In a surprise announcement yesterday, Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson revealed that Computing Services and the Office of Residential Life will pay the cost to implement "interim" cable service in residence halls beginning this Winter term at no additional cost to students.
Students will receive ABC, CBS, NBC, C-SPAN and PBS in their rooms. An education channel for Dartmouth-originated programming and a public access channel as well as foreign language programming will also be available.
The channels were chosen because they are available to the College free of charge. "These are channels we can get with no subscription fees," said Director of Instructional Services Michael Beahan, who is on the Campus Cable TV Committee. "Companies are already providing these to the College."
He said ESPN, MTV and other entertainment channels are part of a larger package that the College still has on its agenda. The College is not yet able to fund the extended plan, which could consist of up to 35 channels.
Director of Residential Operations and Campus Cable TV Committee member Woody Eckels said the majority of the cable expenses were already spent when the College upgraded telephone wires and installed Ethernet connections in all rooms because it was "much cheaper to add it at the same time."
The installation of cable wiring to dorms has occurred over the last two years and was finally finished this Summer term.
"We hope that more cable TV will be available, but it is not something that is affordable right now," Eckels said.
Implementing the complete package would require updating the infrastructure or residence halls -- a project much more expensive than using the current wiring in dorms.
According to Matt Benedetto '00, the Student Assembly representative on the Campus Cable TV Committee, "The interim plan is a wonderful intermediate to obtaining a full cable plan."
"They are not the perfect channels, obviously," he said.
Though not suitable as a permanent plan, the interim plan is an adequate temporary solution, Benedetto said.
Benedetto was generally pleased with the decision, which he said came as a total surprise. "A lot of us thought cable was dead," he said.
The Campus Cable TV Committee has been discussing the possibility of cable in residence hall rooms since last fall, and it sought bids from nine companies who could have provided the signal. At the end of Spring term, however, former Dean of the College Lee Pelton announced cable plans were to be put on hold and students would not receive cable signals this year.
The Native American House, the Francophone House, Foley House, Amarna undergraduate society and Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Delta sororities will not be connected to the cable system initially because they are not currently wired. Nelson said the College hopes to connect these buildings to the cable system soon, and in the meantime, local cable operators may provide services to them.
"We are hoping we can make use of the cable network for educational purposes," Beahan said. He added that faculty members will begin using more cable television programming as part of their curriculum when the complete package is installed.
When the full cable package is available, Beahan said, fees may be incorporated into students' room rents.
Other members of the cable committee are Film Studies Professor Mark WIlliams, College Officer Richard Heck, ORL Fiscal Officer Emily Farnham, Computing Services Fiscal and Auxiliary Services Director Elizabeth McClain, Director of Technical Services Punch Taylor and Instructional Services Production Engineer Keith Borgstrom.