To whom it may concern: please let UA students and faculty know if we are going to have access to somewhat dependable public wireless Internet.

If we can have access to dependable wireless Internet, that would be great. That is what most students were told they would have when they first enrolled. If not, just tell us through the UA news e-mail, the monitors speckled across campus, or even send a press release in this newspaper.

This way students won’t have to play library hopscotch trying to find a place where they can access their coursework. Just let us know; we will adjust when forced to do so.

Sure, adjusting to the parking quagmire we came back to this semester was tough. But after all of the sweat and dust, the walk from the gravel lot behind Publix can be very apt cardio exercise.

If no changes are made to the UA Public Wireless Network and we will not be informed that we cannot depend on the network, then please change the name. Guess Connect, Luck Net and Tortoise Web would be appropriate.

I will feel a lot more comfortable when I browse through available networks and see that their names reflect functionality.

Given the speed and functionality of the jokingly called “high-speed wireless network” we have here at the University, how are we supposed to be competent students in the 21st century?

Now that the classroom and the web are in more than a marriage, we need to have access to the Internet that is actually capable of delivering.

So should we stay in our rooms to do work until this is resolved? Sure, unless you live on campus. ResNet, which we all know is the residential wireless Internet access on campus, makes UA Public Wireless Internet look like the Daytona 500. I have no offers for changes in nomenclature for ResNet. Well, maybe McFarland-on-Gameday Net??

Last year, when I served as an SGA Senator, some colleagues and I authored a resolution calling for a student audit of the ResNet network. This survey would be a place where students could voice concerns about the wireless Internet across campus and in residential halls. Upon unanimous passage of the legislation, my colleagues and I went to work.

Skeptically, we were forced to board the Bureaucratic Express, a roller coaster that would supposedly take us to the promised land, where student’s voices could be heard. But like all roller coasters, we arrived back were we started with a case of nausea. Luckily, with the help of others in the SGA, we finally got a survey rolling. Did anyone that could do anything about it take heed to the replies of students? You take a guess.

We have countless great resources here at Alabama, and so many great people were willing to help us. With all of the great resources and people, why can’t we have Internet that actually works for students and faculty?

We need to just stop asking and start demanding that we have access to Internet that is applicable to our needs as students.

If we want to go back to the 1980s pen and paper days, then fine. Just start the process to moving our coursework offline and back to loose-leaf paper and typewriters.

We all know that is not the direction we want to. The Capstone has moved at light year speed towards becoming one of the nation’s finest higher learning institutions.

However, students and faculty need dependable wireless Internet infrastructure to do their everyday jobs. The Capstone just needs to focus on this issue and formulate a resolution. And form it at a high-speed pace.

John Anselmo is a senior majoring in economics.