9311534 Crum The Virginia Tidewater Consortium for Higher Education (VTC) and public television station WHRO-TV request hardware, software, and communications support to connect VTC LINK to SURAnet. A direct connection to SURAnet will provide researchers, faculty, staff and students at VTC member institutions with improved access to national and international networks such as NSFNET, ESnet, NSI, and a whole host of other information resources available via the Internet. For some VTC member institutions, particularly the community colleges, this connection represents the only method of accessing the Internet. By linking VTC LINK to SURAnet, the VTC and WHRO- TV propose to set an example for other higher education consortia of individual community colleges interested in working with their local public television stations to establish similar connections. The connection, once in place, will greatly facilitate collaborative research efforts involving community colleges, four year institutions of their education and research organizations such as CEBAF (the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In addition to VTC LINK, WHRO-TV operates two other telecomputing systems, VA.PEN and Learning Link, serving the kindergarten through 12th grade educational community. A side benefit of the SURAnet connection will be the inclusion of K-12 teacher and student, when appropriate, in the above mentioned projects. *** NSFNET
