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Preparing for year 2000

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

When Jan. 1, 2000, zeros in, WSU computer systems should be compliant, thanks to the efforts of “swat team” leaders in colleges and other units and University Computing and Telecommunications staff.

Nationwide, there has been concern about whether computers and other date-sensitive systems will be able to function once the century ends. Many systems use a two-character date field to save memory and keystrokes, causing experts to believe that the systems may reset to the year 1900 rather than 2000. Year 2000 compliance is commonly referred to as Y2K.

Here at WSU, it should be all systems go, according to John Hutchinson, who is chairing WSU’s 10-member Y2K compliance committee, and Gary Ott, executive director, and Jim Rogers, assistant director, with University Computing.

While a number of areas have found that the Y2K problem isn’t as catastrophic as once thought, for University Computing compliance has meant the investment of a lot of resources.

The center — the hub of the university’s information systems — maintains 400 application systems with multiple programs. Those systems include everything from payroll to student records. Bringing them into compliance means a 15-member staff has dedicated 18 months of time already, going through 7 million lines of computer programming and adding a four-digit year code, Rogers said.

Student records will be the last system tested. The staff will finish the conversion in March, one of the few times during the year it can be shut down.

While the price tag for converting all the systems has been high “it’s not as much as not being year 2K compliant,” Ott said.

The center also replaced the campus phone system, another major undertaking, to make that compliant.

He and his staff also are keeping up to speed on the compliance progress of vendors, such as banks which handle electronic transfers of employee payroll checks.

Business elsewhere on campus is expected to continue as usual Jan. 1, 2000.

The updated software for the energy management system, which starts and stops the air and heating systems in buildings, should be installed by May, according to Klent Harkness, environmental control superintendent at the Physical Plant and Y2K swat team leader for that area.

Embedded processors in the elevators and residence hall locks also will be compliant, he said.

“I thought from all the media hype we had heard that this would be a really big problem,” Harkness said, “but by going through the systems and asking the right questions (of manufacturers), it’s turned out not to be that big of a problem.”

After forming in fall 1997, the university’s Y2K committee asked each college and other units to designate a swat team leader, someone who would coordinate or run compliance checks.

Software programs have been developed that can check for compliance and fix compliance problems, if possible.

Some units already were in the process of doing these checks. The College of Health Professions, for example, already had its two computer technicians working on the problem, said Nancy Kraemer, the college’s swat team leader. In addition to testing the computers, they’ve contacted the manufacturers of the college’s medical equipment to check on compliance.

If swat team leaders or other designated people in the units are unable to run the fix-it programs, Hutchinson has a half-time graduate student who assists with compliance checks.

“Once they get the obvious things, like personal computers, taken care of, they should use their imagination to think of other, hidden problems,” advised Hutchinson, a mathematics professor and director of operations, budgets and information systems, National Institute for Aviation Research.

For more information about WSU’s Y2K project, go online to chaco.niar.twsu.edu/year2k/. The Website for Wichita Y2K user group is kronos.niar.twsu.edu/wichitay2k.

Graduate student A.A. Mohib checks the
Website for WSU’s Y2K compliance project.
Mohib works part time at the National Institute for
Aviation Research, helping campus units do compliance
checks on office computers.

Inside WSU is published by the Office of University Communications for Wichita State University faculty and staff on Fridays - with an exclusive online version every other Friday - during the fall and spring semesters. Items to be considered for publication should be sent to campus box 62 or amy.geiszler-jones@wichita.edu 10 days before publication.

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Amy Geiszler-Jones

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Matthew Hicks