Internet Problems Fixed?: A Q&A with Scott Coulson, Director of Computing & Telecommunications

Along with all the other innumerable problems plaguing the Pitt-Greensburg campus this semester, the WiFi took major hits as well. Wireless Pittnet, Pitt-Greensburg’s WiFi dedicated to students, faculty, and staff, experienced a large number of outages earlier in the year. Issues arose where, when connected, the user would see “Connected but No Internet,” resulting in an inability to use online services on campus.

In order to sort out what happened, The Insider sat down with Scott Coulson, Pitt-Greensburg’s director of Computing & Telecommunications, to discuss the outages and how everything in the Information Technology department has been going since the adjustment back from the shutdowns caused by the coronavirus.

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The Insider: How’s it going with working this job here?

Scott Coulson: For me personally, it goes really well. We’ve got a good team here in the department and I like being on this campus a lot.

The Insider: What kind of challenges is IT facing right now?

SC: Well, I’d say the biggest is budgetary, just like everything else. Times are tight right now. Trying to be creative with what we do on campus to make things better for students to get the services that they need or keep our equipment updated can be a little challenging.

The Insider: Are there still continual Internet problems on campus?

SC: I haven’t heard any reports of that going on right now. A lot of that was coming from the Oakland campus, which affects a lot of our networking as well because we’re tied together. It came from their campus and was the big cause of it.

The Insider: Are there any other IT issues on campus you would like to address?

SC: Right now I’d say our campus is in good shape. I don’t hear of a lot of problems out there. We haven’t been receiving a lot of information from Oakland about problems with network systems or anything like that. There’s always maintenance updates that we just got an email about, but for the most part, I think we’re doing pretty well.

If your computer won’t connect to the Internet or you’re experiencing any other technological malfunction, stop by 217a Cassell Hall, call 724-836-9925, submit a computing services request, or, if you need immediate help outside Cassell Hall hours, contact 412-624-HELP.