Wednesday, Jan. 30

A laptop was stolen from Arrillaga Family Sports Center between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

A bike was stolen from Wilbur Hall between 5 p.m. on Jan. 26 and 11:15 p.m. on Jan. 28.

A bike was stolen from outside the Stanford Bookstore between 10:50 a.m. and 11 a.m.

A laptop was stolen from the Avery Aquatic Center between 7:25 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 31

A female was cited and released for providing false ID to a police officer at 12:20 p.m. near the corner of  Bowdoin Street and Arguello Way.

A male was cited and released for driving without a license at 8:45 a.m. near the corner of Campus Drive and Lausen Mall.

Friday, Feb. 1

An iPhone was stolen from the Gunn Building between 1 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.

A male was cited and released for driving with a suspended license at 9:35 a.m. near the corner of Mayfield Avenue and Santa Ynez Street.

Saturday, Feb. 2

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for public intoxication at 2:15 a.m. near the corner of Palm Drive and Arboretum Grove.

A male was cited and released for being in possession of a controlled substance at 9:42 p.m. in the Enchanted Broccoli Forest.

A male was cited and released for driving without a license at 3:35 p.m. near the corner of Campus Drive and Cowell Lane.

A female was cited and released for misuse of a disabled placard at 1:25 a.m. near the corner of Lane West and Stanford Avenue.

Sunday, Feb. 3

A bike was stolen from outside Florence Moore Hall between 5 p.m. on Feb. 2 and 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 3.

A bike was stolen from outside Roble Hall between 8 p.m. on Feb. 1 and 11 a.m. on Feb 3.

Monday, Feb. 4

A trailer was stolen from near the corner of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Stanford Avenue between 5 p.m. on Feb. 2 and 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 4.

A male was transported to the San Jose Main Jail and booked for possessing a weapon (knife) on a private university campus and for being in the United States unlawfully in Meyer Library at 11:20 a.m.

All academic buildings were connected to the new network by December 2012, and all residential networks will have been migrated to the new system by mid-March 2013, according to Nancy Ware ’83, director of strategic planning and communications for IT Services.

“The purpose of this refresh is to ensure that we continue to provide Stanford with a high-performance, highly available network built with the latest network standards,” Ware wrote in a statement to The Daily. “The newly upgraded network is more resilient and features increased capacity.”

The new network is organized into multiple Operational Areas, and each area’s network equipment room is “physically diverse,” according to Ware, to improve the chances that the network as a whole will remain healthy should any piece fail. The Operational Areas, each of which is independently redundant, are linked to each other via multiple 10 Giga-bit per second connections.

Benjamin McKenzie ’15, residential computer consultant in Burbank, expressed his hope that the new backbone network will increase network speed for residences that currently suffer from slow connections.

“We have a relatively strong connection in Burbank, but I’ve heard a lot of people in FloMo [Florence Moore Hall] really complaining about their wireless connectability,” McKenzie said. “So hopefully that will help.”

IT Services migrated three residential networks Lyman wired, Roble wired and FloMo wireless to the new backbone network in December 2012. Ware said that these networks represent three different network types an undergraduate wired network, a graduate wired network and a wireless network and were upgraded early to “test operational stability and compatibility.”

According to Ware, the network outage on Jan. 29 motivated IT Services to accelerate the process of migrating the remaining residential networks to the new backbone network. Since Jan. 29, the networks for Governor’s Corner, Lagunita Court, Wilbur Hall and the Row have been connected to the backbone network. The remaining networks for the Lyman Graduate Residences, Roble Hall and FloMo have also been switched over.

A redundant connection for these networks is expected to be in place by Feb. 8.

Though McKenzie predicted that the network migration will not be seamless, he expressed general optimism about the new network.

“I’ve heard that sometimes things can fall through, so I think there will be a lot of patches in the exchange that initially will show up as issues with people,” he said. “In the long run, hopefully the new infrastructure is more solid and faster.”

Rodger Whitney, the executive director of Student Housing, said in an e-mail to The Daily that the permitting and construction were delayed because “other, more critical projects involving spaces needed to house students were prioritized higher.”

The package center processes mail from private carriers such as UPS and DHL. Students are instructed to list the address of the Stanford post office as well as their individual box numbers. The post office then sends private-carrier mail to the package center.

But many students have had little patience as the system finds its footing.

Daniela Urigwe ’13, who has used Roble Package Center multiple times, found that DHL was “not really on board with the system” yet. She says DHL did not know or was not told about the package center, so she had to drive to the company’s San Francisco office to retrieve her package.

