UB Jumps To 11th In Yahoo! Survey Of Wired Universities

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- From nowhere to the top 50 to the top 15.

That's the story of the University at Buffalo's remarkable track record in technology in just the past three years, according to the closely watched "wired schools" arbiter, Yahoo! Internet Life Magazine.

In this week's issue, Yahoo! Internet Life ranks UB 11th out of the "50 Most Wired Universities and Research Schools" http://www.wiredcolleges.com in the nation in the magazine's annual ranking, a closely watched barometer of who leads the pack in technology on campus.

This year, the magazine broke the top 100 into two groups: the "50 Most Wired Colleges," which are mostly baccalaureate institutions, and the "50 Most Wired Universities and Research Schools", which is where UB is listed.

UB is the only public university in New York State that made either of the magazine's rankings this year. It also is the only institution listed in Western New York.

"We are pleased to have created an IT-rich environment for our students," said Hinrich Martens, UB associate vice president for computing and information technology, "and our students should be proud to be at UB, which by this measure -- a currently relevant one to be sure -- has achieved top status.

"This ranking recognizes UB's farsighted investment of the student technology fee in providing access to computers for all students," he continued.

He noted that UB has paid particular attention to ensuring universal access to email and the Internet; wired residence halls; Web-based access to grades, registration and financial accounts; and the increasing infusion of educational technology in the teaching-and-learning process.

The article that accompanies the listings mentions that advances come so fast in the wired world that what was pioneering last year -- or even last month -- is already old hat, making the effort to stay ahead even more of a challenge.

Added to that is the fact that Yahoo! Internet Life conducted more vigorous outreach this year, resulting in 1,300 institutions participating -- nearly three times as many as last year.

In the "Notes and Comments" section for UB, the article highlights a project conducted with Stanford University in which the two institutions are "developing the world's first 'bi-coastal' classroom."

This revolutionary videoconferencing system was developed by specialists in the Office of Computing and Information Technology at UB. It uses Internet 2, with its greater bandwidth and enhanced video quality, to allow instructors at both institutions to team-teach the same comparative literature course -- called "Bodyworks: Medicine, Technology and the Body in the Late 20th Century" -- to their students in real-time.

The same technology is being used to develop another bicoastal classroom, this time for an engineering course being taught simultaneously at UB and at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

According to the magazine, UB's high ranking also was based on:

• The percentage of public computers (50) that were purchased in the past two years

• The fact that all of UB's dorms are wired

• The availability of UB's electronic application form

• Online and telephone registration for courses and drop/add

• Online transcripts and course schedules

• The amount of network file space and web space (11-25 MB each) guaranteed for all students.

Other positive aspects noted in the ranking for UB include library resources that allow students to reserve and check the status of books electronically, the availability of more than one free institution-hosted email account or alias per student, free printing from campus computers, one-on-one tech support, an Internet-orientation requirement and computer equipment designed for the disabled.

The ranking was conducted by Yahoo! Internet Life in partnership with Peterson's, the provider of education information. All 3,631 accredited undergraduate two-year and four-year institutions in the United States were invited to participate in the survey.