ISU officials were relieved and pleased to find there were no problems at the university stemming from the Y2K computer glitch.

John McCarroll, director of University Relations, was on duty at ISU’s Y2K Command Center in the Armory on New Year’s Eve. He said there were no problems that night, and there have been no difficulties since then.

Rabindra Mukerjea, assistant to the president and member of ISU’s Y2K committee, said everything seems to be going well so far.

“Here we are, 10 days after Jan. 1, and everything is going fine,” he said. “Everything ran smoothly as expected during the last week.”

McCarroll said DPS officials and facilities staff toured almost half of the buildings on campus after midnight on Jan. 1.

“They were checking utilities system operations, laboratory functions and security systems,” he said, “and all systems were operating normally.”

McCarroll also said no problems were found when the residence halls were checked.

Mukerjea said even though no difficulties arose because of Y2K, the worry surrounding it was not unwarranted.

“Some people might say that the problem was overemphasized, but I don’t believe it was,” Mukerjea said.

Dorothy Lewis, associate director of the Computation Center, said Y2K may have been overhyped to a certain degree, but “there was a serious problem that needed to be dealt with.”

Mukerjea said the preparation put into Y2K was the reason there were no problems.

“I think the fact that the problem was well-recognized and a lot of experts worked at it goes to show that the work paid off,” he said. “The work that was done certainly contributed to the results.”

McCarroll agreed with Mukerjea, saying that preparation was the key. “Clearly, preparation was the reason things went so smoothly,” he said.

Both Mukerjea and McCarroll noted that Iowa State had been working on fixing Y2K problems since the mid-1980s.

“It just got more intense in the past couple of years,” Mukerjea said.

Both officials also added that the Y2K Committee had been required to make monthly reports to the Board of Regents during the past 18 months.

“The Board of Regents wanted us to be ready,” Mukerjea said, “so we made sure we were.”

McCarroll said that by New Year’s Eve, everybody involved with troubleshooting Y2K at Iowa State was confident that the major systems were going to work.

However, McCarroll noted that with classes resuming today, some difficulties may still arise, but none are expected.

With Jan. 1 out of the way, officials now turn their eyes to the next potential turnover problem on Feb. 29.

Lewis explained that some computers may not recognize the year 2000 as a leap year and may skip Feb. 29.

However, administrators do not expect any difficulties, and there is no major planning for Feb. 29 as there was for Y2K.

“We don’t expect any major problems,” Lewis said. “Probably nothing will happen.”