Ithaca Partners with Apogee for a High-Speed Student ResNet

AUSTIN (May 31, 2004) - Apogee, a technology company and Internet Service Provider that specializes in providing managed ResNet network services and support to meet the evolving needs of higher education, announced today that it would begin managing the student residential network at Ithaca College, where more than 4,000 students live on campus.

Last fall, Apogee pioneered a new field when it began managing the ResNet at Southwestern University, a four year, private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas.

"Colleges and universities like Ithaca are increasingly examining whether they are in the business of educating students or meeting their entertainment needs," said Chuck Brady, CEO of Apogee. "Studies have consistently shown that college students use the Internet for entertainment, which more and more is interfering with the strategic and academic purpose of the network."

Brady went on to note that a group of CIOs and other IT officials at Stanford, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Colorado at Boulder and other colleges recently quantified the hard-dollar expense of managing student residential networks and calculated the average costs at each institution of dealing with last fall?s virus outbreak at approximately $200,000.

Ed Fuller, Director of Information Technology Services at Ithaca, said that trying to manage the students? use of the network for entertainment was a difficult and expensive endeavor that was soaking up resources that could be better used to satisfy the college?s education mission.

"Focusing on growing and managing the enterprise network for academic use is a strategic mission. Combating viruses and handling ResNet Notices is not," said Fuller.

"Once we made up our mind to form an outside partnership, we accepted proposals from several large telecommunications companies. We found, however, that there was only one company that had the experience and was willing to develop the best solution for Ithaca."