Case in point: the University of Missouri-Columbia, where students arrived to campus and immediately wrought havoc with their various gadgets. They found spotty reception, clear in larger halls but weak or nonexistent once they left for smaller classrooms.

The school was able to trace the problem back to a fixable software glitch, but there’s also the massive leap in the number of wireless devices on campus to consider. Last year the largest number of devices connected to the system at any one time was 900. This year: 8,000.

But the rise in wireless device use isn’t the biggest issue schools have to consider – it’s what students are using those devices to look at. Video content is the biggest problem.

For example: At Boston College, 70% of bandwidth is eaten up by video streaming and downloading, much of it purely for entertainment purposes.

Here are some strategies your school can use to cope with students’ wireless needs:

• Control traffic at peak hours. For instance, St. Louis University separates its Internet space into three pipelines to ensure students, researchers and clinicians don’t interfere with each other.
• Use network management tools to prevent heavy users from dominating a network, such as slowing a movie download to save space for students doing less-intensive work.
• Boost security. While some students may balk at dealing with virus searches and other new device scans, it’s a small price to pay for access to campus servers.

What else can schools do to maximize wireless coverage? Share your strategies in the comments section, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

Two Boston College students told campus police that student Daniel Carr had been bullying other students and “waving a knife around.” They also said another student said he saw the butt of a gun in Carr’s dorm – while adding the student thought the gun might be a fake.

When a campus police officer knocked on Carr’s dorm room door, the door opened and he entered. When questioned, Carr produced a plastic replica of a handgun. Carr and his roommate signed forms consenting to a search, and officers found more weapons as well as cocaine, marijuana and psilocybin.

In subsequent criminal proceedings, a trial judge suppressed all the evidence found. Why? Because the officer didn’t wait for an invitation to enter the room, and the students did not voluntarily consent to the search.

An appeals court reversed the trial judge’s ruling and held the evidence was admissible. The officer’s initial entry was justified because he relied on a credible report, the appeals court said. And the evidence showed Carr and his roommate freely and voluntarily consented to the search, it added.

Cite: Commonwealth v. Carr.

Do you agree with the court’s ruling? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Good question, because Tufts University has received about a dozen complaints from students who said their randy roommates didn’t think twice about having sex — even if they were still in the room. The complaints prompted school officials to revise the school’s 2009-10 guest policy.

Now, Tufts’ students have sexual-behavior expectations in black and white: Students are prohibited from having sex while their roommates are present in the room. Further, the school doesn’t allow sexual activity in dorms if it will disturb a roommate’s privacy, study and sleep.

Seems like an issue most schools would rather not have to deal with, because campuses across the country are treading lightly on this issue. Here are a few examples:

• Boston College is a Catholic university that doesn’t allow cohabitation in dorms, but notes “consideration for others is an important aspect and privilege of having a guest.”
• Harvard University’s student handbook disapproves of serious or persistent sexual conduct.
• Emerson College’s visitor policy reminds students that the right to live in “reasonable privacy takes precedence over the privilege of entertaining a guest.”

Has your school received complaints from students about their roommates? If so, let us know how your school is handling the problem in the comments section below.