By now we've all heard of the Year 2000 Millennium Bug, that two-digit creepy computer and program creature that will cause havoc come the turn of the century.

by George Spain, CCIT Technical Writer

It's been on TV news programs and sitcoms alike. The malfunctions it will cause range from bank failures (CBS Evening News) to exploding coffeemakers (News Radio).

But what is the real deal, and how seriously do other institutions in the area take this problem?

To find out, I contacted several other educational institutions in the area including the College of Charleston, The Citadel, Charleston Southern University and the Charleston County School District.

I got a reply from each and found that the attitude and the activity varied widely.

Here’s a list of the questions that we asked technology planners and managers at other area educational institutions. The responses are summarized in the adjacent story.

• How large a problem is the Y2K bug at your institution?
• How ready for this problem is your institution?
• Do you, personally, think there will be “panic” at your institution as the deadline draws near?
• Which systems are the most important and are these the most protected or the most vulnerable (concerning the Y2K problem).
• Does your top administration take this problem seriously and does it give you what you need to prepare for this problem?
• What if any trouble do you expect when you arrive at work on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2000?

How area institutions are handling the problem

No panic at the long gray line

Rod Welch reports almost with glee that he has no fear whatever of the highly touted Millennium Bug.

The Citadel's number one computer honcho writes that he’s 90 percent ready and that the overall problem at The Citadel is “small.” He said his major administrative system’s “Y2K problems have already been handled by the software vendor.”

Leslie Ogden, webmaster and multi-media service manager at The Citadel, confirms that she, too, feels confident that the bug won’t bite the military college. “The vendor (Info Associates) started early on the problem and got out the patches to upgrade important systems like Student Information, Financial Resources, Human Resources and Alumni Development,” Ogden said.

She said that having a single vendor for all of those systems was probably a contributing factor to The Citadel’s feeling of calm.

Cougars show little fear

Marcia Moore, of the College of Charleston, wrote “the Year 2000 assessment completed so far at the College of Charleston is indicating that the problem is relatively small to medium in size.”

Moore, too, like every other administrator I contacted, considered the college's major enterprise systems the top priority. “As far as the main application systems, the College is in great shape to meet the necessary compliance changes.” She identified the enterprise systems as Student Information System, Financial Records System, Human Resource System and Bookstore System.

Of the non-enterprise systems, she says they are still under investigation. “As far as the remaining impact (non enterprise systems) of non-compliant computer chips, assessment is not complete enough to know the true scope, but the general feeling is that the college is close to being ready.”

Moore said when the big day approaches (Jan. 2, 2000), “there will probably be a few minor unexpected issues, but they should not affect any critical mission operations.”

CSU on the case

Rusty Bruns, executive director of information systems at Charleston Southern University, writes, “We currently are replacing our old administrative software and hardware with new software that is Y2K compliant (completion by June 1999). All of our PCs have been upgraded; our PBX will be upgraded by the end of this calendar year. The energy management system will be upgraded early next year.” Bruns says that's all of his major systems.

An Apple a day

The Charleston County School District, one of the 50 largest school districts of the thousands nationwide, is facing the same problems.

Connie Britton, Wide Area Network (WAN) administrator for CCSD said that Apple Computers make up more than 50 per cent of the district's installed base of computers in the schools. (Apples are immune from the Y2K bug). She also said, “the district has adopted a Technology Plan which includes planned abandonment of all DOS-based applications by July 1, 1999. This should facilitate a move to Windows95 or NT Workstation 4.0 with this in mind, I believe the problem is large, but not overwhelming.”

Britton doesn't expect panic as the deadline draws near, “ however, I do believe more concern will be expressed by the schools. I believe we will have some workstation and instructional software issues [when the magic day rolls around].”

Britton is concerned that while the administration has set goals, “resources in the area of technology are insufficient to meet current needs and certainly do not address the extra efforts needed to implement Y2K compliance measures.”

'That depends on what you mean by compliant'

Most workstation vendors, including Apple, Dell, and Zenith Data Systems, consider a computer system "Y2K-compliant" if it satisfies the following three criteria:

• Supports millennium date format (MM-DD-YYYY)
• Automatically changes to 2000 on 01/01/2000
• Year 2000 is correctly handled as a leap year.

Dell says hardware products shipped on or after Jan. 1, 1997, are eligible to carry the National Software Testing Laboratories (NSTL) “Hardware Tested Year 2000 Compliant” logo because the equipment successfully completed the YMARK2000 test. Dell will treat a failure to pass the YMARK2000 test as a covered event under Dell’s warranty for the product.

The table below is a sample of the information found at MUSC’s Y2K Web site, http://www.musc.edu/y2k. If you do not find your workstation either in this table or at the web site, instructions for performing your own Y2K test can be found at the site. If you have a Dell workstation and the BIOS must be upgraded or you cannot determine the BIOS version, you should go to Dell’s site, http://www.us.dell.com/year2000. Here you can enter your computer’s serial number to check on your specific workstation’s compliancy status.

Finally, if all else fails, you can go to the NSTL site, http://www.nstl.com/html/nstl_ymark2000.html, and follow the instructions there for using the MARK2000 test.

