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Outage Update 1/6/26- Microsoft Restored and 2:00 Zoom Community Check-in Today!

Dear Campus Community,

Good news!  We have just regained access to our Microsoft platform!!!! Thank you to everyone who helped as we worked to contact Microsoft and also to those of you who have been creatively jumping in during this time.   You are now free to login to Microsoft.  A reboot is sometimes required, but not always, though TSS recommends it.

Please have patience as we work through getting all of our programs back online.

In terms of student support, please continue to monitor the gmail boxes we set up last night as well as the Zoom Room support.  See previous DAAG post for further details.

We will be having a community check-in today about the Microsoft issue at 2:00pm 1/6/26 and will be happy to answer questions and will also have more information for you about restoration.

Location: Hybrid

Stay tuned for more details!

Public Information Office.

1/5/26 10:30pm Microsoft Update and Important Support Information

Dear Campus Community,

First of all we want to thank you for all of your flexibility and your help with the start of the Winter Quarter. We know that it is incredibly frustrating to be without many of the systems we rely on, but we are so appreciative of everyone’s willingness to jump in and think of creative solutions to help our students.

Tonight we share some important updates with you, so please take a moment and read carefully:

Microsoft Outage Update and Background:

On Tuesday 12/30 midday, we experienced an unforeseen configuration issue with Microsoft that impacted all of our user accounts and locked out our Microsoft platform which also affected many other programs including Starfish, the website editor, AIM, email, phone etc.

We immediately reached out to Microsoft but were unable to reach online support as we were also locked out of the online support system.  We then initiated phone calls and contacted multiple vendors to connect with Microsoft, which included having a TSS employee on the phone throughout the night trying to get a response.

We believe that the New Year’s holiday and the days surrounding it severely impacted response times this past week, which has not helped matters.  When we did receive responses from Microsoft we were bounced around from support team to support team and escalation queue to escalation queue, finally landing on an engineering team that we have since learned has a history of being slow to respond.

We did receive a response from our sales vendor, escalation assistance from the IT Team at Bellevue College, as well as assistance from one of our Board of Trustee members who is connected with Microsoft, which we are very appreciative of.  We have even reached out to multiple Microsoft employees across the globe via LinkedIn and social media to try to connect further.  Today we received a response that seems promising and we are hopeful that we will have more information to share soon.

Student Support: Zoom Room Support Extended and Temporary Emails

Zoom Room Support: We have received a lot of positive feedback about the Zoom support and will be continuing it through the end of the week, instead of ending it tomorrow as we originally planned.  As a reminder, Zoom support hours are between 9:30-4:00pm.

Temporary Student Support Emails: We have set up some temporary emails that can be shared with students should they have questions, and will have staff monitoring the gmail inboxes for as long as we need until we are fully up and running with Microsoft again.

Faculty Support

If you are a faculty member and you require any support or triage questions, we will be monitoring a temporary email account for you as well.  You can email questions to academics.Shoreline@gmail.com and you can also check your Canvas account for more information, or touch base with your Academic Dean.

Employee Update from HR

The ongoing College-wide efforts  to adjust and adapt work in a “Microsoft-free” environment are noted and appreciated! A big thank you to each and every employee working through this unusual situation.

Supervisors should continue to coordinate alternate work assignments directly with unit staff utilizing increased communication and collaboration amongst team members wherever possible.  

While many units have already identified work that can continue without the use of Microsoft products, HR will be publishing a list of alternate options for staff work on DAAG tomorrow (Tuesday, Jan 6). Stay tuned!

Need additional support? The HR Office remains open to walk-in traffic across College business hours of 8am – 5pm Monday through Thursday, and 8am – 4:30pm on Fridays. Come see us anytime for questions or support!

Conclusion

Please share this information with your teams and we will continue to update you with more information as we have it. A Rave alert will also be going out in the morning to encourage people to read this post.

Thank you!

Public Information Office

1/4/26 2:30 Update re: Microsoft Issues and Start of Winter Quarter

Dear Campus Community,

We want to provide a brief follow-up regarding last week’s Microsoft system challenges as we begin winter quarter.

Winter quarter will move forward starting tomorrow (1/5/26) as planned, despite the fact that Microsoft email, SharePoint, and related services have not yet been fully restored. Supporting students as they start the quarter remains our top priority.

