As Georgetown’s self-imposed deadline draws closer, University Information Services workers are beginning to install wireless Internet service in the rest of the university’s residential facilities.
Associate Director of UIS Donna White DeLay confirmed that workers are currently cabling residence halls for wireless Internet, which University President John J. DeGioia said in a Sept. 1 interview would be fully implemented by springtime. DeLay has confirmed the university is still on track to meet this goal.
Delay wrote in an email that work on the installation in residence halls is scheduled to take place between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the weekdays to avoid disrupting students at inconvenient times. UIS will notify students in each hall two weeks before their wireless service will be activated.
Though the university is forging ahead with planned installations, some students said that it has come too late.
“My public high school has wireless Internet, and I wasn’t paying $56,000 to attend. They won’t even let us set up our own hubs in the name of setting up their own plans, but their plan isn’t coming fast enough,” Evan Monod (COL ’14) said.
Others worry that the current lack of access to wireless Internet may reflect poorly on Georgetown’s reputation.
“It’s an embarrassment for such a good school,” Thomas Brooke (NHS ’14) said.
According to the UIS website, AirHoya – UIS’s name for the wireless network – currently provides full or partial wireless coverage to all academic buildings on the main and east campus except except Maguire Hall, the Edmund A. Walsh Building and the Rafik B. Hariri Building. Residential buildings without at least partial wireless coverage include Henle Village, LXR Hall, Nevils Building and Village A.
Since many of the academic buildings that do boast wireless Internet access guarantee it throughout the entire building, UIS’s remaining work remains largely concentrated on the residential buildings, where Ethernet cords are still widely used by students looking to surf the internet from their rooms.
As for a final schedule, Director of Media Relations Rachel Pugh could not give a definite timeline.
“The schedule for finalizing when wireless will be available is dependent on the completion of the required installation of additional power,” she said.
