1:36 p.m. – After problems that began on Aug. 8, TopNet and Blackboard are back online, according to an email from Bob Owen, vice president for Information Technology.

“WKU IT will be having very substantive conversations with IBM beginning on Monday about what happened,” Owen said in an email to faculty, staff and students just after 1 p.m. Sunday.

11:13 a.m. – Many of WKU’s online systems, such as Blackboard and TopNet, are offline after a series of technical problems that has IBM support on high alert. 

WKU uses IBM (International Business Machine Corporation) hardware to store important WKU system data. 

The problems began on Aug. 8 when TopNet systems began to display error messages. Believing one of the system drives to be failing, WKU IT contacted IBM support for help.

WKU IT staff, working with IBM technicians, have replaced various pieces of hardware in an attempt to fix the system but have so far been unsuccessful. 

In an e-mail sent to students, faculty and staff, Owen said that IBM support has declared the situation at WKU to be critical, and that the company is dedicating many resources to help solve the problem as soon as possible.

Owen said IT staff will be working around the clock until the problem is solved and that as always, critical systems data is safely secured on a backup drives.