As times evolve, the need for internet connection becomes one of great importance, putting great importance on how much technology is involved in getting an education.
For some Keene State College members, issues with the Wi-Fi connection leads them to dismay.
KSC Sophomore Nick Alpert said the Wi-Fi on campus is “just not good at all.”
When asked how KSC’s on-campus Wi-Fi has affected his learning ability, Alpert said, “Sometimes you won’t connect to the internet and you cannot get onto Canvas, which is key with connecting to professors and turning assignments in.”
Alpert thinks that the Wi-FI is overwhelmingly bad the majority of the time he’s on campus.
When asked just how often he experiences a bad connection, Alpert said, “I would say that half of each day, the Wi-Fi is either slow or you cannot connect to it at all.”
Alpert didn’t feel there could be steps to improve the campus Wi-Fi and allow for easier access.
He acknowledged that the school does provide a secure Wi-Fi option, but does not feel it is currently up to the performance standard it should be at.
When asked what steps he thinks the school can take, he said, “The school could really help by making the secure Wi-Fi easier to log onto as well. It is very difficult to get back onto it once you disconnect.”
KSC first-year Sammi Osborne also said she feels that the Wi-Fi could use some improvements. Osborne said she feels that overall, the Wi-Fi is “kinda bad.”
When asked how often she feels the Wi-Fi is not performing as well as it should be, Osborne said, “I feel that there is always a small bit of time during the day that the Wi-Fi is just slow.”
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Osborne also said she feels the school can take steps, which it has not already taken, to improve Wi-Fi connectability.
When asked what she thinks can be done to improve the Wi-Fi, Osborne said, “I wish that the school broke the Wi-Fi up into sections across campus so that it would load faster.”
KSC first-year Fletcher Loomis has said he had some concerns about the sites required to be used on campus when attending KSC. While he feels that the Wi-Fi is good the majority of the time he still acknowledges flaws in these specific sites.
When asked about what issues he has had on school required sites, Loomis said, “Sometimes when I’m trying to work or log into KSC’s website on my laptop it just does not work.”
Loomis also contributed some advice to the school that he said he feels is not being implemented.
Loomis said, “I feel that if the school broke down sectional Wi-Fi areas throughout campus that it would help a lot.”
With there being mixed feedback and chatter on how good the Wi-Fi is on campus, there is oftentimes the question of what exactly it is that the Information Technology (IT) Group is doing to provide better technology to the students on campus.
Chief Information Officer of the IT group Laura Seraichick says that the Wi-FI on campus has come a long way in the past couple of years.
When asked what the IT group is doing to improve the on-campus Wi-Fi Seraichick said, “This year we upgraded all of the resident halls to the latest and fastest Wi-Fi. It is now four times faster than what we had before.”
Seraichick also said the technology being installed has abilities to speed up the Wi-Fi that the old technology could not come close to doing.
Seraichick said, “The technology of the access points has changed incredibly….They are faster, they allow more devices to connect to them than the old ones and they also are smarter now…they can turn to where they have the most devices wanting to connect to them to push more power to those devices.”
Seraichick said IT is putting forth their best effort to make sure that the new Wi-FI technology is being installed around KSC’s entire campus as soon as possible.
She continued to say that IT is trying to put together a three to five year plan with Residential Life on which buildings are staying and which are going, so that these technological advances can be implemented in buildings with a long future on-campus.
Kyle Kemp can be be contacted at kkemp@kscequinox.com
