Internet upgrades at residence halls

The Office of Residence Life is upgrading its Internet service in the residence halls beginning April 1.
Jeff Spears, director of residence life, said, “This on-going project will start April 1 (no this is not an April Fool’s joke) and continue throughout the summer depending on funding.”
Aaron Jones will be the first hall to have the wiring replaced to allow more bandwidth to reach the students. This upgrade also entails an increase of the number of access points in each hall. The wiring and access points will allow for more digital devices to be connected at any given time in the residence halls.
Spears added, “The Internet upgrade, according to our contractors and IT support, will make the Internet in the halls comparable, if not better, than any services currently offered in Price.” There has been much debate over how to upgrade the Internet in the residence halls and even when to start such a massive overhaul of wiring.
“We have received one-time funding for this project, and dining services and residence life will provide additional funding to finish the project. The wiring in the new CIB building allowed for an opportune time for the Internet upgrade in which we could not pass up. Two birds, one stone,” Spears stated.
The Internet has been on the radar for housing since last year. Spears said, “An upgrade to Internet services has been high on our annual survey in the last two years as suggested upgrades in the halls. It was number two last year and overwhelmingly number one for the survey this year – which consisted of 60 percent of housing students.”
The number one issue last year was visitation, which the office of residence life addressed in fall 2014 and has been met with much appreciation from the student body.
The office of residence life and dining services have been responsive to the needs of the students since Spears took over in January. He said, “Our annual survey is vital to how we improve our services to the students. Without this survey, we would not have the definitive feedback from our students to steer the direction of housing and food services.”
Spears is referring to the number of changes housing and dining services has made in the last two years. This would include: extending visitation hours,

lowering summer living costs to $100, allowing freshmen to live in Tucker, an increase in housing activities, the newly developed housing and dining services scholarship, creating more cooking units in AJ, taking over vending services on campus and the most recent increase with accessibility to the internet.
When asked what was next on the agenda, Spears responded with a smile. “That is top secret. I don’t want to let too much out, but we are looking at some big renovation projects within the halls. This would include refinishing some of the oak furniture and also marbling the showers in Burtenshaw.
“We would also like to finish the flooring in AJ and beds in both Tucker and Sessions. The beds are definitely high are on our list,” It is clear that both dining services and housing are trying to lower the costs of living on campus, while providing overdue upgrades in the residence halls.