Campus gets Y2K ready
By Christy Larsen
Summer Forty-Niner
Cal State Long Beach
computers and date-sensitive systems will be ready for the year 2000, said
Michael Markoski, director of Administrative Computing Services and Information
Technology Services.
“Our top priority
is being able to get students into the university, get them enrolled in
classes, award financial aid appropriately, bill them the correct amount
for the classes, get their grades posted and be able to produce transcripts
as a result of that,” Markoski said.
Administrative Computing
Services spent time installing a student information system and checking
it for problems, said Gloria Kapp, director of Admissions and Financial
Aid.
“Most of our work
- reviewing and doing conversions - was already done last summer and this
fall,” Kapp said.
In October and November,
the computing services started running the programs, such as financial
aid packages and admits for students, she said. In December they
moved those changes into the production system.
“They have looked
at every date field and when they found problems when running the test,
they made the necessary changes,” Kapp said. “I’m comfortable that
we’ve taken steps and shouldn’t have any surprises on January 1.”
The mission-critical
systems on campus were all year 2000 ready since January 1999, Markoski
said.
“This includes the
financial aspect of running the university, being able to order and purchase
supplies, to conduct instruction and other support activities and to be
able to account for the money accurately and to stay within budgets,” Markoski
said.
The University Bookstore,
a separate nonprofit corporation auxiliary of California, has completed
its own in-house computer check, said Roman Gulon, general manager of Forty
Niner Shops Inc.
“We have tested
all of our major systems and will be ready for January 2000,” Gulon said.
The entire business
operation, including office functions and store registers, need to be totally
operational, Gulon said. The date-sensitivity is only important if
it will shut down that operation.
The embedded systems
for the air-conditioning, fire alarm and security alarms are still in the
testing phase, he said, but should be compliant before the end of the year.
The university has
a program to make sure all the departments are preparing for year 2000,
Gulon said.
The Bookstore made
a big effort in the last three or four months to really go through its
systems, and many areas on campus have done the same, Markoski said.
Each campus in the
California State University system is responsible for standardized reporting
to identify various year 2000 projects it is undertaking, Markoski said.
“CSU hired an auditor
for year 2000 to visit all [CSU] campuses to verify accuracy and sincerity
of reports of mission-critical systems,” Markoski said. “The immediate
feedback was that our campus was in excellent shape.”
He was designated
as the campus reporting coordinator, after his department started its year
2000 effort several years ago, Markoski said. The substantial amount
of work the department had done gave them the ability to know how to identify
and fix problems and how to evaluate progress.
Markoski said he
has provided technical education on campus from the managers on down to
the workers doing computer assessments. He teaches which problems
to look for, how to find appropriate resources to correct problems and
how to report the status details in order to know the campus’ status in
its year-2000 efforts.
A two-page graphic
report produced by the Chancellor’s Office and dated April 15 reflects
year-2000 preparedness activity up to March of this year on the various
campuses throughout the CSU system.
“This is self-reported
data,” Markoski said. “It is not verified. That’s one problem
in comparing one campus to another campus. The other problem, it
being self-reported and not being verified, is there’s not a way to also
show consistency or thoroughness within each respective campus.”
The first of six
categories included in the report, including applications software and
mainframe, shows CSULB is substantially complete with the remediation effort.
The category of
servers and networks indicate the program is well along, probably nearing
completion.
Another category,
showing near completion, is the embedded
systems.
These are computer
chips buried in systems, such as VCRs, Markoski said. In particular,
it has to do with the physical plant infrastructure of the campus, which
represents the heating and air conditioning control systems, alarm systems
and automatic lighting, he said.
The desktop systems
category shows the program was only half completed. This category
refers to the personal computers on the campus, not only those within the
administration, but also including the instructional labs, student services,
student union and housing, Markoski said.
The fifth category
is telecom, which indicates this program is complete.
CSULB runs its own
telecommunications department, Markoski said, which not only provides service
for the entire campus but also for the students living in the dormitories
and for the Chancellor’s Office.
The last category
of academic equipment and other show this program is in the early stages.
This category includes
instructional equipment with embedded processors such as oscilloscopes
and electron microscopes, Markoski said.
“I know within the
academic area in particular, they’re looking forward to the summer with
fewer students to handle and they had planned to have more time to make
significant progress in their areas,” Markoski said.
CSULB is leading
all the CSU campuses in readiness, he said.
“The CSULB campus
will be up and operational on January 1, 2000,” Markoski said.
However, part of
year-2000 preparedness is having a contingency plan, he said. If
after all the efforts and preparation problems still occur, it is important
to know how to handle them.
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