IT Report Benign But Inadequate

The uncontroversial report recently issued by the Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT), entitled "Strategy for the Next Few Years," appropriately received few barbs from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) when that body was presented with the plan. The IT strategy attempts to maintain the College's position in the front guard of the cyberspace habitation but unfortunately fails to deal with some of the larger issues which we will confront in the coming years.

The reforms proposed by the IT folks center on building an inclusive framework for the Harvard community in which students, faculty members and staff are wired to the World Wide Web with sufficient system capacity and support staff to enable ease of use. The most significant technical objective (and the most expensive at $1.5 million) is providing every member of the Faculty and administrative staff with a networked computer by next June. Other spending proposed includes $1.1 million for computer support staff (without whom many would find it difficult to network); $150,000 for high-end work stations; $50,000 for high-quality projection equipment; $100,000-$350,000 for '100 percenting' river houses for the ethernet; $100,000 for renovation of a house computer room; and $160,000 for the renovation of the Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services offices.

The most significant questioning of the IT report came from Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Diana L. Eck, who was skeptical as to whether the minimum requirements requested were financially feasible in the 1996-97 FAS budget. The final decision, which is to be made by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles, should be in the affirmative. We believe that the College will be emboldened by the addition of a more complete networked environment.

We are concerned, however, that a few major issues important to students are not addressed in the report. Before doling out funds to the IT Committee, Dean Knowles should consider the following:

* MIT does significantly better at protecting students in cyberspace than does Harvard. Its use of Kerberos technology, which is a huge network security protocol, ensures that everything that goes out over its network is encrypted. At Harvard, a student's mail can easily be intercepted by others in his or her network hub. It is the responsibility of the University to ensure that electronic communication is kept private; this should be an immediate priority and should be made explicit in University policy.

* House computer labs--which, along with the Science Center, are the sole computer resources for the 10 percent of the student body that doesn't have their own computers--are seriously out of date. All labs should be outfitted with Power Macintoshes and PCs operating on Windows 95.

* The Harvard Business School supplies e-mail addresses to all of its alumni, as well as its students. While we realize that to do this at FAS would be extremely costly, we do believe that FAS should offer Harvard addresses for the purpose of forwarding mail. Also, students on leave from Harvard for up to one year should have full, active e-mail privileges.

* All staff and Faculty can get SLIP connections to Harvard from home. Harvard undergrads living on campus cannot sign up for SLIP connections, which allow students to browse the Web using a modem, from their dorm or their summer residence.

* The report makes no mention of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which threatens many students and Faculty, particularly those who work in the computer sciences. Proper equipment (wrist pads, for example) should be provided to mitigate this health concern.

We hope that the IT Committee's report will be used to build a more solid foundation for the Harvard computer network. Given this invigorated framework, perhaps FAS will be able to incorporate some of the abovementioned features which would make our electronic communications system truly exceptional.