Extended outage takes down Napa Valley College internet, phone systems, officials say | Local News

Officials with NVC learned of the disruption on June 10 and immediately began an investigation, spokesperson Holly Dawson said Friday. Some of the school’s computer systems were locked up by the outage, while NVC’s information technology department took down other systems as a precaution, she said in an email.

College officials declined to publicly share certain details of the internet disruption, citing an investigation into the incident. NVC is aiming to fully restore its systems by next week, according to Dawson.

Internet users have been blocked from viewing most parts of the NVC website, although a section hosting meeting agendas for the college’s board of trustees has remained live, as has the site for the college’s sports programs.

Officials began announcing the disruptions to online and phone services on NVC’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts beginning June 10, starting with a message disclosing a “technical issue which has disrupted access to our website and Self Service.”

Phone calls a Napa Valley Register reporter placed at around 10 am Friday to more than a dozen NVC employees in various departments – from both a landline and a cellphone – resulting in the calls disconnecting after one or two rings. The only on-campus numbers that remained reachable were those for members of NVC’s police department, which operates separately from Napa Police in the surrounding city and the Napa County Sheriff’s Office.

As a result of the incident, NVC’s IT team disabled the email accounts of NVC directors, faculty and other staff before restoring service on Thursday, according to Dawson, who said student email accounts were not affected.

Despite the disruption, NVC is continuing to conduct summer-session classes both in person and remotely. Virtual classes are continuing on the online Canvas platform, which also allows students to access their email and communicate with professors, Dawson said later Friday.

The outage has disrupted registrations for NVC’s fall semester, and school officials have notified four-year colleges in California where graduating NVC students may be transferring, according to Dawson.

NVC is hosting three question-and-answer sessions next week on Zoom to provide students with updates on registration and financial aid matters in the wake of the outage. Sessions have been scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 am to 1 pm each day. (The college will be closed Monday in observance of Juneteenth, which falls on a Sunday this year.)

While the main Napa Valley College website napavalley.edu remains down, school leaders are providing updates on the outage on the site of NVC’s athletic department, which is hosted on its own server. Updates can be viewed at nvcstorm.com/general/NVC_IMPORTANT-NOTICE