Slow MU WiFi aggravates students

Casey Bluel, Staff writer

Instead of spending Mercyhurst’s budget on mechanical bulls, dunk tanks and ice cream trucks at Hurst Day, I believe President Michael Victor should think about fixing the awful internet connection that has burdened the students for so long.

I know that, for me, surfing the internet and doing my homework takes 10 times as long as it should due to the painfully slow LakerVapor WiFi. It is both stressful and aggravating. It often seems as though only certain areas of an apartment have access to WiFi, which is a problem for students who like to do homework in their rooms.

How are students supposed to send important emails, access Blackboard or the portal, Skype with grandma or watch Netflix when the university does not provide them with the means to do so? Does the school expect us to walk all the way to the center of a WiFi hotspot with our laptops and phones held high above our heads to secure a connection? It is a waste of valuable time that none of us busy students can afford to lose.

The Mercyhurst IT Department does all they can to fix the issue and are more than happy to come by and check out your WiFi. It is not their fault that the WiFi does not work well. The problem lies in the money that is set aside for WiFi. We spend thousands of dollars a semester to stay on campus. WiFi is supposedly included in this package.

However, it seems as though only a few of the students can access it.

The least the school can do with the tuition we pay them is to increase our accessibility to WiFi. Better quality WiFi would alleviate the stress and irritation of many students.

My carrier pigeon is tired of flying all my messages to my professors due to an unreliable internet connection. We live in a society where internet connection is a must at all times and Mercyhurst needs to make fixing the WiFi a top priority.