UPDATED: 4:55 p.m. Monday, Oct. 9
As a result of the ongoing network outage, classes will move to virtual instruction on Tuesday, Oct. 10. An email from Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Dennis Hall, informed students that professors will be conducting classes through Microsoft Teams at the regular scheduled times.
On Friday, Oct. 6, Texas Wesleyan experienced a campus-wide internet outage which later caused classes to be cancelled the following Monday, and left students and faculty struggling to do their work and jobs.
Students received two text messages, a phone call, and an email on Sunday, Oct. 8, explaining that classes will be cancelled the following day. The emergency alert system was able to notify each student and faculty member about the outage, expressing that IT is working insistently on getting the issue resolved.
“The internet is definitely affecting my work, I can’t get anything done at the moment,” first-year business administration major Kameron Shelton said.
There has been talk about a “make-up” day to replace Monday’s loss, however there might not be one.
“According to our provost and senior vice president of academic affairs, Dr. Hector Quintanilla, we are not planning to add a make-up day to the semester,” said Tammy Evans-Mitchell, communications and public relations manager.
Student living has also been affected by this inconvenience. Students who live on campus have not had access to streaming channels, including popular hosts such as Netflix, Max and YouTube.
“It has affected me watching shows, since I usually do it all on my laptop,” first-year psychology major Alyssa Ansley said. “I read a lot on my phone or laptop, and it has prevented me from doing that as well.”
Student employees have had a hard time as well. Student workers were unable to submit their timecard this weekend, causing stress and confusion.
“At the worst, I may just need to wait a little bit longer for my paycheck,” junior computer science major Jamon Smith said. “My employer told me that if I didn’t want to come in, just let her know, but I just told her I’d still be there, no problem.”
“Processing payroll is a high priority, and we are working to ensure we are able to pay employees as scheduled (payday is Friday),” Evans-Mitchell said. “As we have more information we will share with employees.”
Faculty and staff have been working to figure out the outage, as well as come up with a plan regarding class cancellations and assignment submission.
“As an ‘old dog’ professor who remembers when we didn’t have email and sent paper memos thru the campus mail, and as a speech instructor, I find this crippling of our campus communications and quite interesting,” theatre professor Joe Brown said. “Technology has advanced the world but without it we almost stop functioning.”
