ResNet system to be improved

Complaints are running rampant about the newly installed, multi-million dollar ResNet Cable and EtherNet system put in place earlier this year. And last month, Interim President Claire Fagin stepped in to help straighten out the situation after students wrote her a letter detailing their complaints. The letter, written by College freshman and ResNet student worker Christian Metcalfe, explained that student complaints to the University's Office of Cable Television have gone unanswered. Metcalfe's letter was signed by 44 residents of the Ware College House who wished to express their dissatisfaction with their cable and EtherNet services. "We have a really neat system here [with] million dollar wiring in all the dorms and they have the equivalent of bubblegum connecting them across the streets," Metcalfe said in an interview. Fagin said that the letter was the first time she was made aware of the problems. "I also have gotten other information that people are quite satisfied. I mean, not everybody...feels the same thing," Fagin added. Metcalfe said that his letter never received a formal reply but was followed by the installation of a new transmitter known as a "microwave link" in Ware. But, Fagin did respond with a letter to ResNet and a promise to put the appropriate people in touch with Metcalfe. "Compared to what it was, it's 100 percent better, but it's still not commercial cable," Metcalfe said. "The problem that I see is that Resnet, both data and cable, [does not] react to things because they're very disorganized. Christopher Cook, coordinator of the VIDEO program, said the problem was "an unforeseeable kind of technical drawback that really was a frustration to everybody." "We tried many, many solutions to bring [the system] on-line to improve the consistency of the high quality signal over the course of the first semester," Cook said. "We got to the point where we'd run out of solutions and we had to go to an alternate technology." Cook said the new system in place in Ware has eliminated the environmental vulnerabilities of the old system. In an evaluative study break held by the VIDEO office in Ware shortly after the new transmitter was installed, response was very favorable, Cook said. According to Cook, the new system will be in place in High Rise North and in the Modern Language College House – where problems have also persisted – by the first week in February. "This is something we're really concerned about," Cook said. "Solutions are on the way."