Digital services were restored this morning to four buildings on St. Thomas' Minneapolis campus after a disruption beginning on Thursday affected computers, telephones and certain building controls.
Most services were back to normal about 9:35 a.m., although it is expected to take up to four hours for heat to be fully restored to Terrence Murphy Hall.
The first problems occurred at 10:25 a.m. Thursday when the network link between the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses went down. Information Resources and Technology staff members immediately began working with Zayo, the university's Internet service provider, to locate the source of the problem and make repairs.
Zayo initially thought the disruption was related to disconnected data fiber in its main hub, located near the Metrodome, but by late afternoon it appeared the problem was related to an actual break in the fiber between the Minneapolis campus and the hub. Zayo continued to work on the issues throughout the evening and into Friday morning. Service was restored when Zayo and St. Thomas personnel repaired fiber patches in Terrence Murphy Hall.
During the disruption, faculty, staff and students on the Minneapolis campus lost some ability to use campus phones and network services, including the Internet, St. Thomas email and Courseweb, and heat to the buildings also was affected. Lighting was not affected.
Some classroom buildings on the St. Paul campus also were affected by the loss of heat.
Further disruption in services is not anticipated, and IRT continues to monitor the situation.