Y2K-Compliant Computers

Vendor Model Y2K-compliant BIOS vers

Apple All All

Dell OptiPlex GX1/NX1 All OptiPlex Gxi, OptiPlex Gxa All OptiPlex GXPro A04 or higher OptiPlex GXL/GXM/GXMT A20 or higher OptiPlex GL/GL+/GM/GM+/GMT/GMT+ A20 or higher OptiPlex XL/XM/XMT 5xxx A15 or higher

Zenith Z-Station GT, GT 500, GT Pro All Z-Station LX,LX2,LX2+,LX3 All Z-Station LX PRO,LX PRO S All Z-Station 510 3.02 & 3.03 Z-Station LC AMI V.3.06 Z-Station ES All Z-Station EX All Z-Station ES/P 1.00.04 and higher

Manufacturer's dilemma

Biomedical Engineering, working closely with the Y2K effort in MUSC’s patient care units, has advice for facing the 01/01/00 dilemma: hound the makers

Regina Hall, Communications Coordinator, Division of Finance and Administration

Stan Trojanowski of Biomedical Engineering recommends pressing manufacturers for specific answers regarding compliance.

He said there are about 20 different levels of compliance, so if the answer the manufacturer gives is not specific enough, he recommends asking them to clarify.

Extreme Y2K cases with medical equipment, where date failures could harm patients, are safeguarded by the Safe Medical Device Act and enforced upon the manufactures by the FDA.

“So far we are not aware of any such problems coming. Ultimately even with smaller Y2k problems we, users, rely on the manufacturers whether by accepting directly their compliance statements or by depending on their-provided technical documentation,” Trojanowski said.

Items for which a specific answer cannot be obtained from a vendor should be factored into a contingency plan.

Contingency plans help prepare for possible glitches; conducting an assessment increases the amount of knowledge about complications that could arise, Trojanowski said. But be careful, “the manufacturer may not know everything.”

A contingency plan should include all the equipment, hardware, and software for which there is a question about how it will respond to the date change.

He divided equipment to be evaluated into three priority groups. High priority equipment (high risk, expensive, and patient care critical) was evaluated first. Trojanowski also recommends factoring in the cost for overtime pay that may be needed to work on problem systems. One example, he said, would be data obtained from an external source that is not compliant.

Data that accumulates in a database over a period of weeks or months may require additional man-hours to correct the errors.

"My motto for Y2K is celebrate it prepared."

How they see it...

Throughout the MUSC campus, the Millennium Bug is a reason to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Random queries drew a range of responses, some of which are included below:

“If you have been developing a colony of mice for a specific research project and if this colony is wiped out due to an equipment failure related to Y2K, this could prove to be detrimental to the principal investigator’s research ... Everyone needs to look in their own areas and tell CCIT or Risk Management if they need assistance. If you have questions about equipment being Y2K compliant then we can help in determining if it is or is not.”

— Wayne Brannan, Director of University Risk Management, describing the potential impact of an embedded microchip in a piece of equipment.

“Recipients of NIH grants and cooperative agreements generally have full responsibility for the scientific, administrative, and financial aspects of the activity being supported. This responsibility extends to anticipating and reacting to events such as the Year 2000 and taking all steps necessary to mitigate potential problems that might be caused by the Year 2000.” A full text version of the statement can be found at the following URL address: http://www.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not98-046. html.

— National Institutes of Health

"Every effort should be made to assess the potential impact of the Year 2000 and take measures that will enable MUSC to carry out its mission ... It’s challenging to appropriate both man hours and budget dollars to prepare for potential problems that might occur ‘way down the road.’ Doing so now allows you the luxury of being proactive versus reactive, and there’s a bit less stress in being proactive ... determining now what you need to replace can help spread the expense over more than one fiscal year. As a nation we will spend hundreds of billions to fix the problem. It’s unrealistic to think that it won’t cost us all something.” “Vendors have been very good about supplying us with necessary software to make our systems Y2K compliant.”

— Jim Fisher, Vice President for Development, on recommending forward planning for Y2K

“Every person has a role in preparing for Y2K ... if you are late starting to prepare for Y2K, you can benefit from the experiences of other areas. A very focused plan will be necessary for getting the job done.”

—Tom Keating, Administrator for Children’s Healthcare System working with the Medical Center on Y2K issues. Keating recommends that each department should have a focus person for the Y2K issue and notes the benefits of preparing.

“Members of the MUSC community should attempt to recognize equipment that might potentially have a Y2K problem ... outside the work done by the Y2K committee, we, as individuals, can test pieces of equipment or our computers by setting the clock to the end of 1999 and watching what happens when the computer ‘thinks’ it’s 2000. For PCs, this should be done by using a bootable floppy disk so that none of the software on the hard disk is disturbed ... It’s like Hugo—we’ll manage to overcome whatever obstacles arise, and get on with MUSC’s daily business.”

— Dr. Frank Starmer, Associate Provost for Information Technology Starmer recommends testing equipment as being the best strategy for demonstrating if there is a problem or not.

“To not acknowledge the Y2K factor would be irresponsible on the part of any administrator.”

— Lawrence Moser, Dept. Administrator for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

“MUSC is heading into the final budget cycle for before the Year 2000.Therefore, it is critical that departments conduct inventories, determine what the potential impact will be, and budget for repairs or replacement equipment.”

— Bob Gallager, Vice President for Finance and Administration

“Taking responsibility for checking computers and equipment at the departmental level is essential for preparing for 2000. Being aware of what issues could arise early on will help individual departments be better prepared, which will benefit MUSC as a whole. The core campus information systems are being prepared for the Year 2000. Conversion issues are being addressed in core campus systems including, but not limited to, the Oacis database which stores clinical information and the financial system. Human Resources is preparing to implement a new information system called Hermit that will get data off the mainframe and into a Y2K compliant environment."

— Melissa Forinash, Director of Information Technology (Center for Computing and Information Technology)