As long as your DHCP Servers are set up to not assign overlapping addresses, then I see no reason this can't be done. I'm no expert though, so hopefully someone with more knowledge can chip in soon.
Rob
At the minute we use 'first initial'.'surname' so, s.smith, which is as you say problematic because of duplicates. We are looking to start using the CMIS Student ID though in the future.
dwhyte85, whilst I agree that alot of people do braindump, there are also a fair number of people who don't. You can soon find out who REALLY knows their stuff though with the right questions.