The needs of the many
Wayne Ma |
GRAHAMSTOWN, South Africa —
Something is seriously wrong when Hotmail loads faster for me in South Africa than home in the campus residence halls. Although investigative reporting is rather difficult when stuck halfway around the world, I decided to give it a shot.
Here is bureaucracy at its worst.
For the last week or so, I have phoned and sent e-mails to various administrators in the Housing Division and Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services requesting information regarding the current URHnet problems.
I have made it abundantly clear that I am a columnist for The Daily Illini seeking information for students. I have yet to receive one reply.
Student network technicians were informed by their superiors to direct me to housing's Web site, which doesn't provide enough information on the issue. I was later asked to stop bothering technicians with my questions.
University employees told me to speak to their bosses. Their bosses told me they were too busy to respond. And in the end, none of the questions I wanted for this column were answered.
Last year, students on URHnet along with the entire campus shared a combined pipeline of approximately 115 Mbps. Today URHnet is capped at 23 Mbps — an 80 percent reduction.
Internet usage on our campus doubles every 18 months. Because the budget isn't large enough to keep up with demand, CITES and housing were both aware last semester that the available bandwidth in residence halls would be reduced. Students were not notified.
The problems that URHnet experiences today are the result of a series of mishaps. First, Illinois Century Network stopped allowing free bandwidth that was dedicated to students during peak hours.
Thanks to state budget cuts, CITES was unable to secure an Internet service provider to replace this loss.
To maintain the integrity of the network, CITES targeted the residence halls, requiring housing to sign a contract limiting the connection to the 23 Mbps cap.
My guess is that CITES' mistake was looking at averages. On average, students last year used 19 Mbps on the campus network. This year, if everyone had spread their Internet activity evenly over a 24-hour period, the 23 Mbps cap would have worked out.
However, during peak hours, residence hall networks typically want to access more than twice that amount. The periods that students use for sleep, classes and weekend excursions must drag down the real average.
If CITES wanted an accurate measure of bandwidth in the residence halls, they should have concentrated the calculations on usage during peak hours.
It is now too late to correct the mistakes made. Last week, housing director John Collins and CITES administrator Stanley Yagi sent out an e-mail explaining to students that they were unable to raise the bandwidth cap.
The reason: state budget cuts. It is a clever scapegoat. But the truth is that CITES and housing dropped the ball.
CITES should have been in touch with real student usage when drawing up its contract for housing, while housing should have scrutinized these numbers or at least notified potential residents of the issue in advance.
Students need access to a stable network during peak hours. The bandwidth cap in place is unacceptable. Currently, the rest of the campus enjoys uncapped access to the network day and night.
Although URHnet typically consumes the most bandwidth, it is not a valid reason for penalizing students. Unlike the 3,000 faculty members who go home each evening, the 8,000 campus residents must use the University network 24 hours a day.
Freshmen required to live in the residence halls have no choice but to accept URHnet as their provider. Housing forbids a subscription to any alternative ISP.
For returning students, URHnet factors in crucially when deciding between on-campus and off-campus housing. Students who opt to stay in the residence halls expect the convenience of URHnet access.
Students have a right to demand a quality service. Their educational needs come before those of the faculty and staff. If a solution cannot be found, housing should at least allow students to seek out alternative sources for broadband if necessary. It is only fair, seeing as how residents were clearly deceived.
How large were these budget cuts? How much bandwidth did the University really lose? And why were the students targeted first?
The University must provide us with some legitimate answers. CITES and housing have kept students in the dark for too long. Action must be taken.
Wayne Ma is a sophomore in LAS. His columns appear Tuesdays. He can be reached at opinions@dailyillini.com
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