Residents of CEV North were left without internet for over two weeks as staff repaired the system, with issues continuing. Students weigh in on how the outage affected them.
During the first week of classes, residents of CEV North experienced an internet outage at their apartments. Staff installed individual Wi-Fi boxes in each unit, announcing in an email to students on Sept. 9 that internet services were back online.
CEV representatives refused to comment on the cause of the outage or the time it took to get online. Then in a text message provided to The Murray State News from a resident on Sept. 11, the power was shut off due to router issues and residents.
The resident, Natalie Noble, a senior TV production and professional writing major, said the office told her residents were trying to “set up the wifi themselves before everyone got a router.” Noble was told residents would be getting a “new sticker” on their router later in the day with new Wi-Fi information when CEV restores the connection.
Other residents, like Kennady Biri, a junior journalism major, spoke about the outage and the strain it caused in the first weeks of the semester.
“We all are not able to use our computers,” Biri said. “Our connection in our apartments, too, is also not working, even with having your own phone connection like 5G LTE, and so we’re having to use our own hotspots.”
Biri, who first began her stay at CEV this semester, said this outage was a hassle for her the last couple weeks. She said apartment staff originally announced it would begin work repairing access on Thursday, Aug. 28; however, the internet remained out for weeks after that.
The complex did provide wifi in its lounge area, but Biri said this provided little help to students who wanted to work in their own apartments.
Zack Mitchell, a junior music education major, is another resident of CEV North impacted by the outage. He said it had a slight impact on his studying and had introduced new challenges between finding places to study and keeping himself occupied at home.
“It’s been very kind of strenuous,” Mitchell said. “Having to go to campus to do work that I could do in my room, or my apartment, just having to drive to places I don’t need to go, so it’s just been kind of hectic, for lack of a better word.”
