I recently attended an Ekahau webinar focused on Wi-Fi networking in higher education but after reflecting on the session, I realized I didn’t quite capture the full scope of challenges that make university environments so unique. Having worked in both public and private sectors, I thought it would be valuable to share some personal insights from my experience in higher ed.
Working for a university is a distinct experience. It offers tremendous opportunities to learn but this is often out of necessity due to limited staff, competing priorities, and tight budgets. Yet, it’s this very challenge that forces creativity and growth.
In my current role, my team is responsible for designing, managing, and supporting the entire campus network - including wired and wireless infrastructure, DHCP/DNS services, and firewall/security appliances. This role has pushed me to expand well beyond those boundaries, touching nearly every aspect of networking.
Before joining higher ed, I worked for an ISP in Phoenix, where my role was far more specialized. Our team managed the backbone and CMTS infrastructure for a small-tier provider with a national footprint. It was a structured environment with clearly defined roles, a straightforward mission, and dedicated budget.
In contrast, the mission in higher education is broad but centers around supporting students, faculty, and staff. A mission that often competes with other institutional priorities, frequently placing IT in a reactive position, hampered by limited budgets that restrict lifecycle management and a lack of dedicated project management, which delays critical infrastructure upgrades.
As a result, we often find ourselves “value engineering” solutions just to keep the lights on and the university running.
It’s important to remember that a university functions like a small city with thousands of students, numerous departments, and essential services (including our own police department) all dependent on reliable network connectivity.
Students, in particular, bring unique challenges. While living on campus, their expectations for internet access are shaped by their home environments: fast, seamless, and always-on. Our department works hard to replicate that experience and streamline the onboarding process for both wired and wireless devices.
But this is no easy task. Each year, we face a growing variety of BYOD devices, increasing demand on our aging infrastructure, and the constraints of historical buildings not designed with modern Wi-Fi considerations in mind.
What continues to fascinate me is how Wi-Fi connectivity has become a basic expectation, almost like a utility. Whether it’s a lecture hall, stadium, or campus living space, users expect high-performance Wi-Fi at all times, even in the most RF-hostile environments.
It can be difficult to explain to students and staff that Wi-Fi is an unlicensed, half-duplex medium, prone to interference, congestion, and occasional instability. But try telling that to an instructor with 100 students taking an online exam in a classroom that was never designed with wireless density in mind or to a student who wants to know why the Wi-Fi doesn’t work during a building-wide power outage.
In summary, working in higher education presents a unique set of challenges. You’re constantly balancing budgets, priorities, and expectations, often in complex and high-density environments. But it’s exactly these conditions that have helped me grow into a more well-rounded network engineer. Despite the challenges, I wouldn’t trade the experience. It’s been a rewarding, humbling, and invaluable part of my career journey.