Internet charge totally reasonable

This is a response to Hilda Tam’s letter on March 27 titled “Internet charge outrageous” (pg. 11). For roughly nine months’ worth of ethernet, $100 is more than reasonable; it’s incredibly cheap. Where would Ms. Tam be able to get cheaper ethernet of the same quality as the one Boston University provides? When I go home for the summer, I’m stuck with a 56k dial-up costing $12.95 per month, which is more expensive than the 200-times-faster connection BU provides us.

I would love to get a connection as fast at home as the one we have here; however, the closest thing I could get is ADSL which charges $60 per month (not including the modem) for less than one-third the speed the school gives us. To claim BU is charging us the full amount for our ethernet connection is simply ludicrous. The big change which you have not noticed because you were not here and did not bother to look up was that BU installed ethernet into all dormitories, including the newly-acquired Howard Johnson’s. They did this in roughly five years, and if you can provide BU residents now with cheaper ethernet service than BU has (and I will even waive the fixed costs of installing all the wiring in all the dorms), then by all means sign me up.

As for the inability to use the computer labs on campus without paying for them, I agree that it is unfortunate that the school has implemented the system as such, but I believe that there was no cost-effective way of getting around that. However, you could still use the computer labs in CAS 330 and the one in the Geddes Language Center, to name a few; these labs have never required BU logins.

The fact that you believe BU will hoard this supposed new wealth of $1,100,000 is simply shocking (as I gaze down to the bottom of your letter and find out you are a student of the School of Management). I would hate to work for any company you managed, seeing that you believe products and services fall out of the sky. Not only does it cost BU to install those lines throughout campus, but they must also pay for the bandwidth that comes with them.

Also, we do pay a fee to flush “the damn toilets;” it’s called our water bill. Just because you don’t see it in your housing statement does not mean it doesn’t exist. Every time you flush the toilet, that is taken into account in our housing costs, which go up every year because people leave lights on or the heat on with the windows open, etc. You don’t think of it because it is not all nicely itemized for you, so you believe water is magic.

I am not indifferent to the concerns of students who might struggle with the added expense for ethernet. I understand how difficult it can be to finance a college education, but what I do not like is when students are outraged for not knowing the facts, or worse, believing they know them and that Big Bad BU is coming just to get our money without seeing it from their point of view. Ms. Tam, ethernet is a privilege, not a right.

Hakan Rudy Seber

CAS ’04