Information Technology Services will hold an open forum today to discuss the future of ResNet. But it’s too late. The decisions have already been made and until this point students have simply been ignored.

The college has agreed to contract Internet service out to Apogee Telecom and begin charging students for high-speed access to the Web. Many questions remain about Apogee’s service, and they could have been raised and addressed had students been consulted.

Will the service really be more reliable than ResNet? What level of customer service will be available? Can Apogee be expected to raise prices after the first year of service? Will illegal file sharing complaints remain a campus judicial issue, or can students expect to begin receiving subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America? These are important concerns that could have been addressed before the decision was made had students been consulted.

While the choice of Apogee may have been the right one, it was arrived at in the wrong way. No one could deny that serious action needed to be taken to address the state of the college’s student network, and contracting the service out was likely the only option the college had.

But to make such a major decision without ever bothering to consult students or involve them in the process is absolutely wrong and should never be allowed to happen at Ithaca College. Students are the only clients affected by this decision. They had a right to offer an opinion, and ITS neglected its duties by not soliciting it.