By Angel Dominguez
Throughout the month of January, Dominican’s Information Technology (IT) department brought in engineers from Sentinel Technologies to perform a campuswide Wi-Fi network assessment.
During class sessions, these assessments were held to give engineers a better understanding of the connectivity throughout the semester, according to officials.
Over the past three semesters, Dominican upgraded its Wi-Fi network after the university landed a $2.5 million federal grant for the work. The engineers evaluated the effectiveness of that upgrade.
Todd Kleine, chief information officer and adjunct instructor, hopes to get the engineers’ report in the coming weeks.
He said he thinks the work and cost of this generational project was a result of outdated hardware across Dominican.
Kleine served as the interim chief information officer until his role became full-time.
He talked about how the status of Dominican’s network was on a lifeline and the revamp was urgent. Kleine said most of the work concentrated on the replacement of fiber optic cables as well as the creation of access points university-wide.
Kleine praised and thanked the Dominican community for their patience and support in overcoming the network’s instability.
He also acknowledged all the students who submitted surveys. Approximately 70% of returns on the surveys were from first-time students who had reached out to IT.
Kate Schmidt, a transfer advisor and adjunct instructor, praised all the work that the IT department has done within the past year.
“The entire IT department has been working incredibly hard to upgrade the network and provide better service to the entire campus community,” she said.
Despite the progress with the updates, students have still shared their concerns with the connection.
Kleine anticipates that the network update will be finalized by the fall 2024 semester.
The department will then cover cell phone services and investigate common pathways taken by students for better coverage.
