U. almost got cable years ago

On August 1, 1981, the music video era arrived when MTV burst onto the scene. And in November of that year, the University almost caught up with the newest in '80s technology, when officials announced that the High Rises and Grad Towers would soon be wired for cable. "We can have cable TV two days after we decide which company," Residential Living Associate Director Lionel Hush said in the November 20 issue of The Daily Pennsylvanian. "All they have to do is hook up a little box to the master antennas in the High Rise buildings, which takes about two hours, and cable TV is installed." Hush's two hours became 12 years. A dozen years later, the simple procedure Hush described became the multi-million dollar ResNet program. ResNet, introduced this fall, provides Ethernet connections, cable TV and private telephone lines to a number of on-campus residences. "My recollection is that certainly cable was a new venture to the whole world back then," former Residential Living Director Carol Kontos-Cohen said last week. "There wasn't even cable TV in West Philadelphia." Kontos-Cohen said one or two cable TV "entrepreneurs" approached the University "looking for a new business venture." "We were always looking for something to make Residential Living better," she said. When the University thoroughly assessed the possibility of wiring the residences, however, a number of problems arose. The High Rises, which were supposedly built with sufficient wiring to handle the system, were inadequate, said George Koval, Deputy Vice Provost for University Life. And the General Counsel's office found liability problems with the installation of adequate wiring. "Getting cable TV into the dorms by itself was not that major a project," said Koval. "It was getting all the other aspects of it together that took time." Koval said the logistics of offering cable, including billing procedures and choosing which services to offer, presented the most problems. "Logistics [would have taken] a lot more planning," he said. "Obviously not 13 years' worth, though." And both Kontos-Cohen and Koval said once the idea was suggested, University officials began to think about adding more technological features to the residences. "The academic part of the institution wanted to go beyond just commercial TV in the dorms if we were going to do anything," Koval said. So, what might have happened had the University leapt headfirst into the age of technology blindfolded? "I suppose if we had made that decision to go forward we might have been stuck with underdeveloped technology," Kontos-Cohen said. "Hindsight is always 20-20."