A geographical information systems (GIS) drive failure at Wilkes University earlier this month has led to the loss of nearly a decade of course files and research.
This has caused major setbacks primarily in the biology and earth systems sciences and civil and environmental engineering departments.
“This loss means staying up late and sacrificing my personal time to re-make every lecture, assignment, exam, and lab, and trying to figure out how to progress my research now that years of field data and analysis are gone,” said Dr. Bobby Karimi, director of the center for geographic information science and associate professor of geology. “I worry what it means for my ability to go up for promotion in a timely manner, or what it might mean for my ability to continue working with my network of researchers.”
For students, the data loss led to class cancellations and delays in research.
“What we have left, the only things are like a GIS file that I have saved on the computer,” said Sean Papke, an environmental science student. “We lost all our foundational research, so we have to start basically from ground zero.”
Papke and Dr. Karimi agreed that among students, seniors were impacted most.
“The biggest loss I think is for students in senior projects,” Dr. Karimi said. “They lost all their files and work accomplished over the last year and a half. These students are on the precipice of their next big life change, and they have to figure out how to present research that has disappeared to no fault of their own.”
In addition to research, Papke said the environmental science department also lost safety sheets, certifications, budget information and conference information.
GIS is a system that handles data that includes any locational component, like satellite imagery, drone-acquired imagery, field data, etc.
“The GIS drive at Wilkes was setup to handle the large datasets and also served as a central hub for course/lab files taught in geology, environmental science, environmental engineering, and civil engineering,” Dr. Karimi said. “The drive stored faculty research and student senior project files going back to 2017.”
Dr. Karimi offered his understanding of what may have caused the data loss.
“My understanding is that the drives were in need of an update, but that process had been delayed,” Dr. Karimi said. “Furthermore, the backup system failed to back up the drive since an update was made to the backup system. IT policy as Wilkes does state that an additional level of backup should be made in case of failure of the main backup, but I do not have any information to suggest this was occurring.”
“From an outsiders’ perspective, the situation is not one that could have been foreseen, especially given that there was failure at every level (the drive, the backup, and the backup of the backup),” Dr. Karimi said. “However, for years I have repeatedly warned the Wilkes University administration of IT issues, such as the limited capabilities of our IT department given pandemic budget and staff cuts that were never recuperated, and the ageing IT infrastructure. Failures like this will keep happening if our IT department is not given the adequate resources, staff, and budget to ensure a resilient and safe infrastructure.”
Efforts to reach ITS for a comment regarding what may have caused the outage or what actions were being taken to address the situation were unsuccessful.
Kerianne Geist, associate vice president marketing communications, offered a statement: “Our staff is working with external information technology experts to ensure the security of our systems. At this point, no additional updates are available.”
Dr. Karimi said that the drives were sent to a company that specializes in data recovery. It is currently unclear if the data is recoverable. In the upcoming weeks, departments may hear the outcome of recovery efforts.
“However, until then we must keep teaching courses, doing research, and serving our students,” Dr. Karimi said. “I know the faculty impacted always go above and beyond for students, trying to ensure they develop the best skills to succeed after graduation. Now, those faculty have to go even further than above and beyond, which leads to a lot of mental health strain. For our graduating students, we will make sure their work for senior projects is recognized and will not fault them for the loss.”
