A. Hilton'94. "It lets you speak your mind."

But there are early signs that the nature ofdiscourse over the network is turning some peopleaway from it.

The network, for example, may not be asattractive to women as men. During one randomsurvey in April of all posts to the Widely readnewsgroup "harvard.general," an electronicbulletin board, only three of 98 messages were putthere by women.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science MargoI. Seltzer '83 says this discrepancy may resultfrom a cultural bias against women in Science morethan the nature of communication on the network."This problem starts much sooner than high schooland college," she says.

Still, many are worried about the effect ofincreased network use. An official of onetechnology group on campus privately expressesfears that many users he knows are addicted to thenetwork and spend so much time with theircomputers that they become anti-social.

"I think we will see more [problems]," says Dr.Randolph Catlin Jr., chief of mental healthservices at University Health Services. "It willbe a problem in terms of people feeling moreisolated and people not feeling part of a groupbecause they spend all of their time talking to amachine."

The Cutting Edge

The University has always prided itself forbeing on the cutting edge of technology. Harvardstudents had telephones in their rooms in1877--just one year after Alexander Graham Bellinvented them.

But the generation of Harvard students weanedon video games, Macintoshes and cable TV hasn'tbeen so lucky. Network use at the University isnot nearly as sophisticated or as common as atDartmouth or MIT.

After years of dragging its feet, Harvardfinally began serious planning for expanding thenetwork three years ago. The move was prompted bythe realization among members of the Board ofOverseers and some professors that the Universitywas falling behind in computer services.

"The University as a whole likes to be thoughtof as playing a leadership role in [developing andusing] tools for readership," John A. Armstrong'56, chair of the Board of Overseers' ad hoccommittee on information technology, said in a1992 interview. "Harvard is not yet playing itsleadership role in the varied use of computers."

With Harvard's high speed data networkvirtually complete, the computer infrastructurethe University once lacked is now in place. Theproblem is that Harvard may lack the will and theresources to develop its program further.

At the top, there is precious little direction.President Neil L. Rudenstine has promised, but hasyet to deliver, a new vice president to shepherdthe University through changes in informationtechnology.

Arthur A. Hartman '47, a member of theArmstrong committee who took an important role inplanning the expansion of the network, now says itis up to computer users to determine what shouldhappen next.

"I think this has to be user driven, or wecould find ourselves wasting a lot of money,"Hartman says.

But the University has been reluctant to giveup the basic resources needed to expand networkservices. In fact the process of promoting andmaintaining Harvard's link to the Internet hasbeen a victim of such gross underfunding thatserious problems remain with services as basic ase-mail.

A 'Ship' Takes On Water

Two years ago, the acting director of theHarvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services,Richard S. Steen (no relation to Franklin),predicted the dire situation now facing theorganization, which is in charge of expanding andmaintaining the network.

In an April 1992 memo to the Faculty of Artsand Sciences (FAS) Committee on InformationTechnology, Steen wrote: "HASCS is in no positionto handle the extra user services and networkingload generated by such a dramatic increase ofusers."

HASCS struggled to meet student needsthroughout the year, but the extraordinary demandwore down an already weary group of technicalwizards within the organization.

Several Staff members spoke openly of having towork 80-hour weeks without the benefit of overtimepay. HASCS, they said, suffered from a lack offunding, poor working conditions and staff andspace shortages.

These problems hurt the quality of servicestudents received. HASCS's computer serversregularly crashed, leaving e-mail inoperable forours. And the organization's user assistants, whowere assigned the task of answering studentquestions and introducing them to the network,were badly trained and ineffectual.

A frustrated Steen acknowledged the gravity ofthe situation in a confidential January 31 memo tothe FAS information technology committee.

"Faced with immense challenge, our small grouphas pushed on over an extended period of time inexhaustion, stress due [to] constant pressure andlow morale for about one-half the staff," Steensays in the memo, which was obtained by TheCrimson. "In the last several months, several havespoken with me about work induced health issues ornegative effects on marriages, families, andrelationships due to the constant burden of tightdeadlines."

"This pace will not abate, only increase," thememo continues. "Despite the best efforts toimprove efficiency, HASCS is a ship taking onwater faster than it can bail it out."

The ship seemed powerless at times toaccomplish basic tasks. Thousands of dollars worthof Hewlett-Packard computers donated to theUniversity sat in their boxes for weeks becauseHASCS staff had no time to install them and noplace to put them.

'A Necessity'

Last month, Franklin Steen was appointedpermanent director of HASCS.

One of his first acts was to take a newHewlett-Packard computer out of its storage boxand to set it up in his new office.

Steen, a lithe, middle-aged man who wears ayarmulke over gray hair, thinks computers arevital. He just has to complete the job of makingevery last student believe it.

"I think having an e-mail account is anecessity. Not like food and water, but anecessity," Steen says. "It would be very hard totake computers away. Imagine. I mean, you justcouldn't do it."

Steen could be the person who helps pull HASCSout of its hole and makes the network even moreaccessible.

He says over the next several months he willfocus on three priorities: getting the network to"work well," meeting the heavy student demand fore-mail and newsgroups, and improving services for'net users.

Steen says he will also put a training programin place for user assistants. And he has movedquickly to fill two of four empty positions withinhis staff. The other slots, he promises, "Shouldbe filled shortly."

"Standards have to be maintained. We have tounderstand that we can't support everything, but abase knowledge has to be imparted," he says. "Youdon't come in with a service mentality--you haveto be trained."

Steen knows, however, that more Harvard moneyis necessary to get what he wants: a "ubiquitousnetwork" comprised of several top-of-the-linecomputers. But to secure big dollars, the newdirector will have to do a better job lobbyingthan his predecessor.

"They are all financial issues," Steen says."How much we can provide depends on how much theUniversity wants to spend."

Source: An Institute of politics Crimson pollof 148 randomly selected students. Only the 119students reporting that they use the Internet wereasked for what purposes they use it.

Source: An Institute of Politics/Crimson pollof 119 randomly selected students.CrimsonHyung J. ChunInfohighway "Generation Gap"