It can strike at any time. Sometimes, you’re doing homework; sometimes, you’re just watching TikToks; but usually, it’s when you’re trying to be productive. Your website won’t load. You can’t scroll through social media to procrastinate. You go to YikYak to see if you’re alone, and you’re never alone. Eduroam is down again, and you can’t get anything done. Last semester and in previous semesters, eduroam outages occurred once a month—maybe. However, this semester, it has become almost a daily battle. Nearly every day of the first week, the Wi-Fi went out for a significant period of time. On Monday, February 5, the Wi-Fi went out for most of the night.
Check YikYak when eduroam goes down, and you will find students unifying around one cause: something needs to be done about the Wi-Fi. On February 5, students made humorous statements such as “EDU NEEDS TO START ROAMING AGAIN” or “Weekly Wi-Fi outage [heart-eyes emoji].” Some students on the app called out the school’s inability to provide working Wi-Fi, commenting, “Conn College (a higher education institution) has functional wifi challenge (Difficulty: Impossible).” Others referenced the College’s tuition prices: “Question totally unrelated to the internet issue, how much does tuition cost again?” Unfortunately, The Hump has not commented on the situation, perhaps due to a lack of Wi-Fi.
Eduroam is not exclusive to Connecticut College. It is a Wi-Fi provider whose name is shorthand for “education roaming.” According to its website, eduroam provides Wi-Fi in more than 100 countries. Connecticut College is not alone in its struggles with this network, either. My friend at NYU told me they also have issues with their Wi-Fi. However, the students have the means to access better networks around the city, where Conn students rely solely on eduroam.
The February 5 Wi-Fi outage frustrated students all over campus. With the Wi-Fi out most of the night, students had short windows to work on their homework. Even though most students have cellular data, it seems to not work for many on campus, and it can be a financial burden for those with limited cellular plans. Since the beginning of the semester, Information Services has sent a series of emails detailing ongoing maintenance for the Wi-Fi. On January 16, Information Services emailed students that eduroam was unavailable. On January 18, they sent another email for the same reason. On these days, most students were finishing their winter break, and the students on campus were not in class. Information Services sent another email on January 24 detailing the reasons behind the outages, pointing to a “failed upgrade.” Information Services assured students that they were working on the issue but to expect outages due to maintenance. They also announced working with an outside consultant to remedy the issue. February 6’s email from the College’s Vice President for Information Services, Matt Gardzina, explained that the problem had not been resolved but that he had approved the purchase of new monitoring equipment.
Perhaps the issues with the Wi-Fi are connected to the school’s admission issues. Starting in 2022, the College has admitted an excessive number of students. This has led to the creation of students living in former common rooms, forced doubles, triples, and quads, and frequent overcrowding in both of the campus dining halls. It would be unsurprising if these issues with over-admittance led to the Wi-Fi becoming overcrowded and shutting down, especially during peak activity hours when students do homework.
For me and many other students, the shutdown of eduroam is frustrating and a blow to productivity, especially since it goes down when students are working on homework. At a supposedly top school, the lack of adequate Wi-Fi is enraging and is one of many issues that come with admitting as many students as have been admitted in the past couple of years. I hope the Wi-Fi issues wrap up before the outages continue to impact students more than they already have.
