We’ve all heard how well our campus is wired, or rather “un-wired,” for Internet service.

Indeed, the statistics are impressive: wired Internet access to all the residence halls and 170 classrooms, a wireless network accessible from upward of 70 percent of campus, and more than one gigabit of access to the Internet via the network are all often quoted during campus visits, orientation and any other time you come anywhere near Durham Center.

But there’s another statistic that has escaped most of the tech-heads and even most students – at least those who don’t bring their computers to class with them: This campus is extraordinarily deficient in electrical outlets.

Suppose, for ease of calculation, that 10 percent of each class in a large lecture hall brings their laptops with them to class. In Lush Auditorium, this works out to around 38 laptops, while in Hoover 2055, the largest lecture hall on campus, the number is closer to 43.

Simply counting the outlets available in some of the larger lecture halls (which one of my roommates and I proceeded to do for the purposes of this column and the furtherance of the collective knowledge of mankind), yields a disturbingly low numbers: eight in Gerdin 1148 (which seats nearly 300 people), four in Carver 101 (which seats just over 200 people), and so on.

Furthermore, many of the electrical outlets in the lecture halls are located such that a computer power cable can’t reach from the students’ seats. Marston 207, for instance, has a total of eight outlets, all eight of which are at the front of the room under the whiteboards, completely inaccessible to someone sitting in a seat. Gilman 1002 likewise has a total of 14 outlets, but only 10 are accessible from the seats.

Another issue arises with going across aisles to reach the outlets. Both Carver 101 and Agronomy 2050 have electrical outlets (four and eight, respectively), but both have them located on the left and right walls of the room, across the aisles from the seats. This means that any power cable strung out to reach the power outlet must cross the aisle, causing people walking by to have to step over the cable, and heightening the chances of tripping and falling.

Let us return to that 10 percent of the average class in a large lecture hall at this university that brings their computers to class with them. The percentage may, in actuality, be higher or lower, but there are no published statistics available for this sort of thing.

If we take 10 percent of the capacity of full lecture hall, we get an approximation of how many students are bringing their computers to class. Further dividing the result of this calculation by the number of outlets in the lecture hall yields a ratio of computers to outlets. At full capacity, some of the larger lecture halls on this campus shape up as follows:

Carver 101: approximately five computers per outlet, all of which are across the aisle from the seating.

Gerdin 1148: nearly four computers per outlet. Students are known to arrive to this lecture hall early when possible, in order to be able to plug their computers in.

Agronomy 2050: one of the most reasonable results, with between one and two computers per outlet. As with Carver, all the outlets are across the aisles.

Lush Auditorium (Kildee 125): nearly five computers per outlet, all across the outer aisles from the seating.

Several of the newer lecture halls fare much better considering their size:

LeBaron 1210: just over one computer per usable outlet. Several outlets are in seemingly pointless and unreachable places (behind doors, etc.).

Hoover 2055: the largest lecture hall on campus, Hoover accommodates just over one computer per outlet; however, four outlets are under the whiteboard, and therefore unusable.

In pursuit of the ultimate in wired education, let’s not forget the small details. Power outlets are one of those details, and, while it is encouraging to see the newer lecture halls being more laptop-friendly, let’s hope that facilities planning and management puts some more thought toward this.

– Ryan Frederick is a senior in management from Orient.