UWM slow Wi-Fi connection brings student isolation back post-COVID

MILWAUKEE- Students and faculty at UWM were welcomed back onto campus this fall, but the slow Wi-Fi connection seems to have other plans.

Finally back on campus, students and staff are able to make their brisk walk to class surrounded by the fall colors. The fountain is glistening, and the sound of small talk between peers is heard in the distance. UWM Senior Faith Rae, 21, opens her laptop at her class in Mitchell Hall and is confused when she finds that she has no connection. She tries again, but this time in a different building. She is shocked to find that she is unable to connect to the internet.

When students attempt to seek answers from the university on this issue, they are replied back with emails that assure the problem is being resolved. More than halfway through the fall semester, students and staff still can’t seem to connect.

“It started out that I had to use my hotspot on campus a lot, where that really shouldn’t be a problem for me,” said Rae. “My phone has been super spotty because I have used so much of my service on my hotspot.”

The Wi-Fi issue is making the transition from online to in-person tougher, and a lot less appealing. Many students were excited to come back to campus but this problem makes online seem like a better option. With the Wi-Fi down, isolation is once again increasing and students are missing out on opportunities to bond.

“I don’t even try anymore,” Rae shared. “I haven’t been to the library since sophomore year. I feel very disconnected. I don’t even use the campus resources anymore.” 

The problem is just the same for faculty members and instructors that made their way back to campus for the 2021-2022 school year. Senior Lecturer at UWM Jessica McBride leads one of her classes from Zoom in her Bolton Hall office.

“I sometimes have to use my hotspot to instruct my online classes, and when my hotspot drops I can’t even use the campus Wi-Fi,” said McBride. “It is wrong that UWM hasn’t fixed this. Students are paying a lot of money for these classes.”

Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer at UWM Robert Beck shared in an email that the university became aware of the issue on Thursday, Sept. 2, the first day of the fall semester.

“This instability reflected unprecedented Wi-Fi demand and some aging Wi-Fi infrastructure,” said Beck. “Since Sept. 2, UITS network engineers have made a succession of improvements to enhance the performance of our UWM Wi-Fi ‘controllers’.” 

According to Beck, the school is in the midst of a major technological upgrade.

“UITS has been implementing its comprehensive Wi-Fi infrastructure replacement plan,” said Beck. “Our new infrastructure is truly transformative, cloud-based, and much more capable and responsive in virtually every respect.  The systematic upgrade of our Wi-Fi infrastructure has prioritized high-traffic academic buildings, with some of UWM’s oldest Wi-Fi hardware already updated.”

Many students were pushed by their advisors to come back to campus, not aware of the technological problems. 

UWM Senior Danielle Minogue, 22, was looking forward to coming back to school when discussing classes with her advisor over the summer. She still wanted a few online options, but when asking about those, her advisor seemed hesitant to provide more information. The school seemed to push in-person enrollment.

“It is really frustrating that I was open to taking online classes and now that I am on campus, I can’t even connect to the Wi-Fi to do work anyways,” said Minogue. “Most days I end up going home to do my schoolwork. I miss hanging around campus with friends to get stuff done.”

Rae feels the same way and shares the importance of having campus as an outlet to get focused.

“I definitely don’t do work on campus like I used to anymore,” Rae said. “It’s a lot harder to do stuff at home with distractions like roommates and stuff.”

In an attempt to get some answers, Minogue reached out to both NOC (which deals with Wi-Fi relations) and the UWM help desk via email. NOC did not reply, and the help desk responded with what seemed like an automated email that still left her without an explanation.

“There is a current service degradation that is affecting UWM WiFi’s network,” the email from the Help Desk read. “Thus, individuals are experiencing intermittent or no service on various devices. We are aware of the issue and are currently working to fix it, however, we do not have a current ETA on when it will be fully resolved.”

Post-COVID, many Universities are struggling with maintaining enrollment. Something like this would have a huge impact on a student’s interest in attending UWM.

“It is in the university’s interest to encourage community spirit on campus and for students to find campus a welcoming place to go,” said McBride. “This decreases retention in a time of declining enrollment.”

McBride is a Senior Lecturer in the Letters and Sciences department, and her office is located in Bolton Hall. Most of the instructors from that department have their offices in that building so the Wi-Fi problem has affected nearly all of them. An email update was sent out to that faculty as well.

“It has to do with the older infrastructure of the building, and it is not a bandwidth issue,” the email read. “The university is working to resolve it. In the meantime, if you’re having trouble with the Wi-Fi, try to hardwire into the system.”

Sources have shared that the problem still remains even if you are working with a hardwired connection. 

“It’s really frustrating,” said Rae. “I don’t think that it’s something I should be worried about all the time with everything online now. So much time is spent online and there is no way to get around this.”

Students have been advised by the administration to make sure their software and operating systems are up to date and that they are using their ePanther IDs to log in (not their email addresses). 

“UITS network engineers will continue their active efforts to monitor our Wi-Fi infrastructure and to increase our overall Wi-Fi capacity,” said Beck in an email. “While we upgrade our campus infrastructure, we will remain focused on Wi-Fi service stability as a top-priority concern.”