OCU is set to receive new technology upgrades on campus.
Campus tech officials are reportedly doubling the internet bandwidth on campus, increasing internet speeds in both wired and wireless connections.
“It will not do anything specifically to the Wi-Fi,” said Gerry Hunt, chief information officer for campus technology services. “The speed to getting to resources on the internet will be quicker.”
Campus tech officials are improving the internet speeds after an increase in the number of devices students are using on campus.
“It is growing at a rapid rate,” Hunt said. “Students and employees are coming with not just one, but at least two, if not four or five devices.”
Over-stressing the Wi-Fi has caused the demand for internet bandwidth to become very high, and it is always growing. Campus internet has been at one gigabit per second for years.
“We have just reached a point where we needed to increase it,” Hunt said. “We also have other initiatives going on, like an eSports initiative that’s coming up.”
The need for more bandwidth caused campus tech to look for and identify a provider that will double the internet at a reasonable rate.
“It should feel better when you’re browsing on the internet or accessing resources,” Hunt said. “The less buffering that would be required and the quicker you can download content should provide a better experience.”
Additionally, campus tech officials are also replacing the copy machines around campus.
“We are beyond the end of our contract for our existing copiers,” Hunt said. “We’re well beyond their lifespan, and it’s reached the point where we need to replace the devices.”
Replacing the copiers on campus with newer models will give campus access to the latest technology when it comes to copying and printing.
“The new devices will be more reliable,” Hunt said. “They’ll have faster components, up-to-date touch screens, all the later more up-to-date components that you wouldn’t find in an eight-year-old copier.”
The new copiers will be under a five year lease by the university, so when the lease is up, the copiers will be replaced with newer technology.
“The exact price, I don’t recall,” Hunt said. “It’s a hardware lease, plus we pay per page for maintenance. So, the university is charged for every page that is printed by RK Black, which is our vendor that we lease this equipment through. They charge us that because that is how they provide us maintenance, and they also provide us toner at no extra cost.”
Print subsidies via StarCards will still be accepted.
Duke Bartholomae, acting junior, said the internet upgrades would be helpful.
“I feel like it’s very well needed because a lot of the stuff I do on a regular basis is involving the internet,” he said. “It’s nice to have that safety net for what the internet can do for us.”
Contributing author: Luke Barrett
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