System Shock Before the First Day of the Semester

By Andrey Nalbantov | Published February 24, 2022

Every new start of a semester brings a dose of stress for both students and professors, especially while spending the first two weeks remotely and having to quickly adjust and come back to the uncomfortable school desks and the crowded Starbucks. 

The stress level for the Spring semester increased after all Kean systems and related programs went down the day before the semester started, causing many disruptions among students and faculty.

Many students could not access some of the university-related platforms like KeanWise and Blackboard to retrieve additional information about their classes before the first day of the Spring 2022 semester. 

What created even more confusion among students was the fact that they could not even contact their professors through their Kean email, because the emails they sent out were not delivered while the system was down.

Once the problem was resolved, the university’s Office of Computer and Information Services (OCIS) sent out an announcement email to all students, faculty, and staff of the university. 

OCIS explained in their email that the reason behind the massive shutdown was “due to fiber cable damage with the University’s carrier.” They also assured that all Kean-related services were back online, and available for the first day of classes on Jan. 18. 

All emails sent out earlier in the day were to be delivered over the next few hours as well. 

The system shock not only caused troubles for students who tried to gather more information on their classes and contact their professors but also created difficulties for the ones that tried to add or drop classes. 

Maria Irvin, a junior majoring in Communication and Media Studies, wanted to drop a class a day before the semester started but could not do it due to KeanWise not working.

Even though the whole situation caused some confusion for Irvin, she luckily had no troubles once the system came back on.

“I tried dropping a US History class,” Irvin said. “I got immensely stressed.”

On the other hand, some students did not even notice the problems the university had with their system. 

Diego Mendoza, a sophomore also majoring in Communication and Media Studies, did not notice the issues because he was already committed to his schedule and saw no need for change or extra details about his classes before the semester itself had started. 

“I want to know where my classes are the day the semester starts,” Mendoza said.

Students were not the only ones who struggled with Kean’s systems not working. Many professors also faced some difficulties during the hours in which the university-related programs and websites were down.

Korin Lamourt, an adjunct faculty member, was one of the many professors who experienced the disruptions. 

Like most faculty and students, the problem Lamourt experienced was the inability to access the university’s website for additional class information.

While she doesn’t anticipate the same issue to happen again, she expects that due to recent bigger reliance on technology a problem of a similar nature could occur. 

And even though Lamourt is not certain on how one can prepare themselves to face a similar situation in the future, the simple advice she gave can be very useful for all.

“I’m not sure what could be done to prepare for this in the future other than checking emails regularly for any updates,” Lamourt said.

While Kean University’s system shutting down was an unfortunate event that caused a great deal of stress and problems for many students and professors, it also was an unexpected welcome back to class for students. 

---