Meharry Medical College is one of five small Nashville institutions which Vanderbilt University is assisting in connecting to NSFNET. The 56,000 bit per second connection is made through the mid-level network SURANET using the SURANET connection Vanderbilt has had for two years. Two of the institutions are historically black, two are small liberal arts institutions that emphasize teaching rather than research, and one is a two-year technological school. Meharry is one of the historically black institutions. Benefits of the NSFNET connection include file transfers, electronic mail communication between local and remote researchers, and remote login to and use of supercomputers and other research facilities. In addition, the local institutions have access to Vanderbilt's resources, and add another dimension to the diversity of resources Vanderbilt can offer its students. Cross-registration, software sharing and other benefits also result from the network.
