Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are petitioning a proposed information technology fee that would begin in the fall.
More than 800 students have signed the petition, which was launched on Change.org. The $250 fee would be given to all undergraduate students to improve the security of the campus wireless network.
School officials said the improvements will cost about $85 million, though school Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy was able to donate $30 million after a capital campaign. Corporate sponsors raised an additional $1.5 million for the upgrades and Juniper Networks donated some equipment to the school in September, according to masslive.com.
The university’s Student Government Association met with the vice chancellor for information services and strategy’s team in March to discuss the network improvement plans. The fee would need to be approved by the university trustees before it goes into effect.
