Issues with Spectrum Arise this Semester For SLU Students Learning Remotely

By Hannah Finley Last updated Feb 4, 2021

Spectrum users encountered Internet problems earlier this semester. Image credit: pixy.org

One thing most students and professors can depend on is internet issues during a remote learning semester. However, one thing they do not expect is being blocked from their school websites and VPN due to their internet provider.

Issues with internet connection and reaching SLU sites began Tuesday January 19. This left several members of the St. Lawrence community with no method to access assignments, zoom links or other resources they may need to prepare for classes.

It was not until Wednesday that St. Lawrence students and staff received information about the issue. The Director of Operations and Planning in Information Technology, Jamie Richardson, informed staff and students via email that Information Technology reached the appropriate Spectrum engineers to help them resolve the issue.

However, on Thursday January 21, the issue still was not resolved. Richardson reminded staff and students, “We completely get how frustrating this has been for all of you! Especially in this time of Covid where we can’t simply come to campus and MUST be remote, relying on our internet connections to teach, learn and do our jobs” and “Please know that we are doing everything necessary to get this resolved as soon as we possibly can!”

These issues only affected students and professors off campus, since St. Lawrence’s internet provider is NYSERNET.

Vice President for Finance & Administration, Steve Hietsch, and Vice President of the University and Dean of Academic Affairs, Karl Schonberg revealed that these issues were also affecting learning at Hamilton College and Colgate University.

The email sent to students on Thursday January 21 outlined some possibilities for people struggling with internet issues. These options included using the hotspot on a cell phone, signing up for a personal VPN, or driving to campus and using the wifi from a car. Another option for those working on campus included getting tested and being approved to return.

Purchasing a personal VPN or using a personal hotspot is not what most students thought their remote learning would be like. However, on Friday January 22 Hietzch informed students and staff that the issue was temporarily resolved. Some of Spectrum’s routers were not functioning properly which caused disruptions in connection to St. Lawrence resources. The company temporarily rerouted traffic to functioning segments of their routers. This is only a temporary fix, “Spectrum will eventually need to restore traffic to those segments of their network which have been temporarily taken offline. When that occurs, it is possible that we will experience additional disruptions,” according to HIetzche.

Now another aspect of remote learning that students can depend on is continuing internet issues and the work of Information technology to resolve those issues.