Wireless Internet is beginning to spread on campus as a result of the election of current Student Body President John Banks and Vice President Stephanie Saporito, whose platform last year advocated campus-wide Wi-Fi.
Earlier this semester, UNH announced newly acquired wireless access in the main lounges of six residence halls: Scott, Sawyer, Alexander, Hetzel, Hubbard and Serc B. However, this is only the most recent development in an ongoing effort involving numerous university departments and student leaders.
Saporito said it was easy to say they wanted campus-wide Wi-Fi, they discovered "it wasn't that simple." The budget for the year was already set and wireless was an expensive proposition.
The university initially thought wireless would have to wait, but the UNH Department of Housing later asked the school to come up with a list of dorms to have wireless installed in their main lounges.
The process of bringing wireless to campus has been a collaborative effort. In addition to the Department of Housing, Saporito said she and Banks have also been working with the Department of Residential Life and Computing and Information Services, or CIS. "We provide technology implementation and support," Tom Franke, chief information officer of CIS, said of the role that CIS plays in the process.
The process has been largely collaborative because there's currently no master plan for campus-wide wireless. Rather, individual departments and buildings come to CIS with wireless requests. CIS is then responsible for installing the access points and maintaining them.
The key obstacle to further expansion of Wi-Fi is cost. While CIS absorbs some of the cost to encourage installation, each access point still costs $70 a month. This cost is paid by the organization that requests the access point.
When wireless is requested, CIS designs a plan for successful implementation.
"Each building is unique," said Franke.
Looking toward the future, Franke said the residence halls are "not the easiest buildings to provide coverage in," given the small rooms, large number of walls and, in some cases, concrete structure, which requires a heavy saturation of access points.
Shawn Kretchmar, manager of housing's Networked Communications, addressed students' questions concerning the possibility of wireless in their own rooms.
"Housing is going to try and meet this demand as much as is possible within its budget, with existing resources or with the reallocation of resources committed to other services that are not as valuable or in as much demand," he said.
Saporito said she and Banks are working to write a grant by January for the Parents Association, requesting funding for the expansion of wireless. If approved, more dorms will likely be added by next year.
Wireless would bring numerous benefits to students, allowing for more mobile studying and possibly cutting down on library overcrowding. Besides appealing to students, Saporito said the university benefits as well.
"A lot of our competing schools have wireless," she said, adding that it's important UNH is able to attract students, since enrollment is one of the main sources of money for the university.
"People are becoming more and more mobile in their use of technology," Franke said. He added they expect to be able to move from one point to another without losing their connection.
The reaction to the newly-wired lounges is mixed among students.
Philip Tuite, a resident of Sawyer Hall, said the new wireless is great and he can even get it in his dorm room.
Matt Gerding of Hubbard Hall had a different point of view. "It's pretty spotty. I wasn't impressed with it," he said.
"The connection's really slow," Melody Pothier, also of Hubbard, said.
Franke acknowledges "wireless is still significant[ly] slower" than traditional connections. One of the other challenges of installing wireless is knowing the right time to do it.
New technology on the horizon will increase wireless speed "pretty dramatically," said Franke. "You don't want to put old technology in and six months later change it."
Saporito said no one in the university is against the implementation of wireless. It's merely a matter of overcoming obstacles.
"Eventually, UNH has to get Wi-Fi," she said.
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