3,000 First-Years, All Searching for a Connection

Tech Squads Ease Computer System's Huge Hookup Test

At U-Va. in Charlottesville, David Backer helps Tracy Dunn with her laptop. For the first time, freshman dorms are wireless, so tech squads were nervous. (Photos By Mark Gong -- The Washington Post)

They've been gearing up for this for months. Last week, the final wave of computer support staff went through training. The techs held their breath, hoping no new virus would come along. Yesterday morning, they gathered for final instructions, and then it hit: The University of Virginia dorms opened.

More than 3,000 new students arrived yesterday. And more than 3,000 computers got plugged in.

Howard University's freshmen arrived yesterday, too, with all their computers. And over the next two weeks the same scenes will play out at colleges everywhere: The first-years want to get their stuff upstairs. Meet their roommates. And hook up their computers.

"The Internet is like oxygen to the students," said Beth Ann Bergsmark, director of academic information technology services at Georgetown University. "It's their link to campus maps, course registration, reading assignments, e-mail from home, Facebook, [instant messaging]."

"I don't do anything without it," said Kristina Gibbons, a first-year U-Va. student from Bermuda, looking at her laptop. "I don't know what it's like without one."

Students have been bringing computers to campus for more than 10 years, but now, almost all do.

Schools have different ways of preparing for the influx, sending out CDs of anti-virus software, sweeping the dorms to repair any nonfunctioning jacks.

"We're pretty much flat-out from the first of July to the first of September," said Tony Townsend, U-Va.'s chief technology analyst. "The climax is move-in Saturday."

Yesterday, U-Va.'s tech staff, wearing matching T-shirts, deployed in waves to help find cables, explain passwords, watch for bugs.

For the parents, after lugging boxes through the non-air-conditioned dorms, sweating and worrying, it was the last chance to help. Parents don't leave, the staff said, until their kid is connected.

So every year on move-in day, the tension is thick: Will the network withstand this sudden onslaught? Will the students all get connected? (And the subplot: Will the parents let go?)

By 8:30 a.m., Townsend was at Kent Hall as one of the more than 100 staff members and 30 students fanned out on campus for technical support. Packed cars crept along the roads, guys carrying rolled-up rugs on their shoulders weaved through crowds on sidewalks, and parents were already sweating through their polo shirts.