College officials have put plans to provide cable service to residence hall rooms in the College's dormitories on hold -- at least until after next fall and likely until Fall term, 1999.
Senior Associate Dean of the College Dan Nelson, who will become acting dean of the College on July 1, said a decision was made to add new fire escapes and extra rooms to a number of residence halls in the upcoming year rather than to proceed with the cable project.
"The life safety and decompression issues were on our list of priorities along with the cable issue," Nelson said. "Safety and the quality of life in the student dorms are a higher priority given the information we have."
Nelson said the cable issue moved down the priority list, in part, because the College Committee On Cable -- which is charged with conducting research, sending out requests for proposals to companies and providing a report to the dean of the College -- has yet to complete its report, which will include bids from at least two cable companies.
Matt Benedetto '00, the Student Assembly representative who sits on the College Committee On Cable, said the process of completing the report has been delayed because of problems scheduling meetings with bidding cable companies and unexpected technical and contractual questions regarding the information already submitted by the companies.
Director of Residential Operations Woody Eckels, who is also a member of the committee, said he expects the report to be completed sometime in early August.
When the report is completed and submitted to Nelson, College officials will decide when and if the project is financially feasible.
Eckels previously told The Dartmouth he expected installing and providing cable service to cost between $200,000 and $300,000.
Although the cable project will not be implemented next fall, "it's something we continue to be interested in," Nelson said. "We're hoping to revisit the cable issue sooner rather than later."
Nelson said it is unlikely the project will be implemented before Fall term, 1999, because the College operates on a fiscal year system and the cable plan has not been included in the budget for the upcoming year.
Currently, all dorm rooms except those in the Choate and Fayerweather clusters have the necessary hardware for cable TV.
