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NEWS WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM ‘ ,>,if ■ V i'4i!Bawa.sg.i. IT&S raises bandwidth, sets limits on Netflix • ♦ •« BY VALERIA SOSA Staff Writer Someone is stealing the Internet on campus. The culprit? Netflix. rr&S reports that Netflix, Hulu and YouTube are congesting the network and impacting class productivity. "Like all higher education institutions, we wrestle with the constantly increasing demands on internet bandwidth for all sorts of things," said Chief Information Officer Craig Gray in an email interview. "Here at Guilford, we try to strike a balance between increasing bandwidth, supporting the educational mission of the College and allowing for the entertainment uses by our residential population." Bandwidth is a measure of how many bits can be transferred in a specific amount of the time. About a year and a half ago, IT&S increased the bandwidth by 100 percent to 200 Megabits per second. At the time, Netflix was taking up about 65 percent of the total bandwidth. 'This year, we have started to hit the ceiling of 200Mbps and what they call 'bursting' over, at times upwards of 240Mbps," said Gray. 'This was actually causing problems with classes that occur after 6 p.m., when they needed to use the Internet for educational purposes. Again, the main culprit here is Netflix using regularly between 45-65 percent of the total bandwidth." To solve this problem, IT&S has limited entertainment bandwidth until 10 p.m., after which the bandwidth is relinquished to full usage. This, how&ver, is nothing new. had already been limiting the amourit of bandwidtii that could be used for entertainment during instructional hours, releasing it after 6 p.m. They simply pushed back the restricted time from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Some students are concerned with the change. "I understand the concern (over bandwidth usage), but Netflix can also be used educationally," said first-year Cassidy Bennett. "I have friends who are taking the film critique class, and they need to watch movies during instructional hours. What are they going to do if they take that off?" "They can't limit that for us," said first-year Mackenzie Jones. "We have the freedom to watch Netflix. Some of us care about watching Netflix more than what our teachers have to say." As it turns out, IT&S will not be blocking Netflix during instructional hours, but limiting the amoimt of bandwidth that can be used by Netflix. "We are increasing the overall bandwidth to 300Mbps in the next month, and we believe that will be sufficient for the next year or so to accommodate all legitimate uses of the Internet," said Gray. "We take a very balanced approach here at Guilford, whereas some institutions simply block all uses that are not legitimately educational or administrative." First-year Annie Smith-Estrada approves the change. "I think that thaT s perfectly fine because school should always come before Netflix," said Smith-Estrada. "School should always be accessible on computers, and if Netflix is getting in the way of that, for both teachers and students, then its use should be restricted." The change is here to stay, at least for the remainder of the semester. Adjusting to the Presidency BOARD OF TRUSTEES TO DECIDE MEMBERS OF TRANSITION TEAM FOR JANE FERNANDES BY CONNOR WILSON Staff Writer The times, they are a-changin'. V\^th the election of its new president Jane Fernandes, the College will assemble a transition team to help the President settle into her new position. A lot of responsibilities come with being the new face of Guilford College. Talking with donors, being a presence in the Quaker community and listening to the student body are some of the duties where the transition team will advise Fernandes. The team will also be in charge of a transition plan for the new president, suggesting important meetings and community events. Other expectations for the transition team include assessing campus mood and introducing the president to the community. The team should include people from different skills, communities and jobs, according to AGB Search, a company that finds potential presidential candidates. "We want to tailor it to the particular circumstances of the new president and the chair of the committee," said Edward Winslow, board chair-elect. "My thought is that we should do this expeditiously but deliberately." The promise of this new transition team has evoked certain expectations from the community. First-year Mara Stem, Community Senate treasurer, told The Guilfordian her expectations of the transition team's composition. "The kind of people that should be appointed are pfilars of the community that have been involved in Guilford's campus activities," said Stem in an email interview. "I think that the transition team should understand what is important to the students and faculty of Guilford, in addition to a knowledge of issues going on in the greater Greensboro community." Max Carter, director of the Friends Center and campus ministry coordinator, hopes the team will include someone who can appropriately represent the Quaker values the institution strives to uphold. "There needs to be someone on the team that understands the importance (of Quaker ethos) and who knows how to connect Jane with the wider Quaker communities," said Carter. With aU of the pressures of presidency, it is easy to get stretched too thin. The transition team could allow for more time for Fernandes to get to know the community she will be representing. "While maintaining her sanity and energy, Jane should get acquainted with as many communities as possible," said Carter. Some students are excited about the possible changes this new team could bring to their Guilford experience. "More communication between administration and students is exactly the kind of thing Guilford needs," said senior William Dobbins. "Hopefully the transition team will make this happen." The board of trustees will decide the members of the transition team m May. SENATE UPDATE this week*s developments Representatives from Meriwether Godsey came to talk to students. They discussed some exciting upcoming changes at Guilford and also received feedback from community members. WQFS presented on a $15,000 budget request for a new transmitter for the station, which was approved. Finally the Spanish Club came to Senate to go through the club approval process, which resulted in a lengthy discussion. The decision was made to bring the discussion back to Senate next week in order to allow more time for discernment. next week*$ plans There will be an additional period of time to discuss the approval of Spanish Club, as well as general community time. contact us Have an Concern? recipe? important i dea? Great It’s to us f e@g u i ^'0 rS ' or visit ■ • •*. ^'^a?Renate .wordpress. com Compiled by Samir Hazboun. outgoing Community Senate president
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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May 2, 2014, edition 1
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