Graduating students affected by technological glitch

This was how Elizabeth Béjar, vice provost for Academic Planning and Accountability, described a data “glitch” that, as of Oct. 10,  resulted in approximately 300 students who applied for  fall 2011 commencement not being registered in the system.

Students  who applied for a commencement pass received a success message that they were registered for the ceremony, but the system actually did not retain their information.

The technical error affects students who registered as far back as Sept. 28, the first day registration was open for fall 2011 commencement and guest passes.

University Technology Services has been “data mining,” meaning they have been manually going through the database of approximately 2,400 students, to find which students have been affected.

The technical error  is thought to have occurred in the last month, when UTS modified a code in the online student commencement survey that resulted in  a partial loss of students who had registered for a commencement pass and purchased guest passes.

Student media called UTS for comment but was referred back to Béjar.

Students who happened to double check their commencement registrations with the registrar, only to see they were not recorded, alerted UTS that a possible glitch had occurred.  Béjar said they started researching the matter immediately.

In regard to why the University waited until the end of the commencement deadline to announce that there had been an error, Béjar responded, “In part it was coincidence.  It was only open for a week so we waited until we really understood everything. What we didn’t know is if there were multiple situations or [if there were] common characteristics.”

The common characteristic was that the students were affected after UTS changed a technological code.

The deadline to apply for a commencement pass, which ended Oct. 10, will be extended until Oct. 19 for students affected by the error. All students affected will still be able to participate in commencement and purchase guest passes.

Academic planning will send out notification to students affected, encouraging all students who applied to double check with the graduation office to make sure they are  registered for commencement.

The University will continue researching the matter so as Béjar said “we don’t lose anybody.”