Error causes financial confusion
January 30, 2003
A programming error in MyUW caused dozens of UW students to receive incorrect financial-aid information over the weekend. The error began to affect the service at 10:30 p.m. Saturday after a system update, and remained a problem for nearly 24 hours. The glitch was corrected late Sunday, according to Bill Shirey, student systems manager at the UW's Computing and Communications Department (C&C).
"We think that some mistakes in programming were made when the system was updated, which resulted in students receiving false information," Shirey said.
Saturday evening, C&C staff members performed a major update on the financial-aid section of MyUW, adding information to be used for the next financial-aid year -- which runs from summer quarter 2003 to spring quarter 2004.
A flaw in the new programming caused the system to display incorrect information in the "financial-aid status" service of MyUW. According to Shirey, any student who accessed the site during this time saw a message stating that a hold had been placed on his or her financial aid. Students were further instructed to contact the UW's Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA).
When the office opened Monday, it began receiving calls and visits from worried students. According to Janet Cantelon, an OSFA assistant director, the staff was unaware of the computer glitch until students began contacting the office. Upon checking the students' records, counselors determined that their financial aid was intact and any technological problems had been resolved.
"Whatever they saw, we haven't seen," Cantelon said.
The OSFA estimates that between 50 and 70 UW students have contacted the office since Sunday to inquire about their financial-aid status after checking the service and receiving incorrect information.
According to Shirey, C&C performs similar database updates on the MyUW service three to fours times per year. This is the first time, however, that this type of error has occurred.
"There was nothing wrong with the data, it was simply an error in programming," Shirey said.
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