Bryan Ajuluchukwu, a freshman economics major, is one of more than 170 students living on the third floor of Grant Towers who is testing a new downloading service. The service, called Ruckus Network, allows for those students to download music and movies.

Ajuluchukwu, who heard about Ruckus from his roommate, said he would definitely recommend the program to other students.

“It was better than other programs because it’s legal,” Ajuluchukwu said. “This is a good idea for the university to do for the students so we have some entertainment.”

Ruckus is a digital entertainment and downloading service that will provide music, movies, TV shows, local content and community features to students free of charge, said Joseph Marone, Ruckus’ account representative for NIU. NIU pays $5 per student per month and is allowed unlimited access to the media for the testers.

On Thursday, Ruckus will be available for testing to residents in the third through sixth floors of all Grant Towers, said Keith Kruchten, president of the Residence Hall Association.

Marone said NIU is very important to Ruckus’ development.

“This is the first time we’ve opened this program up to a school. We want to make sure students enjoy it.”

Still in the pilot testing process, the program is not only tested by students, but also developed and designed by graduate students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Marone said.

From Aug. 12 to Aug. 19, more than 20 NIU community advisers and Grant Towers staff tested Ruckus, and on Aug. 19, 170 students were added to the testing. By Aug. 26, a total of 700 NIU students will be linked to Ruckus.

On Sept. 1, about 2,500 students in all Grant Towers will have limited access to the network. The full model of Ruckus will be open to all Grant students in October, Kruchten said.

The network is located at www.betaruckus.net.

Ruckus is “tethered” so students can still download music and movies without officially owning, buying or burning downloads, said Marone.

He said students can share playlists and compare theirs with other students’ likes and dislikes.

Kruchten also said even though the program is limited, students have been very impressed with what has been available thus far.