By Rachel Konieczny
News Assignment Editor
Bonaventure students said they are encountering decreased WiFi bandwidth and noticeable cable changes through Time Warner as students moved back to campus for the beginning of the academic year.
Talk of these changes began last semester with the university’s overall goal of more than tripling the Internet bandwidth strength, among other computer network goals.
“I am very unhappy with the new Time Warner Cable switch,” said Dasey Taylor, a senior journalism and mass communication major. “The fact that students have to pay for basic television is ridiculous.”
Taylor said she feels strongly about the university’s new actions regarding cable and the campus WiFi.
A survey, conducted last semester by members of student affairs and the Student Government Association (SGA), aimed to determine the importance of cable TV and Internet to students on campus. The study found approximately 70 percent of students surveyed chose faster wireless Internet acces.
Rebecca Misenheimer, a theater professor, commented on her use of the Internet in both her classes and home life.
“I made the same switch,” Misenheimer said. “We ditched Time Warner, we watched television via Netflix. We have high speed internet and when we get a lot of our stuff online or through Netflix, it seems to me [that] St. Bonaventure making that choice was [for] just the same reasons I did. Ultimately, it’s financial.”
Sebastian Bellm, a senior accounting and finance major, agreed with both Taylor and Misenheimer on the fundamental issues of the cable debate.
“I think that the deal between Bonaventure and Time Warner Cable is the local equivalent of a monopoly,” Bellm said. “Students don’t have the opportunity to go to a different provider if they wanted to, giving TWC the power to charge whatever they want. Students then have the option to either not watch TV or pay TWC. The basic package is $30 a month, which includes stations like PBS, NBC, ABC, CSPAN and the other public channels.”
The study, conducted last year under the guidance of Michael Hoffman, cheif information officer at St. Bonaventure, graphs Internet usage over time, what peer institutions are doing and results of the annual technology survey.
“When the resident students are on campus, our bandwidth is maxed out from about 10 a.m. in the morning until about 2 a.m. the next morning,” Hoffman said in a prior press release last semester. “So there’s a very small block of time when it’s not maxed out.”
While stating her support for technical services at Bonaventure, physical education professor Paula Scraba, Ph.D, also commented on the university’s failure to inform students of potential changes regarding cable plans.
“The email that went out to students on the Notice Board [advertised that cable] would be ten dollars per month for students,” Scraba said. “That was the initial package, but then in reality, they forgot the fine print that was if you have WiFi from Time Warner.”
Hoffman, in the same prior release, said the cost for cable for the current academic year was slowed due to Time Warner’s planned merge with Comcast that would have forced the regional Time Warner to become united with Comcast.
At Bonaventure, the transition to a faster WiFi connection by way of reevaluating cable caused a variety of problems for students and faculty, alike.
“I had to miss the Video Music Awards (VMA) and other shows over the weekend because I was unable to pay for the package in time,” Taylor said. “The representatives were unavailable and the offer expired on the 31 of August.”
Bellm finds flaws with Time Warner’s billing system.
“Instead of billing through our student accounts or being able to split the bill between roommates, one person has to make a contract with Time Warner and then the other roommates have to pay them back, making the system ridiculously inconvenient,” Bellm said.
Scraba overheard several Time Warner representatives discussing their product.
“I was listening to a conversation of a couple Time Warner guys that were sitting at the table outside the bookstore,” Scraba said. “One guy said to the other, ‘If a student wants it in their bedroom, it’s this price. But if they’re going to be four guys in a suite, and they want it in their living room, then we’re going to charge them a different price.’”
The physical education instructor hopes a better solution may be reached in the future.
“I don’t think all the cards were on the table; I don’t see this being a benefit to the students,” Scraba said. “The university might be saving some money on it, because I understand that some of the services that Time Warner was being contracted for are now contracting someone else. Time Warner not only lost the big contract from the university, but they also lost this other contract.”
koniecrc14@bonaventure.edu
