Let there be Wi-Fi
It barely made headlines when UVA started rolling out Wi-Fi for the first time on Grounds in 2001, providing wireless access in some of UVA’s most storied spaces, including the Lawn and Rotunda. For something that plenty of people today consider an essential utility, the deployment of about 225 to 250 access points by the end of that calendar year seems to have made few waves other than a Cavalier Daily brief.
But the need for online access was growing, and the spots for hardwired connections were in short supply. During the 2001–02 academic year, as a first-year, Jim Prosser (Col class of ’05) remembers regular fruitless searches for a spot in Alderman Library to plug his laptop in for internet access. “If there wasn’t a spot, you were just kind of [out of luck],” he said.
As they built the nascent wireless network, UVA tech leaders weren’t expecting droves of users right away. Most students weren’t bringing devices that they could carry around with them anyway. In fall 2001, 97 percent of first-year students owned a computer, but only 35 percent of those computers were laptops, according to an annual survey of first-years that UVA’s information technology and communication department conducted from 1997 to 2007.
The project’s aim was to begin to build a wireless infrastructure across Grounds to serve sophisticated users like Prosser and prepare for the future as computing life at UVA rapidly changed. According to UVA’s then-network manager Jim Jokl (Engr class of ’79, class of ’82, class of ’92), the question was: “How do we plan ahead so that we can have this ready by the time users want it?”
Today, 7,200 hotspots dot Grounds, and Wi-Fi is available just about anywhere.
They were right to be prepared. By fall 2007, all but four out of 3,117 first-years owned a computer, and more than 98 percent of those computers were laptops, according to the annual first-year technology use survey.
Those first access points in 2001 were clustered in science and engineering academic spaces, such as Thornton and Kerchof halls and the Mechanical Engineering Building, as well as popular destinations for students.
Alderman and Clemons libraries received some, along with the music library and auditorium in Old Cabell Hall. The first batch of residential access points were sprinkled across the coffeehouse area of Tuttle Residence Hall, the lounge in Webb Residence Hall and the commons building at Lambeth.
The Rotunda and Lawn were a given. The Dome Room received a single access point. The Lawn got four. Two were placed in Pavilion VIII, which included classroom space.
“It seemed logical at the time,” Jokl said of those historical spaces. “It kind of showcased what the future would be like, where you could compute on battery power outdoors while you’re having lunch someplace.”
Today, 7,200 hotspots dot Grounds, and Wi-Fi is available just about anywhere.
In those earliest days, while other colleges and universities faced pushback against wireless access, there were few naysayers at UVA, Jokl remembers. The biggest opposition may have come from the dining halls. “They were afraid that at peak times, too many people would sit there too long and take too many seats,” Jokl said. “That didn’t last very long.”