We want to extend sincere thanks to Technology Support Services (TSS), who have been working tirelessly to resolve this issue and remain in close contact with Microsoft. Unfortunately, Microsoft has been minimally responsive, likely due to the New Year’s holiday weekend, and we are hopeful to have a resolution on Monday. We will keep you posted as we receive further updates.

We ask all employees to work closely with their supervisors to ensure coverage and provide face-to-face student support whenever possible. A Zoom support room will also be available so students can receive assistance remotely between 9:30am-4:00pm. We will continue messaging to students to let them know that email and phone access remain unavailable, and that in-person and Zoom support are currently the best ways to get help as they begin the quarter.

As we move through the first days of the quarter under less-than-ideal circumstances, we ask that you extend patience and flexibility to one another and to our students as we work to resolve system issues and catch up on delayed work.

Faculty: Please see the message below from Vice President Aiello with additional guidance and information for the first day of classes. This is also posted in Canvas (which we DO have access to).

Thank you for the professionalism, collaboration, and care you continue to show our students and each other.

Sincerely,
Shoreline College
Public Information Office

From VP Aiello for Faculty

Hello Faculty and Colleagues,

First, I hope this finds you well as we have entered January 2026. You may have seen some messages from the college that Microsoft access is down. Currently this is still the status.

The past week was filled with working around the clock to remedy this issue with Microsoft, but we have been unsuccessful. Leaders have gone above and beyond developing alternative solutions and temporary plans and we will continue to work around the clock until all Microsoft applications and platforms are restored. At this time, classes will resume as scheduled.

Please know we realize this has created challenges in workflow and preparation. Our ask is for each of us to be as flexible as possible within all our roles and responsibilities as faculty and staff, and of course for our students who will be impacted by this due to the inability to communicate via email and other platforms. This will include modifying schedules, processes, deadlines, and communication.

Please seem some important information below that will help answer some of your questions.

What if Microsoft issue is not fixed by Monday?

  • Issue: Microsoft single sign on processes is not functioning and so no one on campus has access to all the resources that we use it for.

What is still working?

  • Canvas: Full access for students, faculty and staff (Note: If you are having problems logging into Canvas, there are instructions below to guide other ways to login)
  • Canvas Inbox: You can message people and students in Canvas using the Canvas Inbox if you are in a Canvas Class shell with them.
  • Panopto via Canvas
  • Zoom – login as you normally do
  • CTCLink – if you use your Shoreline email to receive your multi-factor authentication (MFA) code, click on the option to use another way to receive this.
  • Campus Computers – you and your students can log into campus computers.
    • Students should use their new login email format -FirstName.LastName@shoreline.edu and their usual password to log into the computers.
    • Note: You can work on documents, spreadsheets, etc if you have a downloaded copy. It will not save to the cloud or autosave though so save your work frequently.
    • Note: If you need to share a document, options are to put it on canvas and send that way, put it on a flash drive and share, or print a hard copy and share.
  • Campus CE (Continuing Education)
  • Social Media

What is not working?

There is currently no access to:

  • Teams, Outlook, or SharePoint/One Drive
  • Web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint
  • Our campus ticketing system (TDX)
  • Teams Phones or Teams Texting
  • Starfish
  • AIM Portal for SAS Students
  • Shoreline.edu website editing tools (this is why we can’t post any kind of emergency messaging on the website)
  • Vector Training from Human Resources

CTCLink and Canvas are both accessible as usual, but if you dual authenticate with a Teams phone or @shoreline.edu email, you will need to select an alternative dual factor method when prompted.

WIFI and on campus computers work fine with your usual login. This is not a network issue. It only effects our instance of Microsoft.

How to create/share/present materials to students

  • Create content on your local machine using Canvas, Panopto for Videos, Desktop versions of PowerPoint, Excel and Word.
  • Save your work frequently to your local machine.
  • Then upload into Canvas and/or put on a thumb/ flash drive and bring into the classroom.

For January 5th & 6th, 9:30-4:30 or longer if needed, eLearning will have a Zoom room for drop in questions: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85894450800

You can also use this for any eLearning requests such as course merges, adding people to courses, etc.

Help – I cannot login to Canvas!!!

Everyone should be able to log into Canvas since this authentication process is separate from our Microsoft Single Sign On that is not operational. However, if your primary multi-factor authentication verification code process uses your Shoreline.edu email, you will not be able to access that.

