For many students at the University of Lynchburg, connecting to campus Wi-Fi can feel like a test of patience. Between slow loading times, dropped connections, and networks that block academic sites, frustration has been growing, and the university’s Information Technology department says it is listening.
Chief Information Officer Brian Hudson and Deputy CIO, Manager of User Support Bryson Childress wanted first to reassure that the university is not performing any major network maintenance that would explain the widespread issues this semester.
“We avoid as much scheduled maintenance as possible during the school year,” Hudson said. “There’s nothing that would cause widespread or systemic instability.”
Hudson said most connectivity problems are localized and caused by aging equipment, device interference, or students connecting to the wrong network.
“Our wireless access points age over time,” he said. “Sometimes we have to replace one if it fails, but that’s not enough to make a big disruption.”
The university’s networks, UL WiFi, UL Guest, and Devices 2.0, serve different purposes, and using the wrong one can prevent access to key resources such as Moodle and MyHive.
“UL WiFi is for human use and student use,” Hudson said. “UL Guest isn’t going to get you to places like Moodle or MyHive. It’s designed for visitors. And Devices 2.0 is meant for things like PlayStations and smart speakers, not laptops or phones.”
Hudson said personal hotspots can interfere with signals and recommended that students “forget” their personal hotspots and reconnect to Wi-Fi as a first troubleshooting step.
Still, some students say the problems feel bigger than just a few bad connections.
“The Wi-Fi is often difficult to log onto, with tablets seeming to get the worst service,” said Rishona Protzman, ’27. “It’s hard to do homework when your device keeps switching to a Wi-Fi connection that has Moodle blocked.”
Protzman said she has had the most trouble in the psychology building and in Schewel Hall, both in the café area and classrooms upstairs, though Hobbs and Westover halls have worked fine for her.
Willow Martin, ’26, said, “The Wi-Fi really leaves something to be desired. With all the money the school is supposedly saving by cutting majors and being ‘frugal,’ you’d think they could splurge a little on capable Wi-Fi.”
Childress said feedback like this helps IT identify problem areas. “If we don’t get a report, the problem can be largely invisible,” Childress said. “Three or four students making a report from a particular area doesn’t automatically mean there’s a problem there, but it gives us a place to start.”
Myah Forest, ’27, said she usually has a good connection but finds the system confusing. “The connection is good,” she said, “but I don’t like that you can’t access certain things on certain Wi-Fi networks.”
Hudson said some restrictions are intentional to preserve bandwidth and prioritize academic use.
As for long-term improvements, Hudson and Childress emphasized that IT is planning strategic upgrades to replace older access points and unify the system.
“We’re planning a surgical upgrade of wireless access points,” they said. “We’re focusing on areas of higher occupancy and high traffic to build a more homogeneous network.”
Until those upgrades are complete, Hudson said communication is key.
Students can submit Wi-Fi issues at support.lynchburg.edu, where a form lets them note the location, device, and time of the problem. “That information lets us start a step ahead,” Hudson said. “Just knowing the issue is a great starting point..The more we learn, the better we can help.”
