Mercer is moving towards a major Wi-Fi upgrade in both the West Windsor Campus and at JKC (James Kerney Campus) in Trenton.
Rafael Cortes, the Network Manager for MCCC, who has been with the school for over 20 years, says they plan to integrate the new technology to the campus with minimal disruption to the students and staff.
The VOICE conducted a survey of 45 students asking if they had any issues with the Wi-Fi and found 82 percent had. The top two problems were connection dropping and slow internet speed.
Inder Singh, the Vice President of Information Technology, recognizes these issues and told The VOICE, “our plan is to make sure our students get the best technology on campus by upgrading our internet bandwidth, firewall, Wi-Fi, and the academic labs computers.”
In preparation for these upgrades, Mercer installed the backend equipment, put in place the new wireless controllers and they doubled their bandwidth to one gigabyte.
Cortes says, “we’ve already increased the pipe. If you think of a plumber, the bigger the pipe the more water you get. This is the same kind of scenario. We’ve increased the pipe so we can get more bandwidth through and get more back from the Internet. We did that about 10 months ago in preparation for the new Wi-Fi. That’s all in place, active and working.”
Starting at the JKC campus around November/December and continuing at the West Windsor campus in the spring, Mercer will upgrade from generation 4/5 Wi-Fi to generation 6 Wi-Fi – the latest Wi-Fi technology available right now.
Generation 6 Wi-Fi has optimized outdoor performance. This will allow the new Wi-Fi upgrade on campus to include access points in the Quad and in the fountain area near the Student Center entrance.
There was some concern about the students that were unable to afford new laptops and if they would be able to take advantage of the upgrade too.
Cortes explains that the IT department is considering all students at Mercer saying, “we know that it’s expensive. Buying a laptop, phone, or watch now is expensive. Some of our students are on fixed incomes and their income is going to tuition so we are very aware of that fact.”
He added, “We’ve enabled a lot of controls on the access points to have backward compatibility so that older laptops and devices can still connect. Unfortunately, there is a limit, kind of a hard wall, when you reach certain technologies. We are trying to go two generations back so at least people have that backwards compatibility two devices back, three if possible, so that everybody can connect.”
If a student doesn’t have access to a personal device, MCCC has approximately 45 open computer labs on campus.
Cortes did acknowledge that some of the campus computers are outdated but said, “we are working with our deans and working with our staff to understand which labs are the oldest labs that need to get replaced first and then move along to the next group.”
When asked if this new upgrade will change the way students log in, Cortes replied, “Yes, we are looking into ways for students to connect to the Wi-Fi without logging in multiple times a day because that’s one of the complaints we’ve had. Students tell us that they have to log in all the time. We want to try to do an authentication that allows students to log in once and they stay logged in for the whole day or the whole week.”
He went on to say, “That is a policy thing that needs to be dictated by management above and our leadership team at the college. We want them to make that decision for us based on what they think would be best to benefit the students. We also want to hear from the students. They are the primary people that use our Wi-Fi technology.”
If students need help troubleshooting connection issues or any other technology problems, they can visit OneStop, located on the second floor of the Student Center. Robert Monegro is the Director of User Support & Media Technology at MCCC and he oversees the OneStop area.
Monegro says, “Our role is to provide a guide to students with their technology needs.” He notes this includes “anything that comes to technology and academics. We always support the student population.”
The IT department will be notifying the students through email while these upgrades are taking place. They will be informing everyone of the day that a particular building will be affected.
Cortes concluded, “I hope students will be a little patient with us during this transition but at the same time, if they have problems, I would encourage them to report it to us.”
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If you are experiencing technical problems you can: Visit OneStop Monday-Thursday, 9-6 PM, Friday 9-5 p.m Call 609-570-3300 email: MITTS@mccc.edu. Visit www.mccc.edu/student_services_technology.shtml for more options.
