"It is difficult to anticipate future computerneeds, especially when use has increased sodramatically and unpredictably," he says.

Facilities Shortage

Currently, Harvard has 185 computer terminalsin the Science Center, 100 computers throughoutthe undergraduate houses and 25 laser printersaround the College for student use, according toSteen. MIT, in comparison, has 700 workstations.

But with computer usage at Harvard beingboosted by new students on the network, many saymore publicly accessible equipment is needed.

"Generally I think Harvard's computerfacilities are very inadequate," says Ishir Bhan'96, co-president of Digitas, an organizationdevoted to exploring emerging technologies. "Manytimes I've been in the Science Center and realizedthat there are too few computers and that they aretoo slow."

University officials say they recognize theproblem.

"There are not enough workstations," Oucharksays. "There is not enough room for workstations."

HASCS officials say they have little money tobuy new computers. Instead they are hoping thatmore students will begin to use the network fromtheir rooms thereby relieving the demand forcomputers in the Science Center and the houses.

But some veteran users predict that an increasein the number of students accessing the Internetfrom their rooms will also drive up demand forscience Center computers. More people, they say,will want to check their e-mail between classes orwhile they are away from their personal networkconnections.

Says Kim, the computer society president: "Iwould predict that usage of the Science Centercomputers is going to increase as a result ofincreased network usage."

Even as more students use the network,some frequent users say undergraduates are missingout by not learning how to make full use of thesystem.

Rolland W. Ho '97 business manager of theHarvard Computer Society, is one of severalstudents who warn of an "e-mail barrier." Manystudents use the network only for thecommunication possibilities of e-mail and don'tknow how to access the vast amounts of informationavailable to them, Ho says.

"We want to teach people more beyond thebasics, going beyond e-mail," Ho says. "I thinkthe majority--almost 60 percent or more--of peoplejust know how to log in and use e-mail. Eventhough people might want to find out more, theynot know where to do that."

At the same time, Kim says the increased numberof readers of Internet news, including the popularnewsgroup "harvard. general," indicates thatstudents are beginning to explore beyond e-mail.

"There are a lot of people who stop at e-mail,but that's been changing, "Kim says. "The biggestevidence of this is newsgroups at all. The amountof discussion that takes place on the newsgroupshas increased dramatically."