VUW students lose internet access

VUW students lose internet access

by Jessy Edwards

The university has recently introduced a new ‘system’ which may limit some students’ internet use. Students were not notified of the change and are instead finding out the hard way: being blocked from certain essential websites.

One student was shocked when he realised that he could no longer Instant Message his friends at uni. In an interview conducted over Facebook chat on the university internet, he testified:

“The first thing that happened was that now I can’t use MSN under the new block they put up. It was Wednesday/Thursday last week I started noticing it.”

The student also noticed that he had become prohibited from many sites with video content. He remarked that these sites were “incredibly useful” for his Film class, yet most of the ones he once used have now been blocked.

“It actually got me to read the Student Conduct Policy which basically says no porn or illegal downloading, but other than that we aren’t restricted by that Policy, at least to access video or chatting facilities” he chatted.

The university claims that the new system has in fact been introduced due to a massive growth in internet use. Over the last two years, laptoppers using the wireless network have increased from 180 per day to over 1500 today.

Director of ITS Stuart Haselden explained that the growth has been mainly due to video sites, including Youtube.

“The monitoring and, in some cases, limiting of traffic, has been put in place so that the core purpose of the university—teaching, learning and research—is not hampered by the very small number of people who use the Internet inappropriately,” he said.

A canvas of internet use on campus suggests that the numbers of internet renegades are not as small as Haselden thinks.

From a sample of seven random students, observed over a period of an hour, six of the seven were accessing video material for the entire time. The final student was on Wikipedia, which is almost worse.

It is questionable whether or not the video material was educational. From this small sample, the university internet was used over the hour to watch Japanese anime, Bollywood video clips, and popular music videos. Facebook was used heavily, and a documentary on “Life without Limbs” was also enjoyed.

So far, the new system has affected some sites and not others. Haselden has said that the system will continue to be refined in order to ensure “the best service for staff and students within the cost constraints of our internet pipe sizes.”

Despite this, students still feel that they should have been warned about the change. One student posted an incensed instant message on Facebook:

“None of the students I’ve talked about it knew anything about it till it was implemented, there wasn’t any announcement made. It’s a midnight bill they’ve introduced without discussion with the students themselves who use the university internet >:-( .”

http://www.salient.org.nz/news/students-lose-internet-accesssxxx

This story was syndicated by the Aotearoa Student Press Association via Salient www.salient.org.nz

ENDS

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