WISCNet, comprising all twenty-six institutions of the University of Wisconsin System and eight private colleges and universities in Wisconsin (Beloit College, Carroll College, Edgewood College, Lawrence University, Marquette University, Medical College of Wisconsin, Ripon College, and St. Norbert College), will develop a consistent UW System-wide and statewide architecture for national network access and will provide a structure for general access to the Internet. Additionally, a higher quality communications system will be fostered by providing network-wide management and information services through the WISCNet management enterprize. WISCNet as such, will minimize isolation of scholars at Wisconsin instituions and allow these intitutions to attract quality faculty accustomed to national electronic communication. It will also facilitate access to national networks and their services, including supercomputing resources and large database access. The grant will cover costs of gateway/routing equipment for all the schools and partially defray the cost of communication lines for the 36 month duration of the project. The midlevel network, CICNET, will provide high speed access to the midlevel and national backbone networks. The University of Wisconsin, Madison will provide necessary support and technical expertise for the operation and maintenance of the gateway nodes on all the campuses as well as information services for the users at the member institutions.
