Loras College strengthens campus connectivity for a multi-device student experience
As the number of connected devices continued to grow, Loras College modernized its campus wireless environment with 783 RUCKUS® access points across 20 buildings, strengthening reliability and supporting a seamless multi-device experience for students, faculty, and staff.
Reliable campus connectivity has become essential to the student experience. At Loras College, students, faculty, and staff depend on wireless connectivity across classrooms, residence halls, testing environments, and campus gathering spaces every day. Although the overall user population has remained stable or decreased, the number of connected devices continues to rise, creating greater demand on the campus wireless environment.
Located in Dubuque, Iowa, Loras College supports approximately 1,400 students and 250 faculty and staff members. Like many higher education institutions, the college faced increasing wireless demands as students continued bringing more connected devices onto campus each year.
To strengthen that foundation, Loras College partnered with Communications Engineering Company (CEC) and RUCKUS to deploy 783 access points across 20 campus buildings. Rather than adding coverage for the sake of expansion, the upgrade focused on improving the quality, consistency, and manageability of the wireless experience in the spaces the campus already depends on most.
The result is a modernized wireless environment designed to better support today’s higher education demands: more connected devices, always-on access, and a smooth user experience across the campus spaces where learning, living, and collaboration happen.
The Challenge
Loras College needed its wireless environment to keep pace with the way campus connectivity is used today. The demand is no longer tied only to the number of people on campus. It is also shaped by how many devices each person brings with them, and recent research from Boldyn Networks found that students bring an average of 3.5 internet-connected devices to their residence hall. At Loras, that trend was playing out in a practical way: even as the overall user population remained stable or decreased, the number of devices connecting across classrooms, residence halls, testing environments, and shared campus spaces continued to grow. The college needed to modernize its wireless foundation, support greater device density, and complete the transition in a way that minimized disruption for the campus community.
The Solution
Loras College partnered with Communications Engineering Company (CEC) and RUCKUS to modernize its wireless environment across 20 campus building. The deployment included 783 RUCKUS® access points and was designed to strengthen connectivity in the academic, residential, and shared spaces used throughout the day. Working building by building, the team replaced legacy access points incrementally and integrated the upgraded environment with the college’s existing Microsoft NPS infrastructure. This phased approach helped reduce disruption while giving Loras College a stronger, more manageable wireless foundation for the future.
“Students may not notice when the network is working perfectly, and honestly, that’s the goal. The transition was largely seamless, and the improved coverage has helped provide a better overall experience across campus.”
Jeremy Bushman, Network Administrator, Loras College
Key results
With the upgraded wireless environment in place, Loras College is better positioned to support the way its campus connects today. The deployment of 783 RUCKUS® access points across 20 buildings gives the college a modernized foundation for rising device density, more consistent connectivity in everyday learning and living spaces, and a smoother experience for students, faculty, and staff. Just as important, the phased rollout helped the IT team complete the migration with minimal disruption while creating an environment that is easier to manage and better prepared for future wireless demands.
- Deployed 783 RUCKUS® access points across 20 campus buildings
- Supports approximately 1,100 students and 250 faculty/staff across academic, residential, and shared campus spaces
- Modernized the existing wireless environment across key campus spaces
- Built capacity for a campus where device usage continues to grow, even as user counts remain stable or decrease
- Enabled a building-by-building migration with minimal disruption to users
- Backed by a 20+ year partnership between Loras College and CEC
