Photo by Nicole Williams
Ramapo College now has something in common with your favorite Starbucks. While the coffee here has not changed, the school’s internet connectivity has. Ramapo College has gone from students bringing their own personal access points to school-hosted wireless internet.
Boasting campuswide coverage, Ramapo promises to connect not only current students, but faculty, alumni and guests to the Internet. Hooking up your laptop to stream cat videos just got easier. Ramapo is also offering a Wi-Fi connection for your phone or tablet.
The college also provides a separate connection, titled “Multimedia Devices,” for gaming systems, smart TVs and other electronics that need Wi-Fi. This allows gaming consoles to access online gameplay and features like Netflix.
While the Ramapo website details that it, “provides wireless access campuswide, including academic buildings and residence halls,” the quality of that connection has come under scrutiny. With a large percentage of students and staff utilizing laptops and smartphones, a solid Internet connection has gone from a luxury to a must-have.
“The Wi-Fi strength and coverage is such a hit or miss here at Ramapo,” said junior Jordan Halter. “Some days it connects right away, Web pages load quickly and I have no complaints. Other days, like one day last week, it takes forever. Pages freeze or never load at all to the point where I just give up and slam my laptop shut.”
An unstable Internet connection can cause problems for students who have to submit work online during a certain window of time. While angered by a connection that comes and goes, Halter cited that setting up her electronic devices was easy.
“I didn’t have trouble setting up the Wi-Fi on my laptop or phone, so no complaints there,” Halter explained.
While the Wi-Fi is a definite improvement for the campus, it is still a long way from being perfect. However, other Ramapo students, like freshman Rebecca Carra, feel the Internet connection is up to par.
“I think the Wi-Fi here is very reliable. The coverage of each building is pretty strong,” Carra said. “I have not encountered any problems with the Wi-Fi so far.”
While views on the Ramapo’s new Wi-Fi differs from student to student, the setup process seems to be viewed positively by most.
“The setup for the Wi-Fi here on campus was really easy,” Carra said. “It’s convenient that it’s your username and password.”
While everyone on campus has to deal with connection problems from time to time, some students choose to stay positive about it.
“So far, it’s been pretty good. Once in a while there’s a couple times when it’s kind of slow, but I can’t really complain too much,” said junior Veronica Bassano. “I was in the A-building actually in my class at 2 o’clock, so I don’t know if a lot of people were using it because it’s near the library, or something, and a lot of people are on the computer, but it went in and out … But besides that it’s been pretty much standard.”
Regardless of the consistency and strength of the wireless signal, it is still a step in right direction for Ramapo College.
Bassano summarized how many students feel; “I’m just happy that it’s here.”
aleight@ramapo.edu
