Does Kenneth Pflueger, chief information officer for Pomona College, think the school is more technologically advanced than others because of its generous budget? "I'm sure of it," Pflueger says. "The college has an endowment of $1.3 billion, so money isn't as much of an issue here as it is at most places."

This technological largesse could mean that after graduation, students at Pomona College might have a tough time adjusting to the life in real world if they don't find jobs that offer conference rooms with PolyVision interactive display boards, 42-inch plasma screens, LCD panels, free Wi-Fi, high-end multimedia labs, and round-the-clock IT support, all of which are perks of being a student at Pomona.

Jed Cullen, a freshman economics major, says he can get online whenever and wherever he wants. "It's very easy," he adds. "The signal is strong almost everywhere, and if you have software issues, ITS services are open at almost all hours to help you through a problem quickly and easily."

Pomona's program, called Room Service, assigns student workers to residents' halls. Since the help desk is staffed until midnight, the students' resident aide can help late into the night."

Cullen says he can collaborate with professors, turn in assignments, and get daily lecture material on the school's online classroom network, Sakai. Pomona also uses a program, called Moodle, for the same purposes, but Pflueger notes that the school is in the process of transitioning all collaboration to Sakai.

"The decision was made since we're part of the Claremont University Consortium, and we agreed that we would use a single software across registration," he explains. "I think they the two systems essentially have the same functionality and Sakai just held sway."

Faculty members who want to collaborate on cross-university projects use a Web file service from Xythos Software.

"Xythos has been popular primarily with our faculty, because they can work collaboratively, setting up security controls and sharing files with someone who is not on our network," Pflueger says.

Ever since the University of Southern California's student database was hacked last summer, Pflueger says Pomona College has stepped up security. The administrative system runs on a different network from the one students use, and machines that run on that network are off-limits to students. Pflueger recently conducted a security analysis and made recommendations to the university president based on his findings.

"I checked to make sure that the school had everything in line as far as connectivity, etc., goes. They gave us our e-mail addresses over the summer, and everything was basically set up for us by orientation." —Jed Cullen, 18, freshman

Pomona College recently conducted a security analysis and will be using part of the school's $1.3 billion endowment to beef up security within the next year.