Got Wireless?

Santa Clara University: located in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Hewlett Packard is a 20 min drive from campus; Google is 15 minutes away and Apple is only 10.

For many students who attend school here, all that stands in the way of a prized summer internship at one of these major technology companies is an application and an interview.

A number of retired dot-com millionaires have retired and come to teach at Santa Clara's business school. Many students have seen first-hand the rise and fall dot-com fortunes.

A good majority of us carry iPods, check our e-mails obsessively and most of us don't think twice about whether we're using Windows on a PC or Mac OS.

Essentially, we are all members of a fairly technologically advanced group of people. If you weren't a Silicon Valley native prior to coming to Santa Clara, it's likely you've caught on by now.

So on Dec. 10 we'll have campus-wide wireless internet. Big deal right? It's only natural you might think. But here's a question: What took us so long?

Their stocks may not be quadrupling by the hour anymore, but these tech companies made their point. The computer age is here to stay.

So why, in this technology steeped valley, have students been chained to the ethernet cables in their dorm rooms, when wireless internet has been widely used since 2000?

Going wireless has been a plan for a while now, but according to Ron Danielson, chief information officer, a lack of funding and staff has held the university back. Granted, it is difficult to determine which projects should receive significant funding from year to year, but if we're going to advertise ourselves as a "Silicon Valley" school, shouldn't advanced technology be a priority?

Recently it has been especially difficult for students since neither the interim library nor Nobili Hall have wireless yet, while the old library offered 100,000 gross sq. ft of wireless study space.

So wireless in Dec? It's about time.