NSU’s Undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA) recently drafted the “Wi-Fi Resolution” to raise awareness and improve wireless internet connection and accessibility from all technology devices on campus.
SGA members Kelly Lee Ann Scott, sophomore athletic training major, and Sarah Noelle Erickson, sophomore nursing major, sponsored the resolution.
Through personal experiences and student complaints, SGA recognized that Wi-Fi accessibility on campus was a major issue that affected many students, staff, and faculty.
The association distributed a survey to investigate students’ satisfaction with campus Wi-Fi. According to its 187 participating students, 92.5 percent have faced difficulties accessing connection, 71 percent have faced the same issue several times a day, and 88 percent have en-countered issues during attempted study sessions.
Scott said, “Our goal is to ultimately solve the issue of bad wireless connection.”
In the resolution, the sponsors wrote, “We believe it is our duty to act on the concerns of the students.”
The motion states, in accordance with President George Hanbury’s 2020 Vision, “Academic excellence … is made possible by … effective resources necessary to support learning at the highest level.”
The SGA resolution states, “We believe that in order to uphold to that standard, the wireless connection needs improvement.”
An NSU student, whose identity is not revealed, sent SGA a message that said that this issue even affects the graduate housing facilities in Rolling Hills. The student also said that students need to have dependable internet to do their work and that many classes have not been completed due to all the constant technical errors.
Many NSU faculty members support the SGA resolution.
Pradeep R. Vanguri, associate professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Science (FCAS), said, “While our FCAS faculty have not been polled, the FCAS Faculty Council Executive Board does share the concerns raised by SGA and support their resolution to help improve the Wi-Fi connection issues.”
The resolution also states that NSU faculty face issues during class when they try to log into BlackBoard to access their lectures, and that trying to get internet connection is a problem in every main building on campus.
Scott said, “By presenting this, the issue will be out in the open from the students, for the students.”
SGA will present the resolution to the Pan Student Government Association (PAN-SGA) — which is comprised of representatives from every school’s student government and represents NSU as a whole — and to Dr. Brad Williams, vice president of student affairs, on Nov. 7.
SGA President, Chris Mignocchi, junior exercise science and legal studies major, said that after the presentation to Pan SGA, the undergraduate SGA would like to send the resolution to the Office of Innovation and Information Technology. “President Hanbury will definitely see it at the PAN-SGA meeting in December,” said Mignocchi.
Mignocchi said, “The resolution had more pull than just the undergrads going at it alone, especially since other programs have the same problems, too.”
