The All-Wireless Campus: A Westmont College Case Study

Westmont College is a small college of 1,000 students nestled in the foothills of Santa Barbara seeking to differentiate itself by providing a completely unwired environment for students and staff. Currently 90% of the way to completing this task with wireless as the primary network for students and increasingly the network of choice for employees, the choice of a nontraditional vendor has reaped rewards for the college in capital expenditure (capex) reduction, operating expense (opex) savings, and has paved a path for new services and communications channels previously unthinkable on the small campus. This report explores how the choice of an infrastructure methodology that was a bold departure from that of many peer organizations enabled Westmont to usher in a new era of connectivity and IT service to its constituents.