By Jose Paulo De Paz (J-101 Staff Writer)
This past Tuesday, students and staff alike were surprised with no internet on campus.
The outage not only affected East Los Angeles College (ELAC) but six other colleges within the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). Many students and staff were upset as they were unable to get much done.
There was no service at 8 a.m. and IT continuously updated staff on the status of the internet situation.
Around 11 a.m. the internet was working again but issues were still present. Printers and wi-fi were down, making it difficult for students and staff to receive much help from the facilities on campus.
Among those heavily affected were the Helen Miller Bailey Library, the Learning Center, the Reading and Writing Center and Transfer Center. The library staff was only able to access an offline catalog.
Other centers were also unable to provide assistance because a majority of their systems need internet to fully operate.
“Students came in, but they couldn’t do anything. We told them they were more than welcome to stay, but they just left,” said Learning Center Director Amanda Ryan-Romo.
Students were upset as they rely heavily on the resources provided by the Learning Center.
Ryan-Romo explained that the tutoring system relies extensively on the internet and, with it down, tutors couldn’t help those who had appointments.
The system allows for tutors and staff to see who is scheduled for appointments online.
“Internet started coming back around one o’clock, but it was on-and-off,” said Ryan-Romo.
According to an email sent out by the IT Department, the outage was due to a regional service failure by Internet Service Provider (ISP) CENIC and AT&T.
“It was not an internal problem. Something out of our hands,” said IT Manager Gonzalo Mendoza, “They [AT&T] had a circuit problem. They had fixed it, but it kept fluctuating.”
Mendoza said the internet was not back until 1 p.m. In the e-mail sent out by Mendoza, staff was told not to start any internet-based transactions around noon, as the internet was fluctuating and could result in incomplete processes.
The e-mail also said the internet was not operational until 4 p.m. that afternoon, with confirmation from both AT&T and CENIC. Both AT&T and CENIC confirmed and monitored the internet until it was back to normal.
The six colleges and universities that were affected were Elac, Pierce College, Long Beach City College, and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.