Students to provide "eyes in the field" for internet issues

MVNU’s Information Technology Services Department is coordinating a Wi-Fi Task Force to help diagnose and combat the ongoing internet issues on campus.

The task force will be composed of students and led by Assistant Director for Technology Support Josh Cunningham and infrastructure engineer Adam Diener.

The task force will be implemented because of the ITS department’s inability to resolve Wi-Fi malfunctions and gather the necessary information to help prevent future problems.

“We have found that too many Wi-Fi issues are left unresolved because they happen in the evening, in a dorm, or are not easily repeated when full-time staff is working,” Diener said. “This is where students come in.”

The students’ primary job will be to collect information and troubleshoot the Wi-Fi issues outside of normal ITS operating hours.

“Anytime someone has an issue with Wi-Fi, there are a lot of variables involved,” said Director of IT Services John Walchle. “We really need eyes out in the eld to gather that kind of information so we can respond and make any corrections that we need to.”

When there is an incident report, the information will be sent to each individual in the task force and the first student available will respond immediately, said Walchle.

“Our plan is to try to be really responsive,” Walchle said.

The idea is to get information immediately, “rather than trying to come back a day later and figure out what was going on,” he said. “Timing is very important.”

Students who respond will be expected to collect information on the issue and troubleshoot the Wi-Fi network. If a solution cannot be found, students will report the incident to the ITS staff to investigate further.

Diener said he hopes this new approach will improve students’ perception of the campus Wi-Fi as well as provide the ITS Department better feedback on the types of problems students have with the internet.

The end goal is to figure out how to solve those issues faster.

The Wi-Fi Task Force workers will be trained by Diener and the infrastructure team.

Walchle said they would like to begin training task force members before spring break. There is no required knowledge of technology prior to the training.

Students on the task force will be paid hourly for each job they complete. The compensation is minimum wage.

Students interested in joining should email Cunningham at joshua.cunningham@mvnu.edu.