Earlier today, Georgetown students noticed that attempts to access many of the University’s websites, including such necessities as Blackboard and Hoyamail, were met with an error screen. According to an email sent by Beth Ann Bergsmark, the Senior Director of Academic and Information Technology Services, earlier this evening, the glitch was caused by “an unexpected network disruption” that lasted from approximately 4:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. After 6, University Information Services began to slowly but surely get its websites working again, and all were restored over the following three hours.

Below is the full text of the email:

Dear faculty, staff, and students,

This afternoon at 4:45 PM there was an unexpected network disruption affecting service to our data center that lasted until 6:00 PM.  This caused Georgetown services, such as GUMail, Hoyamail, GUCalendar, departmental websites, and other services to be temporarily unavailable.  UIS was able to restore services beginning at 6:00 PM with all enterprise applications being verified by 9:00 PM.  We are going to continue to monitor the situation to prevent or mitigate a recurrence.

I apologize for the disruption.  I encourage you to contact the UIS Help Desk at 202-687-4949 whenever you notice a disruption in service.

Beth Ann Bergsmark
Senior Director, AITS
University Information Services

Although Blackboard was frustratingly one of the last sites to be restored, it is a little disappointing that it came back so early—makes pulling the “UIS ate my homework” excuse that much trickier.

Remember when we declared that “Georgetown is still not even close to being a totally-wireless campus?”

Boy, were we wrong.

Over the next academic year, University Information Services (UIS) will overhaul the network infrastructure of Alumni Square, Copley Hall, Darnall Hall, Harbin Hall, Henle Village, LXR, Nevils, Village A, and Village C.

That’s right—when UIS finishes its upgrades, every residence hall at Georgetown will have wireless internet access.

“Working with University leadership, we recognized that there’s many areas on campus that need wireless internet access,” UIS Director Beth Ann Bergsmark said. “But, everybody agreed that the residence halls are a priority.”

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