Meeting the expectations of today’s mobility-centric students has become a top priority in higher ed, including at Chapman University. Here, our student surveys consistently designate campus Wi-Fi as the most important service our institution provides. In our classrooms, mobile is rapidly becoming the norm with some colleges, such as in our School of Pharmacy, already all-wireless.
To meet the needs of the 13,000 mobile and IoT devices concurrently connecting to our campus Wi-Fi network, as well as support whatever comes next, we recently found ourselves at a crossroads. Here are the reasons a complete overhaul of our wireless infrastructure proved the right path for us.
Reason #1: Effectively resolve reliability complaints
About four years ago, student complaints about campus Wi-Fi skyrocketed. Connections frequently dropped when moving between classes, which often required a device reboot. It was also common for an individual to be standing in close proximity to an access point, but their connection was still unreliable.
Related content: 9 critical steps to Wi-Fi innovation
Phillip Lyle is Assistant VP of Enterprise and Research Infrastructure at Chapman University where he provides oversight of all technology infrastructure and works to identify strategic opportunities for meeting the needs of students, faculty, and staff. Lyle previously held positions with the Rancho Santiago Community College District and has taught IT curriculum for over 15 years at various schools in the Orange County area. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix, an MBA from Concordia University in Irvine, California, numerous technology certifications in the areas of systems, networking, and security.
Mike Ferguson is Manager of Network Operations at Chapman, where he manages the teams that support university-wide data networking services and provides operational leadership to ensure the availability, reliability, security and performance of the institution’s data network. Ferguson has over 15 years of experience in supporting IT network infrastructure and has overseen a tenfold increase in network use since his arrival at Chapman. Prior to getting hooked on IT during the late 1990’s “dot-com” craze, Ferguson taught high school French. He studied Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University and English at Christopher Newport University.
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