U.S. Gives Academia Poor Y2K Grades

Updated 7:04 PM ET August 11, 1999By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Education is giving U.S. colleges and universities poor grades on preparations for the Year 2000 computer challenge.

Only 30 percent of schools of higher learning surveyed said they had completed preparations of their most crucial computer systems, notably those that handle financial aid, Education Secretary Richard Reilly said in a letter to college and university presidents and chancellors.

Another 40 percent of respondents did not expect to have their "mission-critical" systems fully ready to deal with the Y2K glitch until October or later, he said in the letter sent last week and released Wednesday.

"Thus, it appears that many post-secondary institutions will have little time left to adjust if schedules slip or problems are discovered," Reilly said. "I am also disappointed that the survey's response rate was only 32 percent."

So far, only 22 of the more than 5,800 U.S. institutions participating in the student aid programs have tested their systems successfully, he said.

The Education Department's systems have been fully tested internally and validated for Y2K compliance. But for the student aid system to work, they must be able to exchange financial aid data with federal systems after Jan. 1.

Reilly warned the school leaders of possible "significant delays in student aid delivery" if systems fail to be able to swap data in the new century.

He called for the presidents' and chancellors' "personal involvement" to prepare for the glitch, which could cause computers to misread the year 2000 and potentially spark wide-ranging systems failures.

Last week, John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 conversion, said elementary and secondary schools were also lagging badly in making software changes to dodge Y2K pitfalls.

Y2K-related failures in schools were unlikely to have a direct impact on teaching and learning, the president's council reported in its third quarterly report Thursday.

But they could affect school buildings, making them less safe, and disrupt lessons that rely on computers as well as scramble student records and payrolls, the council said.

According to spring/summer Education Department survey data, only 28 percent of more than 3,500 school districts and other education agencies had reported all their crucial systems ready for the year 2000.

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I think Thomas Saul will be interested in this report !!

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 11, 1999

Answers

Kiss the Spring 2000 semester goodbye.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), August 11, 1999.

Having worked at (programmer, EDP Auditor), and taught in a number of universities, I think that if the schools get their registration complete, they can probably muddle through. Payroll may be more fouled up than normal. Most classrooms are not particularly automated...and the instructors will still lecture on the same old material...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 12, 1999.