Students who had problems getting to Web for Students through FlashLine should now be able to, Information Services director Judy Molnar said.

“We’re unsure how this happened,” Molnar said. “We made some modifications, but it was a very intricate process. It isn’t affecting a great number of people, so it makes it very difficult to solve.”

According to records from Client Services, the Helpdesk received 128 complaints about the issue last fall. But this semester, the number tripled. As of last week, the Helpdesk received 394 calls concerning the problem this semester.

There are two ways to access Web for Students – at wfs.kent.edu or through FlashLine. Some students who accessed the site through FlashLine would receive an error message saying, “You do not have permission to access this service. [error: access denied] Click here to return to the previous page. If you need assistance, contact your system administrator.”

Since FlashLine automatically enters WFS passwords so students don’t have to, Molnar said the issue was probably a synchronization problem.

“We made some changes to our system last fall,” Molnar said. “It probably caused some Web for Students passwords to move out of sync with the FlashLine ones.”

Molnar said the problem was fixed a little over two weeks ago, and Information Services representatives plan on monitoring the issue throughout the semester.

“Right now we’ve fixed the problem,” Molnar said. “Now we’re going to see if it will still operate correctly.”

If students still can’t get to Web for Students through FlashLine, Molnar said to contact the Helpdesk at 330-672-HELP.

“It’s not a common problem,” said Client Services representative Dolly Lowe, “but we can fix that at the Helpdesk in a matter of minutes.”

Contact student affairs reporter Aman Ali at [email protected].