  • Two Alternative Options
    • Choose another verification option
      • Chose another verification option such as “Receive a voice call instead.”
      • Click on the “Verify with something else” option.
    • Reset Your CTCLink Account Login
      • Connect with TSS, confirm your identity and they will reset your CTCLink Account Login process.
        • Again – Monday and Tuesday (January 5th & 6th) – join the college’s zoom roomfor fastest service
          • Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85894450800
          • 9:30AM – 4:30PMb. After Microsoft things are restored, you can submit a request via support@shoreline.edu or walk into TSS oOices for assistance in the lower level of the Library.

Thank you in advance for working together in navigating the start of Winter Term through this challenging time. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions, suggestions, feedback, and or concerns. See the Canvas announcement for how to reach me via my cellphone.

Sincerely,

Ryan Aiello, Ph.D.

Vice President of Student Affairs/Interim Vice President of Academic AOairs

1/2/26 12:00pm Update Re: Microsoft Outage

Dear Campus Community,

This message serves as a midday update regarding the ongoing Microsoft system outage.

At this time, we still do not have an estimated timeline for when full Microsoft services will be restored. Access to Microsoft email, SharePoint, and related cloud-based tools remains limited. We will continue to share updates as soon as new information becomes available.

Despite these technology challenges, everyone is doing a fantastic job helping students, answering questions and moving some much needed work forward across campus. Thank you to everyone for you willingness to adapt, collaborate, and find creative ways to support students and one another throughout the day.

Campus facilities remain open and operational. ctcLink, Canvas, the Rave alert system, and Microsoft desktop applications (Word, Excel, etc.) continue to function as expected. As a reminder, files created locally will need to be uploaded once full system access is restored.

Employees should continue working as scheduled and remain in communication with their supervisors regarding priorities and assignments. Supervisors are encouraged to continue assigning meaningful, job-related work that can be completed without full system access.

Student-facing services remain available in person and via Zoom where feasible. Having staff on campus continues to allow us to respond to student needs in real time and to pivot quickly should systems be restored later today.

We recognize the inconvenience and uncertainty caused by this outage and deeply appreciate the professionalism, flexibility, and commitment being shown across the college. Your efforts today are making a difference for students.

Further updates will be shared as information becomes available.

Thank you,
Public Information Office

Update: Operations and Work Expectations for Friday, January 2, 2026

Dear Campus Community,

This notice applies to employees who were under Suspended Operations status on Tuesday, December 30, 2025, and Wednesday, December 31, 2025.

Due to the expected increase in student activity on campus ahead of the start of winter quarter, Shoreline College will be open with standard operational hours beginning tomorrow, Friday, January 2, 2026, even though the Microsoft outage has not yet been fully resolved.

While access to Microsoft email, SharePoint, and related cloud-based tools may remain limited for at least part of the day, the Rave alert system has been restored, and campus facilities and operations are fully functional. ctcLink, Canvas, and Microsoft desktop tools (Word, Excel, etc.) are operational; however, files created locally will need to be uploaded once full access is restored.

Employees should plan to report to work as scheduled and connect with their supervisor regarding specific tasks and priorities. Supervisors are encouraged to assign meaningful, job-related work that can be completed without full system access, such as:

  • Planning and project development
  • File and document organization (paper or local files)
  • In-person or Zoom meetings
  • Canvas-based trainings (including ctcLink learning)
  • Other offline or locally supported work aligned with role responsibilities

Student-facing services will be in person and via Zoom where feasible, and having staff on campus allows us to support students already planning to be here and to pivot quickly if systems are fully restored during the day.  The Zoom information for student assistance is below:

Zoom Room Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85894450800

  • Hours: 9:30am-4:00pm
    • Friday, January 2
    • Monday, January 5
    • Tuesday, January 6

Unfortunately, due to the Microsoft outage we will be cancelling tomorrow’s Dolphin Day and will instead give students an opportunity to attend virtually on Monday evening.  Students were messaged about the cancellation (as well as the additional Zoom support for Friday, Monday & Tuesday), but it is possible someone may have missed the message due to the holiday, so be prepared to assist and redirect them tomorrow if needed.

This is a temporary system access issue that we expect will be resolved soon, and remaining open on Friday allows us to continue serving students while maintaining operational continuity.

Thank you for your patience, your creativity and your flexibility. Additional updates will be shared as systems are restored.

Thank you,

Public Information Office