When clocks strike 12 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2000, the world will collectively hold its breath in hopes that our technology-dependent society does not fall apart.
At the University, there's ample potential for problems. VCRs refusing to record the Rose Bowl, traffic lights magically shutting off and loans suddenly being past due are just a few of them.
The potential problems to the world's ever-expanding reliance on computer-run items began nearly 35 years ago when computer programmers, in an attempt to save precious computer memory, decided to code the four-digit year portion of a date as only two digits.
To many computer systems around the world, we are currently living in the year '98 instead of 1998.
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| DANA LINNANE/Daily Students work on computers at Angell Hall. The University, along with other institutions, faces the challenge of updating its computer programs for 2000. |
These and various other year 2000 problems have become known as the Y2K bug, and currently are being solved by recoding a computer's program to include a four-digit year. But this recoding is a costly and time-consuming process.
The exact figure of how much the University has spent to recode computers is hard to determine because reprogramming began in the early 1980s and occurs in many different divisions of the University, said José-Marie Griffith, University chief information officer.
In December 1997, a small panel called the Committee to Review the Year 2000 Impact is overseeing the University's effort to make all computer systems year 2000 compliant.
"We are doing all we can to make sure that the University functions at the same level on Jan. 1, 2000 as it did on Dec. 31, 1999," said Gloria Thiele, ITD Year 2000 project leader.
Within the University's centrally-managed computer infrastructure, which includes payroll and financial aid systems, the committee has identified programs that need to be replaced and has scheduled software testing to begin in January, Thiele said.
"All the units need to look at their mission-critical functions, determine whether they are Y2K compliant and test them in their actual environment," Thiele said.
While the University is taking steps to make sure campuswide computer systems are Y2K compliant, the problem of a decentralized environment in which each separate school runs its own computer network is cause for worry.
"We're trying not to panic everyone, but let them know it's an important problem," Griffith said.
To combat the problem of each University department running its own separate computer system that need to be fixed individually, a representative from each of the University's major schools, colleges, and departments has been appointed to coordinate efforts within their unit.
"We want to have a lot of information available because this a decentralized environment," Thiele said. "There is still a lot to be done, but the University is working together. It's a very delicate balance between functioning as an organization and as separate schools and divisions."
Another major project of the Committee to Review the Year 2000 Impact is to make sure the entire University community is aware of the Y2K bug and to take steps to prevent personal programs and applications from crashing.
"From our standpoint, we want to make sure that people are doing the things to make sure that the fix is going to work." said Bruce Spiher, ITD marketing services manager.
Although the University is undergoing a major effort to fix its systems, many students are not aware of what is taking place.
"I haven't thought about it personally, because I haven't heard the University make an issue of it," said LSA senior Patricia Donnellan. "I thought about it more in terms of banks and businesses."
More information on current University measures to fix the Y2K bug can be found at http://www.year2000.umich.edu.
09-17-98
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