Several freshmen were unexpectedly denied access to their Northwestern accounts Sunday due to a software malfunction.
The Northwestern software uses a password aging system, requiring passwords be reset every 120 days. According to Wendy Woodward, director of Northwestern Technology Support Services, the software managing NetIDs experienced a glitch, causing close to 25 percent of NetIDs to prematurely expire.
“They appear to have been newer NetIDs, which explains why so many freshmen seem to have been impacted,” Woodward said.
Most freshmen denied access initially set their passwords about a month ago.
“I waited for a few hours to see if the problem would be fixed, but ended up not having internet access for a day and a half,” said Weinberg freshmen Anthony Chiodo, who set his password five weeks ago.
All affected students were locked out of their CAESAR and Blackboard accounts. Some were also denied access to the campus wireless network, a problem that NUIT attributes to the NetPass Security System.
Weinberg freshman Christine Crandall could not complete readings emailed Monday from a professor. “It put me behind my homework schedule,” Crandall said.
After resetting their passwords, most students have now regained access to the Northwestern network.