Dear Villanova University Information Technologies,

For the past two years, I have lived on campus, first on South Campus, and then in the quad. This year, I am privileged enough to live on west campus in the gorgeous apartments.

Yet upon arrival this year, I have found one thing about the West Campus apartments to be sub-satisfactory, and in fact absolutely unacceptable- the internet service. For the past two years, I took for granted the small bubble popping up in the bottom right hand corner of my screen displaying proudly “100 Mbps,” and when I lived in the quad, I sometimes even got wireless internet from Bartley! But not this year. No, definitely not this year.

Sure, when I plug in my gray “useless everywhere else in the universe” internet cord, the computer takes a few moments and searches for the connection, and when it is done, I get a nice little bubble popping up to tell me “10 Mbps.” Now I do not know what “Mbps” stands for (I would imagine Mega Bytes Per Second) nor do I actually care, but what I do know is that somehow in my move from the Quad to West, I lost 90 of them.

So you say, “Get over it. Life goes on. It’s only internet connection.”

Alright, I will buy that. But wait, even sometimes when my computer tells me I am connected at 10 Mbps, my “Page Cannot Be Displayed.”

So you say, “Get over it, the server is periodically down for repairs.”

Alright, I will buy that too. But wait, you repair the server every night from 7 P.M. until 2 A.M.? I highly doubt the sporadic internet service over a span of seven hours nightly has to do with the maintenance.

So you say, “Get over it, how much do you honestly need the internet at that time. You are probably just wasting time on AOL Instant Messenger.”

Alright, again, I will buy that. I do waste some time on AOL Instant Messenger, however that time is nothing next to the time I must take to write this gripe column to get your attention to fix this problem.

And hold on for just another second, professor. Isn’t it true that this campus is moving toward a technologically advanced future? Are teachers not using PowerPoint slides and WebCT tools hand in hand with traditional educational practices? Is Villanova Webmail not the preferred means of out of class communication between professors and their students? Are we not increasingly dependant upon this technology as each semester passes?

Regardless of your answers to these questions, I will tell you that from my experience, along with the experiences of many others I have spoken with, the inability of the west campus internet service to function is crippling. Whether as a learning, or communication tool, in today’s age of technological dependence, it is essential that our internet function properly and efficiently.

I will admit that I have no clue as to how to solve this problem, nor the magnitude of project it would take, nor monetary ramifications of an endeavor this size. But then again, I am simply a student bringing a dilemma before you. The aforementioned matters are not my responsibility. And besides, I already have my hands full staring at the “Cannot Find Server” University Homepage with the “10 Mbps” bubble in the bottom right hand corner of my screen.

P.S. I will hand deliver this column to the Villanovan tomorrow, because as usual, the E-Mail service is down.

All my love,

-Whining On West