Boston University rising seniors are frustrated after MyBU, a new platform to help students register classes for the fall semester, crashed due to technical difficulties this Sunday.
As students attempted to enroll for their classes at 9 a.m., “502 Bad Gateway” appeared on the portal’s website. The system came back online shortly after and crashed for a second time at 10 a.m..
Daniel Parks, assistant vice president and university registrar, wrote in a statement on the registrar website to students that MyBU Student was “not functioning due to technical difficulties.”
“I want to acknowledge that today’s registration period was extremely frustrating and I apologize for the inconvenience this caused,” Parks wrote in an email to students.
Students received new appointment times after 5 p.m. and registration resumed on Monday, the same day as the Boston Marathon.
Hannah Finn, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, described the process as a “huge mess” after her first course registration attempt failed. Eventually, Finn was able to register for her classes at midnight.
“It was inconvenient for both Sunday and Monday,” Finn said. “I definitely think it was an interesting choice for them to decide to continue on a Monday where people are obviously busy.”
Converting to a new registration system has been a multi-year process, according to BU Spokesperson Colin Riley.
“[IS&T] is a very diligent, hard working crew. I’m sure that they weren’t pleased to see that there was an issue, but I guarantee you that they’re doing everything their level best right now to remedy and improve the system going forward,” Riley said.
According to an email statement to The Daily Free Press from BU Information Services and Technology, the registration issues were mitigated “through use of smaller appointment groups, as was past practice.”
“We continue to work diligently to avoid negative impacts on students as we roll out functions in the new system,” BU IS&T wrote.
Matthew Lutkins, a junior in CAS, was also able to register for his preferred classes on Sunday.
“I was able to get that schedule, luckily,” Lutkins said. “But if I hadn’t gotten it that Sunday, I wouldn’t have been able to get it the next day because I ran the marathon.”
Allie Paige, a junior in CAS, said the website crashing wasn’t the only issue with the registration process.
“Not only were we working with a totally different software and system, but also … they completely changed the procedure,” Paige said. “It was kind of a free for all.”
