Server for Groups’ Websites Crashes

As student groups geared up for the fall semester, their websites went down. Harvard Computer Society (HCS), which hosts websites for 798 student groups, has been experiencing server difficulty since Saturday, according to HCS Systems Administrator Matthew S. Fasman ’08. Fasman is also an editor on the Crimson Information Technology Board.

The crash has temporarily made websites hosted by HCS unavailable, disrupting student activities.

For instance, the Harvard College in Asia Project (HCAP) is in “prime recruiting season,” said HCAP President Daniel Mejia ’07, who is also the Associate Business Manager for The Crimson.

The group organizes exchange programs between Harvard and leading universities in Asia.

HCAP applications, initially only avilable on its website, are due in October.

But because of the server crash, Mejia said that he has resorted to e-mailing the applications.

Mejia also said that potential host universities in Asia have been unable to gain important information about HCAP, stunting progress. Zhang Yi-Hua, a vice dean at Fudan University in Shanghai, wrote in an e-mail that he hoped the website would be fixed soon because he would “definitely need to know more details” before committing to HCAP.

“This is where Harvard students will be going over spring break,” Mejia said. “The website is absolutely crucial to our foreign expansion efforts.”

The HCS crash also prevented students for registering for this week’s Harvard Blood Drive.

“I would say that the root cause was old and faulty equipment combined with the high demand,” Fasman wrote in an e-mail. “We had handled similar loads successfully in the spring, so I must point to a degradation in the hardware.”

Because of the crash, HCS is overhauling its equipment, which would improve future reliability, Fasman wrote.

As of last night, the websites were still down, but Fasman wrote that he expected to have the websites up and running by Friday afternoon at the latest.

—Staff writer Jillian M. Bunting can be reached at jbunting@fas.harvard.edu.