By Julia Mericle
News Editor
Michael Hoffman, associate provost and chief information officer at St. Bonaventure, responded to student concerns about cable TV and Internet bandwidth strength on campus.
According to Hoffman, the Internet bandwidth has been updated from 300 megabits per second to one gigabit per second, or 1,000 megabits.
A graph of campus bandwidth use from this past Sunday at 10 a.m. to Monday at 10 a.m. revealed the WiFi usage peaking at 816 megabits.
Hoffman said this means students are using a lot of the extra bandwidth added this year.
“A couple of students may have perceived that we did not upgrade the bandwidth,” Hoffman said. “I’d suggest that there is any number of reasons why they could think that. They could be having issues with their own computer or it could be the site they are going to, but it is absolutely being used.”
Hoffman also had answers to student concerns regarding cable TV on campus.
Sebastian Bellm, a senior accounting and finance major, expressed concern about the lack of options students are given, referring to the relationship between Bonaventure and Time Warner as the “local equivalent of a monopoly.”
According to Hoffman, there are no other cable TV providers in this area.
“That is very common,” Hoffman, who cannot receive cable TV from any other provider in his Olean home either, said. “Usually cable TV companies do not cross geographic boundaries.”
Hoffman said issues regarding the Time Warner pricing packages originated when Time Warner gave the university a pricing sheet to distribute to students in mid-August 2015.
“It had an introductory price for a basic package,” Hoffman said. “Time Warner subsequently realized that they had provided the wrong number.”
After that mistake, Hoffman said he would not pass on any pricing information to students from Time Warner, but would pass on its contact information to make interactions directly between students and Time Warner, without Bonaventure in between.
According to Hoffman, there are other options; including high definition televisions in all of the residence hall lounges and the Rathskellar with expanded digital TV service.
“That social viewing component should be far better than it was in the past.”
mericlje13@bonaventure.edu
