Early Friday morning, on the final date to drop classes, the LSU mainframe computer shut down, limiting scheduling and payroll access to University students, faculty and staff.

Sheri Thompson, University Information Technology Services communications and planning officer, said an unexpected power outage caused the shutdown, and IBM and University analysts are working to get the system up.

Though the mainframe was updated in June 2012, the power outage was not caused by University ITS, Thompson said.

ITS is working with the University Registrar to monitor the mainframe’s progress.

“Once we get the mainframe up and running, we’ll work with them to assess what needs to be done,” Thompson said. “Right now our priority is getting it back up.”

“We know about the situation and we are monitoring it,” the University Registrar’s office said in a statement.
Brian Melancon, head of LSU Libraries’ computer systems, said problems with the mainframe computer should not have affected accessibility at Middleton.