Recent outages of Cornell’s primary campus Wi-Fi network, eduroam, have disrupted students’ ability to complete coursework and participate in class, despite efforts from Cornell Information Technologies to remedy the network.
Cornell IT cited high network demand as a key factor behind the recent eduroam disruptions.
“Cornell’s IT team has been responding to reports of slow or inaccessible Wi-Fi in high-density areas, including public spaces and lecture halls,” Cornell IT wrote in a statement to The Sun. “The start of the semester always brings a surge in demand as thousands of community members return — often with multiple devices — and the recent stretch of extreme cold has concentrated even more people indoors, increasing wireless load.”
Early Friday morning, Cornell IT made “configuration adjustments to stabilize the network,” and reported that “initial indicators show improvement across many of the affected areas.”
Several students reported that the eduroam outages have significantly interfered with their ability to complete assignments and stay engaged during lectures.
Gracie Luong ’29 found herself frustrated by the unstable connection, which she said made it difficult for her to take notes on Google Docs during lecture and disrupted her ability to complete her homework.
“It was really annoying to keep reloading homework pages because I did that more than the actual homework itself,” she said.
Beyond coursework, students reported that outages affected attendance and participation in classes, especially in classes that heavily rely on online tools.
“The worst part of it is lectures that take attendance with Poll Everywhere,” said Mollie Lukowski ’28. “Sometimes Poll Everywhere doesn’t work for the professor, and sometimes I can’t log in to it in time to be counted for my attendance.”
When attendance fails to register, it can take a toll on students’ grades in courses where attendance makes up a portion of the final grade. Lukowski said she often had to follow up with a teaching assistant to receive attendance credit for the class because of connectivity issues.
Cornell IT remains sympathetic to students’ frustrations and continues to work on resolving the issue.
“We know Wi-Fi services are essential and are doing all we can to improve during this unusually high-use period,” Cornell IT wrote. “We appreciate our community’s patience and continued communication.”
Kristie To is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Kristie is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at kto@cornellsun.com.
