Events on Friday resulted in the temporary loss of a network connection for students living in South College. Many of us assumed this was a small glitch in the system, we soon discovered that the problem would remain unresolved until Monday morning because the network specialists only work on weekdays. We found this response to be unacceptable.
To some, this problem may seem minor. Obviously, students can survive without Internet access. To others, however, the problem created multiple inconveniences over the weekend. The lack of an Internet connection forced students to alter their plans for projects, tests and Internet research. This loss came at a particularly bad time; many students were trying to prepare for their first college finals period. As a result of the lack of email, one student missed a critical email regarding a paper deadline.
As the number one liberal arts college in the country, Amherst should be embarrassed about this example of its insufficient technical capacity. As a school with a nearly billion dollar endowment, do we truly lack the financial means to have at least one network professional on call on weekends? Would Williams allow this to happen?
This is not the first problem with Internet access in South. Connections have been unreliable at times, and one resident lacked Internet access for nearly two weeks because of a faulty connection. Without Internet access, he was unable to talk to girls he was too nervous to talk to in real life.
After many phone calls to Technical Support, we could only find out that the problem "should be fixed by Monday morning." We received no definite answers, only questionable promises made by uninformed phone operators. We ask that the Information Technology department address our concern, or at least provide compensation for the inconvenience that was caused, perhaps in the form of a tuition refund or wings. Generally, "Honey Bar-b-que" is preferred, though "Honey Mustard" would also be accepted.
The Internet is critical to academic and social life at our college and it is imperative that Amherst provides a reliable means of access to its students.
Andrew Moin '05
Justin Sharaf '05
Daniel Sims '05
Sarah Sklar-Heyn '05
Zach Sugarman '05
35 additional residents of South