Which would a college student rather do without: beer or wireless Internet access?
That question is one of many asked in a recently released survey of college students, organized by the Wi-Fi Alliance, a global non-profit organization representing the wireless Internet industry, and conducted by Wakefield Research. According to the survey, which interviewed 501 students in September from a variety of schools, wireless access has impacted the world of higher education to such a degree that Wi-Fi is now recognized as a selling point for restaurants and universities, not to mention as a tool both in and out of the classroom.
Mike McPherson, University associate vice president and deputy chief information officer, said wireless Internet access is widely available on Grounds and is “very popular with the University’s student body.” He also added that his office firmly believes that this type of access to the Internet has strong educational value.
Just how popular is Wi-Fi, though, among undergraduate students across the United States? According to the Wi-Fi Alliance survey, nine of 10 college students said wireless access is as “essential to education as classrooms and computers.” Moreover, three in five students said they wouldn’t go to a college that did not offer free wireless access, more than half said Wi-Fi availability influences their choice of coffee shop and 79 percent of those surveyed indicated that without wireless access, “college would be a lot harder.”
“I wouldn’t say you couldn’t do without it, but it does make life a lot easier,” first-year College student Akshat Khaitan said of the service.
The survey’s statistics largely can be attributed to a growing affinity for Wi-Fi services by the general public, and increased use of wireless Internet in residences across the country, a Wi-Fi Alliance representative said.
“Wi-Fi has become a universal expectation among college students, and their attitudes towards technology are a good indicator of broad changes underway in how we as a society learn, work and communicate,” Wi-Fi Alliance Executive Director Edgar Figueroa stated in a Wi-Fi Alliance press release.
The survey supports the notion that the popularity of Wi-Fi has had a significant impact on student habits. According to the report, 55 percent of undergraduate students go online in coffee shops and/or restaurants, 47 percent do so in parks and 24 percent log on in their cars. Not all students, of course, do so — fourth-year College student Matthew Marcus said he rarely brings his laptop out of his room and frequently uses an Ethernet port connection to surf the Internet — but the survey reports that Wi-Fi use has become dominant on American campuses.
Not only is Wi-Fi use widespread on campuses in general, it has affected students’ behavior in class. According to the survey, 44 percent of students use Wi-Fi to start assignments early, and more than half of respondents check either Facebook or MySpace and their personal e-mail accounts.
“We put [Wi-Fi] in for educational purposes,” McPherson said, noting, though, that he is aware that students regularly check and send e-mails during class. He added that some faculty members have concerns about the use of computers in the classroom for this reason. The University considers such an issue to fall under the domain of classroom management, he said, leaving choices about whether to ban or accept laptop use in class to the discretion of each professor.
And as for alcoholic beverages and wireless access? According to the report, if forced to choose, 48 percent of respondents would give up beer before giving up Wi-Fi.
“Drinking beer is not going to do ... anything great [for you], but Wi-Fi is really helpful, so it’s an issue of convenience, really,” Khaitan said, noting that he would give up his dining plan to keep Wi-Fi if faced with a possible choice to save one or the other.
—Dalia Mortada and Prateek Vasireddy contributed to this article.
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