The Student News Site of Central Oregon Community College

The Broadside

The Student News Site of Central Oregon Community College

The Broadside

The Student News Site of Central Oregon Community College

The Broadside

Student Government: Technical Advisory Committee looks to expand internet access

Tobey Veenstra

The Broadside

The Associated Students of Central Oregon Community College has approved a proposal to expand the college’s internet service and to set up several hotspots on campus.

Student issues coordinator Anthony Forrer brought up the proposal, including the hotspot locations and overall costs, on behalf of the Technical Advisory Committee during a recent student government meeting.

He wrote that the TAC “has looked into expanding their internet service to accommodate the booming increase of students … over the next few terms“, according to the student government page on the COCC website.

Forrer has been developing the proposal with the TAC and COCC school board members. He blames the bandwidth problem on the increase in social networking on campus.

“There‘s only so much bandwidth allocated at COCC,” said Forrer. “And the pictures and videos of sites like Facebook … and YouTube take up quite a bit of bandwidth.”

During the student government meeting, Forrer said there would be a monthly fee of $94.95 per hotspot and a one time fee of $300 for a the installation of a firewall.

The college will pay for any additional costs, said Forrer.

The hotspot locations will be in the Campus Library and the Campus Center Building, which could help bring down students to the CCB, TAC member Gary Kontich said.

“I know they (ASCOCC) are trying to encourage students to come down to the CCB,” said Kontich. “I think it’s another step in the right direction.”

Forrer said it should attract more people to the studying center in the CCB as well as providing other advantages to both students and professors.

“Hotspots will give students an unrestricted amount of bandwidth without it effecting the academic side of campus,” said Forrer. “The proposal will benefit [COCC] all around, from students social networking to teachers doing presentations … Overall it should bring a more social network to the campus.”

You may contact Tobey Veenstra at [email protected]

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