By Joy JonesSpecial to the chronicle

According to the IT director of Networks, Telecommunication and Client Services Helen Latimer, the networking department at Hofstra received its first in a series of complaints concerning Hofstra’s Wi-Fi connectivity and Tinder on Nov. 18. During the same time, Hofstra’s feed for the popular anonymous social app Yik Yak was flooded with similar complaints. Dozens of users proclaimed that Tinder was blocked. However, in layman’s terms, Hofstra was temporarily blacklisted from Tinder, due to high usage coming from a single (the university’s) IP address.
The average college student balances a minimum of 12 credits, three to four extracurricular activities and possibly a full- or part-time job. With such a busy schedule, finding love or even a casual relationship might prove to be difficult. Luckily, modern technology has allotted busy students with the means to find romantic partners quickly and easily. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg gave us Facebook, which grants even the loneliest of souls friendship. Two years later, Jack Dorsey removed the notion that updating posts more than a few times a day was a sign of narcissism with the invention of Twitter. These were followed by numerous social and dating sites and apps including Instagram, Tumblr, Grindr, J Swipe and of course Tinder.
“I read in an article that Hofstra was the number one school to use tinder,” Alyssa Rasile, sophomore business and marketing major said. “I think it’s stupid that the school had to block it.”
Earlier this year Hofstra topped the charts in an unscientific study by TheGradeApp involving campuses likely to follow through with relationships found on dating sites based on swiping interactions. It’s understandable that Hofstra Tinder users were outraged when they realized they no longer had access to Tinder through Hofstra’s Wi-Fi service.
“If they want to meet someone, it’s none of Hofstra’s business,” Abby Del Sol, a sophomore graphic design major said. “Why would they block people from using Tinder? Not everyone’s doing bad things, some people are like making relationships and friends and stuff, and they shouldn’t get involved with that. It’s not affecting our school in any way. I’ve heard they may be blocking some other dirty sites,” she said.
Tinder has since been restored to its on campus, but Latimer explained that students’ inability to access Tinder through Hofstra’s Wi-Fi was not a decision made by the school.
“After opening a problem incident with Tinder, it was determined that Tinder was blocking the University’s wireless network traffic because the volume of traffic appeared to be coming from the one IP address. Our network is designed to handle the vast number of mobile devices by combining all wireless traffic to one IP address. Tinder has since whitelisted this IP address,” Latimer said.
Networks Project Manager Bruce Carlson referred to the brief Tinder outage as “a non-Hofstra technical error.” So as it turns out, Tinder was not blocked by Hofstra administration. Latimer says Hofstra’s security system typically only blocks “malicious websites,” which may contain known threats, malware, exploits, destructive files, command and controls or other unsafe hazards. “Given the potential harmful risks, protection is not only necessary, it’s appropriate,” Latimer said.
Tinder officials did not respond to interview requests.
Sean Bates, a junior broadcast journalism major, weighed in on the applicability of Tinder to college life.
“I use it mostly out of boredom,” he said. “I’ve heard that dating is a numbers game and having Tinder increases the odds of meeting someone worthwhile. I’m on my phone all the time anyway. It’s a really convenient way to meet people while I’m busy with classes and extracurricular things.”