Internet connection issues at Delta’s campus have left students and staff frustrated at the start of the Fall semester.
“I always try to be on campus to do my homework, but since the Wi-Fi’s not working, that makes me lose my motivation,” said student Natalie Thao.
Student Anthony Sanchez agreed.
“I feel like it has no connection, honestly. I’m currently using my phone’s hotspot,” said Sanchez. “I’ll connect my phone and it’ll say it’s connected but it doesn’t work.”
When he can’t connect on campus, Sanchez said he has to leave campus and go to nearby businesses such as Empresso because the Wifi is free and fast.
Frustrations related to the on-and-off again Internet issues are bubbling over in public ways, with public comment at two most recent board meetings equating the situation to the sinking of the Titanic at the Sept. 3 meeting and and the reading of a resolution seeking “immediate action to resolve the consistent lack of Internet connectivity, lack of Internet capacity,, and slow Internet speeds” at the Sept. 10 meeting.
“Clearly this is a problem and we acknowledge that and it is really, really important that we provide reliable internet for students and for employees here,” Director of Marketing and Communications Alex Breitler said via email.
ISSUES DERAIL LEARNING
Professors have been fighting with the slow connection to no connection as well during classes making it challenging to do their jobs.
Specifically HyFlex courses, classes that are available for in-person as well as a synchronous live lecture, have seen the most impact causing delays in assignments and postponing class for students who can not access the Zoom links or to watch the lecture later.
Digital Media Professor Adriana Brogger, who teaches HyFlex classes said she has experienced many issues with the Wi-Fi and has used Delta’s Information Technology department’s online ticketing system to come out and fix her connection but has still experienced slow connections.
“For a week it was happening pretty much daily. We were putting in phone calls, or an IT work ticket … When I spoke publicly, I did have a response that had them showing up into our physical space, and surveying the situation and then to try to help us by installing access points, and giving us hardwired ethernet connections,” said Brogger, who made comments at a meeting of the President’s Council on Sept. 5.
Brogger also said she has had to delay due dates and be fair to her students that can’t finish her assignments due to the poor connection on campus and ongoing lab connection issues.
“There were a couple of days where I actually shutdown the lab because even when I was working from my office and my lab tech was working from his workspace, neither one of us were able to use the internet. We even tried to use our phones as hotspots, it was just a more efficient day to work from home,” said Brogger.
PANTRY OPERATIONS IMPACTED
Internet connection issues have also impacted Delta’s Student Food Pantry.
The pantry provides food for enrolled students who have completed the online Food Pantry application, which is supposed to give you access for the entire year. However, without a stable internet connection the staff has been working off of an honor system and writing individual applications by hand, to later enter in the data whenever WiFi comes back up.
Acting Student Programs Assistant for the Food Pantry Valerie Valera said the pantry is “backlogged to the max. We are having trouble to verify students so they can use the food pantry, so far we’ve been trying to do like honor code. But that hasn’t really been working out for us.”
The issues extend to more than just serving students, too.
“So we have 100 students that come in, who haven’t completed our application. So that messes with our reporting we have to do every month,” said Valera. “Our reports get kind of skewed, because I actually report to a nonprofit organization, Second Harvest, and they report to the county. Not getting the accurate numbers needed for reporting we won’t have like the support to help the food pantry get stocked.”
Valera has also checked out a hotspot that Delta College provides to attempt to fix the problem, but the hotspot could not connect either.
Breitler has said in an email interview the college is “aware of the challenges at the food pantry, and Information Technology is working with them on a solution specific to their area… I understand that the food pantry has seen an influx of students this fall and we definitely want to make sure that the pantry is able to operate effectively.”
Past efforts were made to try and improve the connections before COVID according to Breitler in an email, “we’ve been working on this issue for a number of years. The construction of a new data center using Measure L funding established a modern hub for our network, and a subsequent project laid fiber optic cables from the data center to the buildings across campus. However there is still a lot of work to be done to bring this infrastructure up into the walls of the buildings themselves.”
UPSET SPILLS INTO PUBLIC COMMENT
The issues were brought to the attention of the Delta College board members in a public comment at the Sept. 3 board meeting by Dr. Harry Mersmann.
“I’m here to tell you right now that the ship is sinking, and it’s sinking because the Internet on this campus is failing on a regular basis,” said Mersmann. “We have classes and faculty that are dismissing classes because they can’t get online to do the things that need to be done in the classroom…Sometimes I get told by certain board members that they don’t necessarily know what’s going on. I just need you to know what’s going on. We’re struggling, we’re struggling. It’s really really dire. The Titanic’s going down.”
At the Sept. 4 Academic Senate meeting the group passed a resolution presented by Professor/Counselor Becky Plaza with intent to take “ immediate action” on the issue. Concerns had been raised before, but attempts to fix it were “inadequate or ineffective,” said Plaza.
Plaza also spoke about how the college needs to how Delta College needs to bring a reliable internet service provider, conduct a thorough assessment of the current internet and physical infrastructure, engage in expert support with external IT experts or consultants, have a plan to address and fix the issues with specific timelines for the restoration of reliable, and implement regular updates to all campus constituencies.
Plaza read the resolution, passed by the Academic Senate, at the Sept. 10 board meeting.
DELTA WORKS TO ADDRESS ISSUE
By Sept. 5, Breitler sent a campus wide email on behalf of the Information Technology department to explain what was believed to be the problem, describing the proposal that will be implemented by the district for the solutions to fix the internet. Employees were asked to “minimize network usage during peak hours, using wired ethernet connections whenever possible, and only using Wi-Fi when mobility is needed.”
“An increase in the number of students on campus and the growing number of electronic devices used by both students and employees is straining our system … Additionally, we need to identify the areas of instruction that rely heavily on technology. If you are experiencing ongoing issues in a highly technology-dependent area, please submit a ticket with detailed information. The more specifics you provide, the better we can assist you,” the campus memo from Breitler stated.
WHAT’S NEXT
From Sept. 9-13, Breitler said the IT department began a network assessment. The IT department walked campus with consultants assisting them in figuring out the immediate solutions and longer term planning.
“It’s a major project. This is one of the things that we have talking about with Measure K and how the IT infrastructure would definitely be a priority if Measure K is approved. It’s a priority either way. But if the bond is approved, and we have the access to those funds, fixing IT infrastructure, doing those upgrades would be a very high priority project for us with the bond,” said Brietler.
During the Sept. 10 board meeting, the Executive Director of Information Technology Scott Quick was noted in board documentation as resigning from his position.
Assistant Director of Systems Development Christopher Kirschenman and Assistant Director of Information Technology Services David Marciel Jr. are now in charge of investigating the connectivity issues on campus.
Collegian reached out to both directors. Kirschenman said the two wouldn’t have time for an interview during the week, which coincided with the network assessment, and referred questions to Brietler.
“We have two very capable and very hard-working assistant directors of IT. And they are the ones who offered to go around and meet the faculty one-on-on to address concerns in particular areas,” said Brietler.
