The Office of Information Technology at Ohio University has several major upgrades in the works that are scheduled to launch by fall.
Students returning to OU next year will notice several improvements to the university’s wired and wireless networks, Chief Information Officer Brice Bible said at the Board of Trustees’ Academics Committee meeting.
On-campus Internet connections had been the target of complaints from many students, Bible said, but the new system of routers will provide a speedier connection inside buildings and outdoors throughout campus.
“We let the students get ahead of us. They needed more bandwidth than we were able to stay up with,” he said.
Once the upgrade is complete, users will no longer have to reconnect and log in when moving from building to building, he said.
“You’ll be able to run all over campus without having to reconnect,” Bible said.
OU’s wired networks are also being upgraded, and the Athens campus upgrade is more than 50 percent complete, Bible said.
The office will not complete the network upgrade until April 2014.
However, the Rufus Initiative, OU’s new student information system, is three months from completion. The new system consolidates student access to university services, including registration, grades, financial aid, student records and more. It will all be accessible from the my.ohio.edu portal.
The class registration process is also being overhauled and will allow students to register at more flexible times than the current system, including after 7 p.m. and during weekends.
Incoming freshmen have already been using the portal since January and have logged in more than 30,000 times, Bible said.
“It is live, and it is very close to running,” he said.
The new student information system will help OU catch up to other universities, said David Descutner, dean of University College and associate provost for undergraduate education.
“This is going to be a tremendous advantage for us,” he said.
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