Southeastern La. University announces ‘academic continuity’ plan amid network outages; officials face pressure

HAMMOND, La. (WVUE) - Amid network outages that have affected Southeastern Louisiana University’s daily operations for two weeks, President John Crain has announced an ‘academic continuity’ plan for students.

Crain said in a social media message that the school is treating the outage the same way they handled hurricanes and other natural disasters that have disrupted daily studies in the past.

The following dates have been adjusted this semester:

Last day to withdraw is moved from March 31 to April 28

Last day to withdraw from Term 2 classes is also April 28

Term 1 classes have been extended by one week from March 8 to March 14

Term 1 finals have been moved from March 9-13 to March 15-16

Term 2 classes start date is moved from March 14 to March 20

For more, see the social media graphic above.

For computer resources, see the post below.

The announcement comes after what was described as a “network incident” that caused outages to systems used for class materials, email, and online billing. Although the school has not said the incident was a cyber attack, they have confirmed that state police are investigating it.

Students and some faculty have expressed frustration over what they feel is a lack of transparency in the wake of the incident.

“They could have brought in commercial AT&T Wireless hubs and we could have been on the internet,” said faculty member Dayne Sherman. “We could have had computers, which we still don’t have now. I am very happy that things are starting to turn around but it should not have taken a week and a half to do this.”

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