Officials at the College of The Bahamas (COB) have blamed its internet problems on a registration software upgrade, which is experiencing challenges.

In a press release sent out by college officials Friday, they said during the summer, the college began an upgrade of its registration software for students called Power Campus.

“This upgrade was to have been complete by August 1,” the statement said. “However, challenges arose with software compatibility and Power Campus was being shut down by other software on COB’s servers and computers. This caused interruptions in internet and email services.”

“This situation requires the intervention of our software providers through a special response team that is providing regular status reports,” the COB statement continued. The college’s Office of Information Technology is also working around the clock to restore the software system. In the interim, faculty has been asked to be flexible and reasonable in any classroom, laboratory or homework assignments that require computer technology.”

Freshmen students who began registering for classes on August 13 had to physically register by visiting the college’s Records Department in the Portia Smith Building, according to students who spoke to the Bahama Journal last week.

This also caused further problems for older students who tried to register late for classes and were trying to add or drop courses from their timetables.

“School opened [August 20] and things were not ready,” Rowena Deveaux told the Journal last week.

Ms. Deveaux, a first year Engineering major, said prior to school starting on Monday she visited COB last week where she had to wait on a line from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

“I didn’t know it was going to be this rough,” she said at the time.

“Even my advisor had problems getting into the system. It should not be this difficult. As a freshman this is very discouraging. Now I understand why so many of my friends decided to work or go straight off to school.”

A senior, Jamal Douglas shared similar sentiments.

“This is ridiculous but yet if I register late they want to charge me $150,” he said.

“And they tell us they are trying to move to university status, I don’t believe that. Students already have assignments and research and none of the computers in the library are working and the computers in the A-block lab are locked.”