Maddison Farris
Lantern Staff
Frustration spreads as students and faculty alike endure the growing struggle of password complications within Canvas and the Pipeline password system. Many students and staff have had to call the Help Desk multiple times per day because of the system demanding a password reset on some accounts for every entry. As frustrating as this may be, the solution may be closer and more available to us than we realize.
Over the past few weeks, many students and staff have encountered hardship dealing with password resets. Some faculty members and even students were unable to access their Canvas accounts for an entire weekend. In fact, they may have received an email from Christina Byram titled “unplanned service outage – self – service password reset”.
This email explained that there had been a technical difficulty regarding the password system. This issue was completely unrelated to the constant lock-outs.
“Last Friday [Sept. 27], we had a password reset issue that was on Microsoft’s side on Friday, and then when we came into work on Monday, it still wasn’t working, but Microsoft’s side was up, so we had to log into our servers and restart some server systems to bring it up and started working again,” Christina Byram, director Unified Commun/Deputy CIO., said.
Bill Young, vice president of Information Technology, explained that IT implemented a new password reset system over the summer. This system makes it easier for students and faculty alike to reset their passwords independently. However, discord arose when many students and staff found themselves locked out multiple times per day after renewing their password and finding themselves calling the Butler Help Desk on numerous occasions.
But why is this happening? And where did this issue come from? The new password system locks accounts after two failed password attempts. So, for example, if someone saved your old password on Google and simply try and login, that’s one attempt. Now say they try on their phone, that is two.
“If I change my password on my computer, but don’t change it on my phone, then my phone is going to try and check, it’s going to put in the old password, and it’s going to lock me back out,” Young said. “You have to change your password on all your devices.”
The Butler community must ensure that every device has the updated password or deal with the frustration of account lockouts. In the event that this does happen to you, the Butler Help Desk is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and can be reached by calling 316-322-3306.
