Max Bickley – General Assignment Reporter
The new school year at Southern has begun, and for the students who live on campus there is a slew of new features for the dorm, dining, and living experience at Southern.
When entering the dorm room for the first time this year, any returning student will discover the addition of two new appliances: a brand new micro-fridge and a router from Xfinity.
One of the biggest updates to dorm life on campus is the addition of the Xfinity Internet service in the form of new routers in every room. For the students here last year there were quite a few times when the WiFi in the dorms went out, and the only places to get online were through a hardwire LAN cable, Conn Hall, or the student center.
Robert Demezzo, head of Residence Life, commented on the need and reason for this change.
“Residence Life partnered with the Office of Information Technology to introduce new high speed internet service in the Residence Halls. We found that more and more students wanted higher speed internet to support high demand internet services such as video streaming, research and even gaming. The new internet service from Xfinity offers faster speeds for our residential students than the university network.”
With this new implementation in the dorms, every room now has its own personal router with its special password which means no leaching and the internet to yourself. The best part as mentioned by Demezzo: “We were able to bring this service to our students at no additional cost.”
How does the new internet hold up though? For the first few days, as told by freshman Dylan Mazzarella, “The routers in the hall haven’t been able to connect. Comcast has been in and out.”
In the beginning it was spotty, but currently the routers are up and running, and sophomore Julie Gagliardi said, “It’s not bad. I have noticed the internet isn’t dropping out as much which is a plus.”
Besides the improved internet connectivity in the dorms, there have also been changes to the dining experience at Southern. The Chartwells contract was renewed for the year, but as many might have noticed, there is a change in the lineup at the Adanti Student center.
Where Nathan’s used to be is now a new eatery called the Chick-N-Grill. This is a combination of the food selections of Sono, the old Mexican option, and the replaced Nathan’s.
Students will also notice that there is one area of the food court which is empty. When asked, Robert Demezzo informed that, “We are also in the process of working with Chartwells to open a Freshens Fresh Food Studio as well as a Starbucks in our Library.”
One of the last updates to Reslife is the addition of a new Living Learning Community in Chase Hall. For any student who is strongly considering a career in the health field, there is now a Health Professions community. For those interested, Demezzo described that the community is “designed to support students interested in a career in health or related fields.
This community will be working closely with the faculty and administration of the School of Health and Human Services to bring programming and experiences to the residential community which are relevant to their major or career interest.”
Photo Credit: Staff Photo