The pesky Y2K bug threatens to interrupt services at Duke on Jan. 1 just like anywhere else, but University officials say their millennium-induced problems should be minimal.
Still, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask admitted that "no matter what we do, there will be something at Duke that doesn't work." He stressed, however, that he thinks Duke's most vital systems are Y2K-compliant.
Trask said he was particularly concerned about the possibility that the federal government's computers will lose data crucial for renewing grants, contracts and financial aid in the new year. Because Duke relies on an electronic transfer of funds from the government to its accounts, a glitch on the federal level could have serious consequences.
The Y2K bug is a flaw in some older computers that record years in two-digit form. When the year 2000 rolls around in four months, many computers may think it is 1900.
Officials say the Office of Information Technology-which is responsible for student computer clusters the acpub system, administrative computer systems and telephones-is almost completely Y2K-compliant.
For example, as of April 23, the University's 20,000 telephone lines on campus were compliant, said Pam Riley, OIT's manager of customer service and product development for television and video communications.
"We wanted to have all remediation done by July 30, but some things are taking a little longer," said Neal Paris, the University's Y2K compliance officer. "We still have [four] months to cover the slippage."
Paris predicted a few "unforeseen glitches" on New Year's Day and said OIT is working on contingency plans. "There will be undoubtedly be problems on January 1, 2000, but hopefully they will be in non-mission-critical areas," Paris said. He added that OIT has begun testing its systems by separating off portions of its network and running the clock to midnight Dec. 31.
Chips embedded in small electronic devices, like incubators and calculators, can also be affected by the bug, said Melissa Mills, assistant dean for Arts and Sciences Computing.
At the Medical Center, administrators are remediating central mainframe-based systems and 2,500 workstations and servers, as well as organizing critical clinical systems updates, said Dave Kirby, Medical Center compliance officer and manager of systems programming.
Kirby said Duke's work on the Y2K issue began in 1989, and continued "with an increased pace starting about three-and-a-half years ago," Kirby said. "There are plenty of other units in the [Duke University Health System] who have made timely and conscientious efforts in eliminating Y2K problems."
Kirby said several summer projects-including some departmental systems, some Human Resources work and some administrative systems-have not yet been completed, but that they should be wrapped up with time to spare.
"The overall strategy is to have the fall to exercise contingency plans," he said. Although Kirby said he expects minor unforeseen glitches when the new century arrives, "we expect to be prepared for problems we anticipate."
Duke Power, which supplies the University with electricity, announced that it was ready as of June 30. But still, part of Duke's Y2K preparation included securing a generator in case the power grid fails, Trask said.
As for the water supply, Durham officials also believe they are ready. "We've tested the system. We have reason to believe there will not be a problem," said John Peterson, assistant city manager. In the event of a problem, the public works department will operate the system manually.
Trask, noting that he was glad that students would not be on campus for the changeover, said Duke will also have a couple extra days of food on campus, just in case.
Although librarian James Coble said he thinks the library system will be ready, he has budgeted $10,000 for the fiscal year starting June 2000. "I'm just holding some money in case we need to do something quickly," he said.
Students wondering about the compliance of their computers' should consult the following web site: http://www.oit.duke.edu/helpdesk/y2k/student.html.
Richard Rubin contributed to this story.
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