The College Committee on Cable Television met with nine cable companies last week and requested price estimates to provide cable service to residence hall rooms.
But even if the College receives a reasonable offer, it may not be able to afford the work this year, according to Associate Treasurer Win Johnson.
The committee expects to receive the bids in the middle of May and will have exact estimates then, but Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels said he expects the price to be between $200,000 and $300,000.
If Eckels' estimate is correct, Johnson said, "we would have to find two or three hundred thousand dollars, and that is not easy to find."
There are many multi-million dollar projects currently going on at the Office of Residential Life, and cable becomes a "question of priority," Johnson said.
The first priority is upgrading all the residence halls to be compliant with the most recent safety guidelines, and after that cable must compete with other projects to receive funding, he said.
ORL's current projects include life-safety improvements, residence hall decompression and the planned renovations of the Choates.
The estimate will include the cost for wiring the Choates and Fayerweather residence hall clusters, the only two clusters not currently wired for cable.
The estimate will also include equipment upgrades necessary in the wired residence halls, such as cable jacks.
But first the College must decide if it wants to provide cable to students in the rooms, a decision to be made by the dean of the College.
This choice will be a deciding factor as to whether the renovations proceed, but the decision must be made by May 1 if the College wants the system running by Fall term.
If a decision is made in favor of cable, the College must decide which type of service it wants to provide and how it wants to bill students.
Though the College is likely to select a general cable-to-all plan, it would be possible to provide a selective service, providing cable only to those who want it.
Eckels said such a system would be expensive, but better because students could choose not to pay for cable.
Eckels estimated the cost at around $20 per month for the service, but said it has not been decided whether that charge would be levied against each student, like DarTalk fees, or each room.
The College is also uncertain at this time about how it will charge students, he said. The College could choose to add the charge to students' room fees or it could bill the students' Dash accounts.
