Westmont Goes Wi-Fi

Westmont has taken a major step toward keeping its campus up to date technologically by going wireless. The $100,000 upgrade includes the installation of wireless access points at most of the campus residence halls as well Voskuyl Library and Kerr Student Center. The technology will allow students and faculty to connect to the Internet outside of their offices and rooms on campus.

“In the last three years, wireless is one of those things that has gone from being a luxury to pretty much an expected item in higher education,” says John Rodkey, associate director of information technology. “Part of being an excellent liberal arts college is providing the necessary infrastructure.”

The popularity of wireless is certainly evident among first-year students, who brought considerably more laptops than desktop computers to campus.

Westmont started process of implementing Wi-Fi about a year ago and selected Aruba Wireless Networks as its vendor.

Substantial wireless coverage has become more prevalent in higher education. The difficult part is staying ahead of the technology curve.

“We in IT try to think of technology as a wave,” he says. “You don't want to be on the leading edge of the wave where you get crushed when it hits the sand. You don't want to be on the backside of the wave. The tricky balance is how far forward on the wave do you want to be. We think we've struck a pretty good balance, so we're not cutting edge in most areas, but we're pretty solid.”