UC Cracks Top 50 Among "Most Wired" Universities Date: April 18, 2000 By: Chris Curran Phone: (513) 556-1806 Archive: Campus News, General News Just one year after making the list of "Most Wired" campuses for the first time, UC zoomed into the Top 50 this month. In 1999, Yahoo Internet Life Magazine listed UC as #189. This year's rankings put UC at #32. Fred Siff, UC vice president for information technology, said many factors contributed to the dramatic rise in the rankings. New services include online college bulletins, Web registration (through UniverSIS), expanded electronic classrooms, online course offerings, and 24-hour support on the UC Helpdesk. The magazine doesn't provide complete details on the formula used to rank colleges and universities; however, it does consider four major categories affecting students. They are: "Access and Infrastructure," "Administrative Services," "General Resources," and "Student Support." Under those umbrellas, you find items such as electronic classrooms, wired dorms, web server space reserved for student use, library resources, and free printing in the labs supported by the ITIE fees. Siff also credited UC's commitment to work with various vendors from Microsoft and Dell to ZoomTown and Road Runner to expand and improve services for UC students, faculty and staff. Yahoo Internet Life notes in their report that "Undergraduates are as interested in a college's Net resources as in its curriculum or social life" and that many universities now promote electronic access in the same way they promote their most famous faculty. Siff agrees the rankings will help in recruiting new faculty and students in the same way that being in the Top 50 in research expenditures helps. "These are continuing national indicators that UC is a top tier university," said Siff. "UC has a sophisticated academic/research environment. It should be more widely known, appreciated and respected. Rankings like these helps." The complete results were released Tuesday, April 18 and are available on the Web.