Landlines will be taken out of the dorms and the Internet will be stronger, starting in the 2010-2011 school year. Funds from the removal of the landlines in dorms will result in a stronger Internet service for students with the increase in bandwidth availability.
If students still want to have a landline in their dorm rooms they will be able to, but will have to make a contract with AT&T and pay for the service.
“It will be similar to what students have off-campus in an apartment: an installation charge and a monthly service plan,” Dr. Tom Hardy, director of Housing and Residence, said.
The money Housing and Residence Life saves from the removal of the landlines will cover the additional costs to increase the bandwidth available to students to use for the Internet, according to Dr. Hardy.
“The resident students will be segmented from the campus network with their own dedicated 100Mb Internet bandwidth and will not have to compete with the rest of the campus like faculty and staff offices and computer labs and classrooms,” Joe Newton, director of Information Technology, said. “This should alleviate congestion during the day. Currently, resident students are limited to 1.5Mbs each, sized equivalently to traditional DSL.”
The proposal of removing the landlines was presented to RHA from the Housing and Residence Life. RHA voted on it in a general assembly and they voted in favor of removing the landlines.
“This really is about trying to improve on campus living without impacting the fees that students are paying, and being conscientious of not upping rates,” Sarah VanKuiken, assistant director of Residental Education, said.
According to VanKuiKen, the resident hall will still have landlines at the front desks, RA rooms, and with the hall directors and complex directors.
“I’m for the removal of the landlines, 100 percent, especially if it means better Internet. It’s behind the times; this should have happened our freshman year and I’m a junior,” Katie Hauser, double major in Education and Anthropology, said.