On Tuesday, the Internet at Tennessee Technological University went down around noon. Frontier Communications fixed the situation by 10 p.m.
“How can this happen? I had organic chemistry homework due and was not able to get it done because the stupid Internet did not work,” pre-pharmacy major Ashley Barnes said. “I pay tuition and technology fees; all I want is to be able to do my homework.”
Every student has complained about Tech’s Wi-Fi or Internet running slow at some time in their career here, but for it to completely disappear in the middle of the day can affect a college like a tornado. People look at one another unsure of what to do next. Some teachers were in a panic for lesson plans since the material they needed to teach required use of the Internet. Other classes had to be canceled altogether because the assignments teachers have their students perform require use of the Internet. It is safe to say no one was prepared for such a catastrophe.
“I had a Matlab homework assignment due the next day and I needed to access MOLE-SII on Tech’s remote desktop to do it, so I couldn’t finish it,” Brianna Sullins, a senior chemical engineering major.
Information Technology Services sent out an email to all faculty and students on Wednesday explaining the outage was caused by a dump truck that had broken the fiber cable connection around Carthage, Tenn.
The email stated that, along with Tennessee Tech’s network, other state agencies and schools were affected.
“I was in the library and I needed to take an online quiz and couldn’t, so I had to drive home to take it,” said junior education major Meredith Witherow. “It was very inconvenient!”
“I was in class and wasn’t able to get to my notes that were on iLearn,” said Taylor Blanton, sophomore nursing major. “It messed up my lecture notes that I already had. It was very frustrating.”
