Case Study: Butler University achieves campus-wide reliable, high-density Wi‑Fi and personalized student communications with Cisco Meraki

Improving student experiences with engineered serendipity

Butler University faced a failing, 10-year-old wireless infrastructure that could no longer keep up with students’ growing device and connectivity demands—threatening the campus experience and apps like the Butler App. After evaluating options, Butler selected Cisco Meraki cloud‑managed wireless (Meraki MR access points) for its ease of deployment, reliability, troubleshooting tools, and open platform.

Cisco Meraki delivered preconfigured MR access points and dashboard templates that let Butler’s IT team install more than 1,300 APs across campus in a week and a half, creating a high‑density, dual‑band network with bandwidth steering, multicast routing, and SSID traffic controls. The new Cisco Meraki deployment has supported 100,000+ devices in the last year, dramatically reduced complaints, sped up troubleshooting via the Meraki dashboard, and enabled API and beacon integrations for timely, personalized student communications and improved event experiences.

Butler University

Peter Williams

Associate VP for the IT & Chief Information Officer