The Office of Information Technology (OIT) at Stan State introduced a new Wi-Fi network, Eduroam, to the Turlock and Stockton campus over Spring Break that allows students to be connected online in a new global scale, as mandated by the California State University Office of the Chancellor.
Eduroam is a wireless educational network that is used by thousands of campuses worldwide and is now making its way through the CSU system.
The California State University Office of the Chancellor mandated that CSU campuses intergrade Eduroam before the start of Fall 2016. Most of the CSU campuses have already made the switch and many have been using Eduroam throughout the Spring 2016 semester.
According to the Eduroam website, there are currently 18 CSU and 13 UC campuses that are connected to the global network.
Any Stan State student, professor or staff with a valid Stan State email has access to the new network on campus and can also connect to the network off-campus at any participating campus.
Technology Help Desk Lead and Information Technology Consultant, Matthew C. Keevy, believes having one Wi-Fi network will make it easier for students to be connected online at all times.
“There really is no reason to keep csus-secure and csus-dorm and Eduroam, Eduroam just simplifies all your campus connections to just one,” Keevy said. “It won’t matter if you’re living in the dorms or studying in the library you will always be connected to the same network.”
All the old Wi-Fi networks on campus students are accustomed to will be disappearing and replaced by one network, Eduroam, by the start of the Fall 2016 semester.
“We don’t intend to take those old networks offline until after graduation to not cause any disruptions for those folks who want to switch mid semester,” Keevy said.
According to Keevy, over 900 connections have been made in the first two weeks since the integration of Eduroam. The majority of the students however, are still not connected to the new network and may run into trouble when school starts in fall.
The news of a new Wi-Fi network came as a surprise for Lilibeth Jaimes (senior, Political Science) who had seen the network as an option, but was not aware it was a Wi-Fi network for students on campus.
“Oh that’s what it is, I saw that earlier but I didn’t really know what it was,” said Jaimes.
OIT advises students to switch over to Eduroam before the Spring 2016 semester ends to ensure students have one less problem to worry about during the hectic start of the school year.
“It’s important we get many people connected to Eduroam as soon as we can, so it can minimize any disruptions when we actually do cut off the old networks,” Keevy said.
OIT will continue informing students throughout the semester and before the Fall 2016 semester starts to switch over to the new network before the old networks go offline.
For any questions regarding the network changes or any other technical problem, students are encouraged to contact OIT for help at (209) 667-3687.