Colorado State University, Academic Village

Success at a Glance

Colorado State University (CSU) is notable for its commitment to ecology and its dedication to the success of its students. The school's newest facility, the Academic Village, is a next-generation combined residence and learning environment that integrates the classroom into students' everyday lives. The idea behind Academic Village is that students are more successful when academics and living are combined. The new facility uses only “green electricity” to operate common areas (lounges, student design studios, classrooms, dining center, etc.) and incorporates eco-friendly, innovative features such as ultra-low-flow water fixtures, an indirect evaporative cooling system to reduce air conditioning costs, and a pulping system that grinds up food and other organic waste. Students have the option to buy renewable electricity for their residence hall rooms.

The Academic Village houses about 266 engineering students and one faculty member. Unlike other residence halls, it has educational services delivered directly to students from a centralized computer facility. The computer facility uses Sun Fire X4600 servers, which provide maximum computational power for engineering students who run Linux-based programs such as Fluent, Matlab, and Fortran. In addition, Sun T2000 servers are used to run Sun Ray Server software for the thin clients. More than 60 application software programs are hosted on various operating systems including the Solaris 10 Operating System, Windows, and Linux. All Academic Village residents have Sun Ray 2FS virtual display clients in their rooms from which they can access the network. Sun Ray 2FS virtual display clients are also available in the facility's collaborative team labs, multimedia classrooms, and in 60 other locations around campus.

“We've found that 97 to 99 percent of students bring their own personal computers to campus, but the limiting factor [for them] is access to expensive software packages,” says Patrick Burns, vice president for Information Technology at CSU. “The beautiful thing about the Academic Village is that the students get access in their rooms 24/7 to the rich learning environment and the very expensive software suites that they can’t afford to put on their personal computers.”

The convenience of anytime, anywhere access relieves students of the burden of lugging laptop computers wherever they go. Each student has a smart card that plugs into the Sun Ray client. Students can begin an assignment in their rooms, pull out the smart card, go to a classroom, lab, study area, kiosk, or library — even the dining hall — and continue working where they left off.

With the Sun Ray network, the IT staff has tighter control over security. Instead of updating individual computers, the staff installs patches and updates once on a central server. This immediately provides the latest applications and virus updates to all of the Sun Ray display clients across campus. With centralized management, the IT staff has seen a dramatic reduction in system maintenance time — from eight hours per week to one hour per month.

The Sun installation plays a major role in CSU's commitment to ecology. “Sun is eco-minded from the start, and that matters,” says Larry Edward Penley, president, Colorado State University and chancellor of the CSU System. “Sun Ray technology is actually part and parcel of what we’ve done to build the green Academic Village.”

Burns says CSU has been very conscious of energy conservation and the environment since the 1970s. “Sun hardware meets all of the constraints in terms of eco-friendliness. There are space and power considerations in the Academic Village, as well as in the main datacenter where the servers are,” says Burns. “A small footprint was very important in the rooms, too.” Sun Ray 2FS virtual display clients take up half the space and consume less than 10 percent of the power of a typical PC. The innovative relationship between Sun and the University promises to continue. “We hope for substantial expansion in the use of Sun concepts, and Sun software and hardware to facilitate not only what we’re doing in future Academic Villages. . .but I think we could see an expansion to additional colleges beyond our College of Engineering,” says Penley. “I think we’re seeing an example of what really works here in the Academic Village. We need to take that example and use it for the future of Colorado State University.”