Does Eduroam work too well?

Students urge UC Davis to invest in slower Wi-Fi

Students across the UC Davis campus are facing a pressing issue regarding their campus Wi-Fi: It works too well.

UC Davis hosts Eduroam, an international Wi-Fi Internet access roaming service for students, educators and other staff involved in research and higher education institutions around the globe. Across campus, however, complaints have been heard about Eduroam’s functionality at UC Davis.

While hunched over her laptop in the library, Stefani Germanotta, a first-year physics major, expressed a desire to see the Wi-Fi crash more often.

“Yesterday, Eduroam went down three times while I was working on my assignments,” Germanotta said. “Each time it crashed, I celebrated: here was the perfect excuse to not get work done while not feeling guilty about my unproductivity. If only it would do that more often. Now, with Eduroam functional, I have no excuse.”

Aubrey Graham, a second-year gender, sexuality and women’s studies major, pointed out another benefit of Wi-Fi outages while gleefully boarding the Unitrans L line.

“I was torn between staying on campus or going home and taking a nap,” Graham said. “When Eduroam doesn’t work, it makes that decision easy.”

Other students report similar experiences with Eduroam. On a beautiful sunny day of perfect 75-degree weather, Beyonce Knowles, a third-year science and technology studies major, sat down at the UC Davis Quad, opened her laptop and began writing a paper. Eduroam, of course, had other plans. Knowles provided comment while shoving her laptop back inside her backpack.

“Whatever, I didn’t want to study outside, anyway,” Knowles said. “I actually prefer the CoHo.”

Eduroam reaches more areas of students’ lives than just their academics. As Tom Cruise, a fourth-year philosophy major, noted, Eduroam outages have a beneficial impact on his personal relationships.

“Sometimes, my parents call me while I’m on campus,” Cruise said. “Eduroam not working gives me the perfect excuse to hang up.”

Others cite a nonfunctional campus Wi-Fi as a key part of UC Davis’ educational strategy.

“When Eduroam is down and I have to use my data, it really motivates me to do better in my classes so I can get a better job to make more money and afford more data,” Victor Wembanyama, a first-year aerospace engineering major, said. “It’s really a brilliant play by UC Davis.”

A change.org petition titled “Make UC Davis invest in a slower, less-functional Wi-Fi” has reached over 10,000 signatures as of publication.

“For the sake of students’ mental health and academic careers, UC Davis administration should make this a top priority,” Graham said. “What good is college campus Wi-Fi if it works well?”

Written by: Laila Azhar — features@theaggie.org