The most common complaint by students has been the absence of or delay in notification of package arrivals. Pablo Lopez ’13, who received a printer at the package center, said he did not receive an e-mail notifying him of the package’s arrival. He walked over to Roble, where a center employee found his package.

“The people were friendly, but delivering things straight out of the back of trucks isn’t really ideal,” Lopez said.

Whitney acknowledged early problems with packages arriving at the correct location for pickup—the post office for packages sent via USPS, the FedEx store in Tresidder Union for FedEx deliveries and the package center for packages mailed by other private carriers—but said “educational publicity” seems to be “smoothing out” those issues.

On a recent day at the package center, which is open Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., seven students received their packages without a problem. At one point, the package center employee, who said she was instructed by Housing not to talk to The Daily, called a golf cart to deliver a student’s package to Mirrielees because the package was heavy and the student was on a bike.

What all of the students interviewed for this article agreed upon is that the security of packages has been increased under the new system. In the past, private carriers often left packages outside of residences, where they subsequently could be stolen. Residence staff would also raise eyebrows at package-delivery staff who would enter residences and walk the halls looking for the rooms to which mail was addressed.

Still, both students and Housing are adapting to the system and to the package center itself. Whitney said he anticipates construction of the actually facility “will be completed soon.”

“It’s rather skeletal,” Aditya Singh ’13 said of the center.”But it serves its purpose.”

“It didn’t seem very well-organized,” Lopez said of his visit. “But I think they’re doing the best they can.”

Starting fall quarter, students in campus residences will no longer be allowed to receive packages from private carriers, such as UPS and FedEx, at their doors. Instead, all packages will be directed to a new “package center” in a former kitchen behind Roble Hall. The site is accessible via the road between Roble and Lake Lagunita.

A UPS truck makes a delivery at Jerry. Mail shipped privately to Row houses may be diverted to a new "package center" behind Roble in the fall. (ISAAC GATENO/The Stanford Daily)

Under the terms of an agreement between the University and shipping companies, the private carriers will cover the cost of setting up and running the center, and will operate it. A second package center will be created in Escondido Village to serve the graduate student community as well as undergraduates living there or in Rains apartments.

Carriers will notify package recipients via e-mail when their packages are available for pickup at the center. Meanwhile, mail sent via the U.S. Postal Service will continue to go to the Stanford post office, where each student will be required to rent a box as their permanent mailing address.

The status of package delivery to Row houses is still unclear. Row houses were never specifically discussed, but Row residents will have the option to have packages delivered to the center, according to Imogen Hinds, senior associate director in Student Housing. While the houses might still be able to receive packages, it is possible that delivery companies will divert all packages to the center for efficiency.

Whitney cited security concerns as part of the reasoning behind the new center in an e-mail to The Daily.

“For some time now, students have been expressing concern about missing packages and need for more accurate tracking of packages,” Whitney said. “We’ve also had significant concerns around package delivery staff entering residences.”

“The package center…will ensure secure storage, complete tracking of packages and convenient pick-up hours,” he added.

The location of the package center has raised concerns for some students. Andrew Molina ’11, a resident assistant in Cedro, said the distance between Roble and East Campus might be a problem for some.

“A significant number of students do not have cars and will not be able to transfer their packages from Roble to East Campus,” Molina said. “I think it needs to be more thought out, and I think they need to take students into account more actively than they have.”

ASSU President Angelina Cardona ’11 agreed.

“There was no reaching out on the side of Housing to the student government in particular or students in general about what this new packaging model should look like,” Cardona said.

“Rather than taking a comprehensive look from both the student and the administrative perspective,” Molina added, “I think they are going solely on the administrative perspective. They need to take into account the realities of student life here.”

Whitney said Roble was actually preferable because cars could access it, and said a nearby Marguerite stop could help students without cars. The chance to use the former kitchen space was also an advantage.

He also said the undergraduate and graduate housing advisory committees, on which 16 students sit each year, were major contributors to the plan’s formation, as was Greg Boardman, the vice provost for student affairs.

After the center is established, Whitney said, other options would be considered.

“As we see the use and volume of the centers develop, there may be a possibility of reassigning some undergraduate residences to the East side package center location, which is initially intended for graduate student use,” he said.

He added that a partnership between Stanford Student Enterprises and the University, which would provide a delivery service, might be possible. Cardona said she hopes the administration will work with students on mail delivery plans beyond next year.