Ciber, the company in charge of ctcLink’s design, has filed for bankruptcy and is suing Washington State and the Board of Education for $13 million.
In 2016 the Colorado based consulting firm, Ciber, contracted by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges filed for bankruptcy and is now suing the State of Washington. According to Ciber, the ongoing issues regarding the implementation of ctcLink and the cost to fix these issues is the reasoning behind the $13 million lawsuit. These additional costs, according to Ciber, hinder their ability to bring ctcLink to other colleges in the system.
“The ctcLink vendor, Ciber, declared bankruptcy and filed a lawsuit against the State of Washington and the State Board for Community and Technological Colleges,” said Assistant Attorney General Jason D. Brown in a letter to Christine Johnson, SFCC chancellor.
According to Johnson, the state Attorney General’s office will file a response to the complaint which is believed to include defenses and counterclaims.
Due to the current state of the litigation process, information regarding the lawsuit is scarce.
“The State Board has reassured us that it remains committed to fixing remaining ctcLink issues with TCC and CCS and is dedicated to making the ctcLink project a success going forward ,” said CCS Chancellor Christine Johnson in a letter to CCS faculty, staff and administration.
In 2013, Ciber signed a contract with the Washington Board of Education to install their system which helps students enroll in classes, view financial aid status, as well as quarterly schedules, and unofficial transcripts.
Instead of installing the program at all colleges at once, Community Colleges of Spokane and Tacoma Community College were selected to test the system in order to work out problems that the system produced. Other schools in the state are to be connected into this system within a five year period.
In an interview with the Spokesman-review, Laura McDowell, director of communications for the state board of community and technical colleges said, “we remain committed to making this project a success for the three pilot colleges – Tacoma, Spokane and Spokane Falls – and the rest of our colleges.”
More information will be released as we receive updates on the situation, which will be printed in an upcoming article.