The University Record, May 20, 1998
U is ready to fight the ‘bug’
By Jane R. Elgass
It’s not the two zeros in the year 2000 that are bugging folks so much these days, but the problems caused by processing date data and the rather enormous task of finding the hidden computer codes that deal with storage of dates, Jose-Marie Griffiths told members of the Board of Regents at their May meeting.
Griffiths, the University’s chief information officer and executive director of the Information Technology Division, briefed the Regents at their May meeting on work already under way and future plans to address what is referred to by many as the Year 2000 (Y2K) Problem or the Millennium Bug.
Some software assumes that the first two digits of a year are “19” and uses a two-digit number instead of a four-digit number. For example, “89” represents “1989.” This becomes a problem when the century changes and the software recognizes the year “00” as “1900” instead of “2000.”
If we don’t find and fix the problem, on Jan.1, 2000, we’ll have students graduating before they were born and retirement dates that precede our hiring, at least according to computers.
There are four major areas that have to be reviewed for Y2K compliance: software applications, operating systems, data archives and programs embedded in hardware, such as elevators.
Griffiths said the biggest challenge is finding the coding lodged in both software and hardware. In some cases, the coding can easily be identified as programs are scanned. Many times, however, the material has to be reviewed line by line, Griffiths said, citing the discovery of one line of coding that required six pages of new coding to get rid of the “bug.”
There is a potential for problems in all areas in an institution as complex as the University, Griffiths noted, adding that most of the U-M’s central systems will by Y2K-compliant be December, all of them by January or February 1999.
As work on the central systems reaches final stages, the University’s Committee to Review Year 2000 Impact has launched an awareness campaign directed at individual units. The message: Y2K is a problem that must be addressed. Don’t assume that someone else will fix it.
The committee is working with representatives from every campus unit who are conducting assessments of the needs in their areas. The assessments are due in July, providing an opportunity for the committee to look at similarities and differences across campus and determine the best way to address compliance. Action plans for each unit will be prepared by Sept. 1.
