West Liberty University’s internet connection has improved significantly, thanks to a campus-wide upgrade overseen by Chief Technology Officer Jim Clark. The improvements will be readily apparent to students returning this fall semester.
“We’ve made a major improvement in our data highway,” Clark said. “It’s part of a continuous improvement project as we grow from a good college to a great university, pursuant to President Robin C. Capehart’s strategic plan for West Liberty University.”
He explained that the university has boosted its bandwidth from a more conventional 45 megabytes to one gigabyte, or 20 times previous capacity. “It increases capacity twentyfold. The improvements provide the framework for faculty, students and staff quickly and responsively to get to websites, all video applications, web 3.0 applications, mobile applications and myriad new, emerging IP television technology,” Clark said.
“Users will notice quicker and more responsive access on computers, smartphones and all wireless tools.”
Bill Moon, Frontier’s general manager in Wheeling, said, “Frontier Communications is pleased to have the opportunity to provide additional communications services to West Liberty University, one of the state’s top educational institutions. Frontier has made significant improvements to the telecommunications network in West Virginia during the past year. We are proud to serve the communities in which we live and work and pleased to bring new and improved services to the Wheeling area.”
Not only will the upgrades provide campus internet users faster access, Clark added, they will save the university money. By going to a more state-of-the-art solution, the university will spend approximately 42% as much as its network previously cost. “We haven’t replaced network components,” he explained, “we’re simply adding capacity.”
WLU also achieves cost savings by relying on “cloud-based” computing, that is, by utilizing hardware and equipment located elsewhere. “We believe it’s more fiscally responsible to use technology that doesn’t require us to have on-site servers, just the high-speed connection,” Clark said. Not having huge capital outlays permits the university to operate quickly and respond rapidly to user needs and to minimize the costs associated with providing service to faculty and students, he added.
The internet service and upgrades, provided by Frontier Communications, are part of a sophisticated network initiative to bring high-speed internet service to rural areas.
“These improvements will allow us to provide excellent coverage and density to our wireless classrooms in our academic buildings. Our commitment is to make information available anywhere, at any time,” Clark explained. “It ties in with our freshman laptop initiative, now in its fourth year.”