Systems crash at UI dining halls

By Piotr Fedczuk, Staff Writer

The University dining hall system crashed on Sunday, slowing down transactions with i-cards, and students’ weekly dining dollars were doubled.

57 North, convenience store at Ikenberry Commons, closed down. TerraBYTE, convenience store at Illinois Street Residence Halls, stopped accepting i-cards for payment. The PAR Dining Hall took students’ card numbers by hand until the scanner worked again.

Jael Lugano, junior in Business, said she was shocked when her remaining balance said “$87 instead of 40 something.”

“My friends told me that the school has actually doubled the dining dollar amount, so we all thought, you know, let’s go get some food,” said Anh-Khoi Pham, freshman in Business.

57 North closed soon after he got food, saying that the computers and registers were down, Pham said.

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“(The registers) were like noticeably slow when we were paying,” said Zaeem Qureshi, freshman in Engineering.

According to Qureshi, 57 North closed around 12:35 p.m., as opposed to its normal 12 a.m. closing time.

“I don’t know (if the University will) make us go into debt because of this, or, like, charge us because they messed up,” Qureshi said. “Once (the University) releases a statement or something, then our opinion will be formed.”

At TerraBYTE, students put away food after it was announced that only credit card transactions would go through.

“I can’t spend any of my money, I guess. That’s the way I get food, so I have to figure something out,” said Johan Guerrero, sophomore in Engineering.

People waited in line for over 20 minutes so they could use their i-card.

“I feel like the people that got the money, it’s not their fault, so they should still be allowed to use their card,” Guerrero said. “It’s the University’s problem — it shouldn’t be affecting students like that.”

Urbana South Market, convenience store at Pennsylvania Avenue Residence, faced technical difficulties with its registers and then resumed its services.

Managers and student workers at UI’s convenience stores declined to comment.

 

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