Montclair State University’s Wi-Fi has been going in and out of service since the beginning of the fall semester and many students are not happy with the situation.
Dajah Jean-Charles, a senior psychology major, said she is disappointed with how the Wi-Fi service has been acting since the start of the semester.
“I’m disappointed with the WiFi service here on campus because we pay thousands of dollars in tuition, so you would think we could at least have a good working Wi-Fi service,” Jean-Charles said. “We rely on Wi-Fi for quizzes, work and homework so when it’s down all that does is delay us from getting our work done. ”
Dajah Jean-Charles, a senior psychology major, says she is disappointed with the Wi-Fi service on campus.
Yesennia Fernandez | The Montclarion
Similarly to Jean-Charles, Arianna Ferrer, a junior business administration major, said the number of times the internet service has failed on campus has her feeling frustrated because everything today requires a good Wi-Fi connection.
“The Wi-Fi server going out of service affects me in classes because I can be typing down my notes for the class and out of nowhere the Wi-Fi just goes out,” Ferrer said. “And I can’t take down my notes anymore, because now if you use Microsoft Word or Google Docs you need to connect to the [internet] to type on a document which is frustrating, we need internet everywhere we go.”
Arianna Ferrer, a junior majoring in business administration, hopes the university fixes and improves the internet service.
Yesennia Fernandez | The Montclarion
Carlos Fernandez, a sophomore business administration major with a concentration in marketing, shares how the Wi-Fi connection issues are affecting his academic performance.
“The only thing I bring with me to campus is my very own laptop because it carries all my valued school information,” Fernandez said. “I type my notes on Google Docs or Microsoft Word, my professors have their quizzes on Canvas this semester and I always use my laptop to get work done, so whenever the internet is out I basically can’t do [anything] on campus just [because] all my school work is on my laptop.”
Carlos Fernandez, a sophomore business administration, says the Wi-Fi issue is affecting his school performance.
Yesennia Fernandez | The Montclarion
Many students on campus believe the reason why the Wi-Fi service has been acting up could be because of the number of students that are now on campus.
“I do feel as though the amount of students on the Wi-Fi slows it down, it’s something IT or administration should’ve known about and be prepared for,” Jean-Charles said. “We are a school of over 20,000 students. The proper precautions should’ve been made.”
Rachel Warner, an enterprise technology services analyst at Montclair State, said the information technology service desk (IT) is working diligently to improve the Wi-Fi on campus.
“Information technology is currently implementing numerous technology improvements to optimize our Wi-Fi, strengthen our security and support the evolving technologies our university community uses every day,” Warner said.
When asked if the Wi-Fi service is affected by the number of students on campus, Warner said IT sees increases in the number of Wi-Fi issues reported at the beginning of every academic term.
“At the start of every semester when the number of students and number of new wireless-enabled devices on campus increases, there is often a related increase in the number of Wi-Fi issues reported,” Warner said. “Many times the issues are related to getting a device like a smart TV or game console registered on the network, but sometimes users report a more specific problem like poor signal quality in a certain location.”
Many students are hoping that these issues will be resolved soon.
“I definitely do wish that this problem is fixed as soon as possible because students need stable Wi-Fi on campus,” Ferrer said.
