John Jay students can submit proposals to the college on how to best spend their technology fee.

A committee of 5 students and 12 faculty members decide which proposals get the green light. Although the college advertises that anyone from the John Jay community can submit a tech fee proposal, the committee lacks the participation of students. The deadline to submit a proposal is February 28th. 

Students complain about slow computers and Wi-Fi. Submitting technology fee proposals are a way to improve technology advancements on campus.

According to Saliha Noor, a senior at John Jay, Wi-Fi and computers don’t always work. 

“I feel like the WiFi is still slow, and there are many computers that don’t work. It’s really frustrating. They take forever to load and print stuff out, which delays my classes and assignments,” Noor said.

Political Science professor Brian Arbour doesn’t agree with the sentiment that slow computers delay lessons. Slow technology doesn’t affect his ability to start his classes on time. He mentioned that even though classroom technologies have improved, most computers are still a decade old.

President Karol Mason approved $70,000 to make improvements to the college wireless infrastructure in July 2019. However, students have to wait longer to see any improvements to the current speed of the Wi-Fi.

According to the proposal, the estimated completion of the Wifi infrastructure is June 2020. Vice President of Student Council, Fidel Osorio, stated that students can submit a request to the Information Technology department to expedite the upgrade on the Wifi infrastructure on campus.

Professor Arbour believes that students are more likely to have higher technological expectations from the college. He attributes it to the majority of the students being digital natives.

“In two years, we’re going to get a ton of new students here who live with even more technological advances than current students,” Arbour said. 

According to Osorio, the upgrade cycle for most of the college computer infrastructure is 5 years. The computers are running on Windows 7, an operating system that is a decade old. The maker of the Windows Operating System, Microsoft Corp, announced that it ended support for Windows 7 on January 14th, 2020. Microsoft will no longer provide security updates for systems like Windows 7, which could make computers vulnerable to malware or ransomware attacks.

Last May, hackers held files for a Baltimore city hostage for ransom. 

Arbour and Osorio want the student to be more engaged at John Jay.

“If students want things to change, they have to lobby the school and elected officials for more funding,” Arbor said. 

The majority of the issues mentioned by the student body are getting solved at a slow pace.

If you have suggestions to improve John Jay’s technology, the tech fee committee is currently accepting proposals from students and faculty members. 

“It’s the students’ tech fee money. They have the right to ask and to propose ideas on how it should be spent,” Osorio said.