Campus Wi-Fi slow and inadequate

Timothy Hamilton’s screen-shot of a test of Forest Park’s internet speed.

The internet is the knowledge superhighway. You can access websites like Wikipedia or Google to get definitive information about almost anything. It is the default means for communication, whether for friendship or contacting a college professor.

Students use the campus stlcc.edu website to access the Interactive Class Schedule, Microsoft Office 365 to complete homework and Banner to register for classes, and other websites to find necessary materials and tools.

The content, information and student resources are marvelous when I’m at home using my personal Wi-Fi. Amazingly, for $50 per month, I’m able to get to the web at download speeds of 250 million bytes per second. It’s terrific and completely wireless due to Fifth Generation (5G) communication.

I’m sure that students, faculty and administrators would all agree that the internet in an integral part of creating and sharing documents, accessing information and communicating. In short, it’s essential for education.

I’m thrilled at the new buildings and classrooms that have been developed (and are still being developed) on the Forest Park campus. Before the internet, the educational process required only classrooms, books and teachers.

But in the present and future, free, reliable and safe access to all the internet has to offer is critical to gaining knowledge, sharing knowledge and creating.

Internet access on campus through the college’s system is slow, inadequate and insecure. I can get faster access through my cellphone. But that’s at my expense if data is involved.

Attached to this letter are screenshots illustrating the slow speed, scary message alerts and security issues I encounter frequently. I have shown these to managers in the IT department, more than once, and their response for the last two years has been, “We’re working on it.”

I was an IT manager myself in my working days, and even an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), so I’m aware of the challenges in getting a quality signal all over campus, especially in the old days when wires were needed. But it’s quite easy now with 5G wireless routers.

When I’m taking a class at the Meramec campus, the connection is easy, secure and reasonably fast. What’s the problem at Forest Park? Quality internet should be a priority to our administrators and IT specialists.

Timothy K. Hamilton

Student