THE METROPOLITAN « APRIL 3, 2008« METRO « A7
Computer system takes a vacation
By Andrew Flohr-Spence
spencand@mscd.edu
Apparently hard drives need
time off for spring break, too.
Metro’s banner system took an
unannounced vacation on March
28 and didn’t come back until the
night of March 31.
The outage frustrated students,
staff and teachers who were unable
to access online accounts and forced
the college to delay the beginning of
summer and fall class registration
until April 3.
While the exact causes of the
system failure are yet unclear, Vice
President for Information Technol-
ogy Carl Powell said the main serv-
er shut down at around 7 p.m. on
March 28 after the failure of one or
more of the many hard drives that
make up the heart of the system.
The backup system then failed to
take over as intended.
“One thing led to another – it
was a sort of cascading effect – and
before we knew it the system was
out,” Powell said.
The college’s IT maintenance
METRO’S MAJORS FAIR
Jackson Lamb of the department of hospitality, tourism and events describes majors they offer to freshman Lea Clark.
The Metropolitan Majors Fair
was held on March 17 at the Tivoli
Turnhalle. Faculty members from
departments as diverse as African-
American studies, criminal justice,
criminology and biology familiarized
students with the many majors and
minors that Metro offers.
“I hope to expose students to
valuable info should they want to
pursue a chemistry major,” Kelly
Elkins of the chemistry department
said.
At each department table, hand-
service, contracted to Hewlitt Pack-
ard, arrived an hour later and began
working on the problem. Service
was not fully restored until March
31 around midnight. “The worst
part is that these servers are sched-
uled to be replaced in late May any-
way,” said Powell, who started as
Metro’s IT chief almost exactly one
month ago. “There’s nothing like a
little trial by fire to get you into the
swing of things.”
Only the banner system went
down, but because that’s where
other services are usually accessed,
students were initially unable to ac-
cess e-mail and online courses.
The school’s website was up-
dated to instruct students how to di-
rectly access the functional sites.
“We really owe IT a lot of kudos
on this – they worked around the
clock to get the problem solved,”
Metro Communications Director
Cathy Lucas said. “They did a fan-
tastic job: There was a problem, they
found a solution and they fixed it.”
Powell, who has worked in infor-
mation technology for more than 20
years, said he has seen many such
outs and pamphlets explained major
and minor requirements, careers
available in a particular major and
the recommended course sequence.
Students also received a list of advis-
ers and people to contact for more
information.
“The Majors Fair gave me a sense
of who I should talk to,” Metro stu-
dent Erica Padilla said.
Faculty members representing
the different academic departments
motivated and encouraged students
to find their path and pursue their
system failures in his experience.
“Unfortunately, no one situation
is ever identical, given the complex-
ity of the systems.”
Powell said that while the out-
age meant a lot of frustration for the
users, perhaps the one positive was
that it gave him a chance to get to
know his staff.
“It helped me understand the
breadth and width of Metro’s IT
group,” said Powell, who added
that most of the IT staff, including
members of the maintenance team,
worked day and night over the week-
end to get the system running.
“What we learned can help us in
the future.”
Powell said HP was “very sup-
portive” and stayed until 8 a.m.
April 1 to make sure the system was
working.
“We all worked around the clock
on the problem. I had to kick them
out at night so they would go get
some sleep,” Powell said.
The office of IT will be conduct-
ing an investigation to establish
what caused the failures of both the
server and the back-up system and
Photo by drew jaynes/ajaynes1@mscd.edu
chosen career as soon as possible.
Mike Martinez from the criminal
justice department said the Majors
Fair gives students direction.
Helen Giron was enthusiastic
about promoting the Chicana and
Chicano studies department where
she works.
“The more we know about our
diversity, the more we come to accept
it,” she said.
- Benafsheh Abuzar/babuzar@
mscd.edu
to assess how the department re-
acted and what could be done better
next time.
“Fortunately, as it looks now, the
costs for repairing the system were
covered by the maintenance con-
tract,” Powell said. He said HP re-
placed several of the hard drives and
two of the system’s controllers. “So
besides some blood, sweat and lots
frustration – it will cost the school
nothing.”
Student John Shuff, however,
said the outage was more than a
little annoying for him.
“I found out Saturday night
when I went to log in and it didn’t
work,” the history education major
said. Shuff said he wonders if they
could have fixed it faster.
“I attended college in Greeley
and Pueblo and the IT systems there
were much worse than Metro’s,” he
added.
“It didn’t make any difference to
me. I didn’t check till Monday morn-
ing,” Sandy Nigor, biology major,
said.
“I actually took a break this year,
so it didn’t affect me.”
FUNDING» Project critical
for future of Auraria
Continued from A3
loan over a set period of time. Jordan
said any interest would be paid by
the state.
Auraria school leaders were hap-
py to continue with the construc-
tion, which began in December and
will cost an estimated $111 million.
But nothing is set in stone yet,
with two bills still requiring approv-
al by the House and Senate to allow
Auraria access to the funds.
Metro President Stephen Jordan
said he anticipates the bills will pass
because of their bipartisan and gu-
bernatorial support.
He also stressed the importance
of the unified front of the leaders of
the three schools sharing a stake in
the science building, namely him-
self, Bruce Benson, president of
CU-Boulder, and Nancy McCallin,
president of Colorado Community
College System.
“All three of us had a very uni-
fied vision of moving forward, in
terms of working together to get a
solution that would allow us to move
forward,” Jordan said.
“We’re very grateful for the lead-
ership provided by the governor and
the legislative leadership.”
Jordan added that the role of
Benson, who was recently elected
president of CU-Boulder amid tre-
mendous opposition, was crucial in
moving the construction forward.
WHAT HAPPENED »
March 28
Metro’s banner system unexpectedly
crashed
March 31
The banner system was repaired
What is Banner?
Banner is Metro’s e-mail server,
registration application and how the
school manages most of its financial
aid. Students also use Banner for
online courses and school employees
can access their pay records
CAUSE/EFFECT »
Summer enrollment
Enrollment for subsequent semesters
were delayed until April 2. Students
were expecting to have that
opportunity March 31
Last year, there were doubts as
to UCD’s commitment to the project,
Jordan said.
Staberg said Metro’s stake in
those funds has been assured, but
opposition to the bills is expected.
“I think we have a key commit-
ment from the governor and there is
bipartisan support, but the devil is in
the details,” she said.
Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, has
publicly argued for using any extra
funds to relieve Coloradans’ tax bur-
den, although phone calls were not
returned to The Metropolitan as of
press time.
Dean Wolf, executive vice presi-
dent for administration of the Au-
raria Higher Education board, an-
swered critics of the plan by saying,
“We have 39,000 students on the
campus that are in desperate need
of this space.”
“I’m not sure pulling the money
originally was in the best interest of
the citizens of Colorado,” he said.
Jordan agreed and said that the
building is crucial in furthering the
governor’s vision of increasing the
number of high school students en-
tering college by 50 percent.
While Wolf said he’s confident
the money will be made available, no
plans have been finalized if it is not.
“We’d have to go back to the
drawing board if this doesn’t hap-