"I think a PC should be a standard piece of office equipment for every faculty member in FAS," says Professor of History William E. Gienapp.

"The University should pay for these PCs for faculty in the humanities and maybe some of the social sciences," he says.

Glancing at two large PCs in her office at the Bunting Institute, Seltzer, the computer science professor, says, "I can't remember when I last paid for a computer."

William C. Kirby, chair of the History Department, says most of the professors in the department have access to computers but paid for them with personal money.

"History professors have a small amount of research funds [from the department], but it's not large enough to buy a computer," Kirby says.

Providing the 2,500 faculty and professional staff with a computer would cost the FAS $1.5 million per year, according to the report. Of the 14 spending proposals in the report, only two--including this one--remain unapproved.

"We will certainly implement as many of these proposal as our resources allow," Knowles said after the October Faculty meeting at which the IT report was presented.

Martin says he thinks the "computer on every desk" initiative has largely been achieved already.

Of the 3,500 faculty and staff, Martin says he has e-mail addresses for 3,000 and that many of the remaining 500 are janitors and professors emeritus.

Planning: Harvard Style

Harvard's strategy for information technology advancement has traditionally been to work from baseline standards.

After installing the backbone of the computer network in the late 1980s and early '90s, Harvard left its use to individual parts of the community.

"The FAS strategy has been to provide basic Internet-compatible service to the entire community," the report says. "Embellishments available with [the network] have been left to the discretion of local units."

Those local units are also responsible for much of the training and support for individual departments.

The Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS)--the support arm of the FAS--has some support available to faculty members, but increasingly departments are hiring their own staffers to provide departmental support.

For instance, the English, chemistry and psychology departments all have IT contacts.