ITS Expands Wifi, Installs Hall Phones

From expanded Wi-fi in the dorms to new hallway phones, the Academy underwent a major technology overhaul this summer.Principal Tom Hassan said that the technology updates that ITS brought this summer are significant to the school.  “It is important for the Academy to keep pace as technology evolves and to implement solutions that improve campus communications and enhance how we access the world beyond Exeter,” Hassan said.  “Our ITS team has been working hard to provide us with these resources, and I greatly appreciate their efforts."Director of Information Technology Services (ITS) Diane Fandrich said that the implementation of wireless is an important initiative for the Academy. “As the use of technology continues to grow as an educational resource, a communication tool and a means for creating, the Academy needs to be able to support these tools and functions,” she said.  “The increasing mobility of technology also requires that connectivity be available anytime, anywhere allowing individuals to access resources and communicate and collaborate with anyone across the globe.”The Wireless Expansion Initiative was approved in the spring of 2012 to install Wi-Fi throughout campus, with plans to implement over the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years. ITS began initial implementation in the fall of 2012 with a pilot of new wireless in the Elting Room of Phillips Hall, Grainger Auditorium of Phelps Science Center and the Forum in the Academy Center.  This was immediately followed by the first phase which addressed the Class of 1945 Library, Wetherell Dining Hall, and Elm Street Dining Hall.  The second phase, which was completed in December 2012, implemented Wi-Fi in all academic buildings and most administrative buildings.This summer, ITS worked on its third and last phase, implementing Wi-Fi in the dormitories, which began in the fall of 2012 with Langdell Hall and Wheelwright Hall.  According to Fandrich, 17 dorms will have wireless Internet access when school begins.  The remaining dorms will be completed during September and October, with the exception of Merrill Hall, which will be completed later in the year.In addition to the expansion of Wi-Fi on campus, the Academy and ITS replaced individual landline phones in dorm rooms with hallway phones.Fandrich said that this replacement was the result of a move of the Academy’s 911 support and lack of student usage of dorm room landline phones.This fall, the Academy will move from Exeter Fire/Police Department 911 support to the State of NH 911 service.  “This means that all calls placed from an Academy phone to 911 will go directly to the state-wide 911 service, making the Academy compliant with the State of New Hampshire emergency regulations,” Fandrich said.“In conjunction with this move, we reviewed and surveyed student dorm room phone usage.  The results indicated fewer students utilized the Academy dorm room phones while increasing their use of cell phones,” Fandrich said. “Because of the decreased use of student dorm room phones, it was decided to reduce the number of active Academy phone lines and install hallway phones with easy access in case of an emergency.”All hallway phones are expected to be installed by the beginning of school or shortly thereafter.  These hallway phones will be available for 911 calls as well as local calls and long distance calls using a calling card or credit card.ITS has also been working this summer to upgrade the Academy’s Webmail client from the current Microsoft Exchange 2003 to Microsoft Outlook Web Access 2013.  A significant benefit that is expected to come with this upgrade is that mailbox storage limits will be increased from 0.5 GB to 25 GB for all students, faculty, and staff. In addition, users will have better features and functionality.However, for now, the schedule for the upgrade is not yet certain.  According to Fandrich, ITS is still in the early stages of planning for the migration to a cloud-based solution for mail.  “We are working with a vendor who specializes in migrating educational institutions from on-premises email to Office 365,” Fandrich said.  “We are currently going through a discovery phase to ensure that we have all the information required for the migration.  At the end of the discovery phase, we will be able to publish a schedule for the upgrade.”Fandrich said that the Webmail client upgrade is becoming necessary. “While Microsoft Exchange 2003 has been reliable and valuable over the past 10 years, it is an aging system and we do need to upgrade in order to take advantage of many new features,” she said.  “It is important to note that we are migrating only the server (or back-end) portion of the email system.”Students were generally optimistic about the implementation of wireless in dormitories, citing mobility as the primary benefit.“I'm excited for the new Wi-Fi we're getting in our dorms. I think it's a great improvement,” upper Lazaro Cesar said. “It allows kids to be more portable in their dorms with their computers whether it be studying in the common room or wanting to use your computer in another dormmate's room. It will definitely aid in my studies because if I need to study with someone in my dorm, we are no longer restricted to just our rooms or the Ethernets.”Upper Margaret Zhu agreed. “Getting Wi-Fi in our dorms is a great idea since it provides us with more mobility and flexibility. Mobility is increased for mid-sized and large groups that want to study together. For example, with Wi-Fi, we can all bring our laptops to the common room to study,” Zhu said. “And flexibility is also increased since we can study in more places on campus. Also, we can see the benefits of current Wi-Fi from students using it all over campus--in our library, Phillips hall, and Dining Halls.”Some students, however, had mixed feelings about Wi-Fi.  “I live in Langdell, so this past spring term I had Wi-Fi. I still ended up using my Ethernet cable, because I didn't find it to be inconvenient, and when everyone in the dorm was using the Wi-Fi, it was really slow,” lower Angela Song said. “I didn't find the Wi-Fi to be incredibly helpful; it was only a little more convenient.”Student response to hallway phones was generally positive.  “I think the implementation of hallway phones is a good idea; basically everyone has a cell phone,” senior Sean Lee said. “I think it’s about time that the Academy stopped listing "cordless telephone" or whatever it’s called in the Welcome to Exeter list, because having worked at the Exeter Exchange, I’ve noticed that those were definitely the most commonly junked tech trash.”Lower Thomas Fredericks agreed that the technology updates will benefit the Academy community.  “Most importantly, the school prides itself on being very up to date on many issues, ideas and programs. So, not only does it give benefits to students, it shows that we are on another level of boarding schools in terms of what they can provide to their students,” he said. “Like previously mentioned, we should be using the most new technology and software that are available to us.”