Oracle Online

Later that morning, several other editors informed me that they had discovered during the night that the motel we were staying in offered free wireless Internet access.

This little tidbit of information got me thinking: We are awarded the luxury of wireless in a cheap, highway motel, across the street from a strip club and a shoe warehouse, but when we return to Hamline, we will lack that amenity.

As I stood on our balcony and pondered the increasingly expected amenities that are still painfully nonexistent on a campus that strives to be a modern institution, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated.
How is it acceptable that a cockroach-infested Nashville motel can offer its patrons wireless Internet, while a high-priced “New American University” such as Hamline cannot?

Working in the admissions office, this fact also irritates me every time I have to inform a prospective student that we, in fact, do not offer wireless Internet at this time.

Frequently, I am met with unbelieving, disappointed stares in response. And the futile-sounding encouragement that it will be here soon sounds more and more hollow with each repetition. In fact, I can’t help but wonder if I will graduate from here without ever seeing wireless Internet on campus.

But I’m not the only one annoyed here. I spoke with several upperclassmen and found that many other students feel cheated by the present lack of this fairly basic option.

This year’s senior class entered Hamline with a near-promise that wireless would soon be implemented, and this assurance seems to have been repeated pretty much every year since then. I was also given the impression two years ago, as a prospective student, that wireless and other technological advances were soon on the way, but I now see that such a notion, like the need for a decent student center, has gone unanswered, and will most likely continue to go unanswered. At least for now.

Let me make it clear that I realize the unfortunate pragmatics of the situation: a small IT staff, a small budget, a lack of other resources, etc. These are everyday realities, and I am not so idealistic that I fail to take those facts into consideration.

I have learned the hard lesson in life that we as adults don’t always get everything we want. I am merely pointing out the absurdity in the glaring truth that we can’t even enjoy a standard technological option - wireless - at a university that receives 20-some thousands of dollars from each of its students for tuition every year.

I ask for less talk, less empty promises, and more concrete results. I don’t think I am asking too much.