PALM DESERT (CNS) – College of the Desert’s internet service and
colleague portal were restored today following a computer network disruption,
with an investigation underway, that blocked student and staff access to
various online services.

It was unclear what caused the July 4 outage, but the college’s
Information Technology staff worked with an outside firm to help repair the
disruption and called law enforcement to investigate the outage.

“As we were working with our IT, as well as a third party, it was
necessary to bring in law enforcement,” Robles told CNS. “It’s typical for
situations like this, for our computer network outage.”

College officials said they will prioritize the restoration of
services most used by students as part of the college’s tiered service recovery
plan. With that, internet service on all of COD’s campuses was restored and the
Colleague UI Portal went back online on Thursday.

“Even students who do online courses still like to come to the
library and utilize the internet so they can study,” COD spokesperson Nicholas
Robles told City News Service.

The Colleague UI Portal allows access for staff to help students
register for or drop classes, process transcripts and access student records,
but Robles told CNS they’re still working to restore access for students’
portals. COD’s final summer session begins July 25, so students were advised to
contact the college to register for their classes.

The college set up http://www.CODNews.org so students can access alternative
resources and student services that have not been restored yet. Students can
access their course information, counseling services and ask questions through
the temporary website.

Robles said classes were not cancelled or impacted and students will
not be dropped due to non-payment of fees during the outage.

Faculty, students and staff will receive regular updates through COD’s
text alert system as information becomes available, officials said.

CNS-07-14-2022 13:52

College of the Desert Restores Services Following Computer Network Disruption