Campus Alerts

The following message was sent to all instructors on May 15, 2026.

Dear instructors,

I’m writing to provide an update on last week’s Canvas outage. Thank you again for your patience and flexibility. I know the disruption created significant difficulties for many and I hope that by extending the grading deadline we were able to slightly alleviate one challenge.

We take this disruption of essential campus services and its impact on you and our students very seriously. We are seeking your input as we work to compile lessons learned and evaluate our campus response efforts. Please consider sharing how, if at all, you altered your final exam plans and/or end of semester experience.

We’d greatly appreciate your input via this Google form in the next two weeks. Your responses will help inform future support resources and response planning.

I also want to briefly share a summary of the events that occurred, and both our immediate and ongoing response efforts:

At around 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, the Universities of Wisconsin and UW–Madison became part of a nationwide Canvas outage. We soon learned that the outage was linked to a cyberattack affecting thousands of educational institutions globally. UW-Madison teams worked quickly to respond, disabling all tools and systems connected to Canvas. While awaiting further information from Instructure, Canvas’ parent company, we communicated to all instructors, students and school/college partners early Thursday evening to share initial guidance, including the extension of the grading deadline. Once it was determined safe, Canvas came back online at UW–Madison at about 5:45 p.m. Friday, May 8.

We continue to be in contact with Instructure and peers at other affected universities as we work to better understand the broader impacts and implications of the incident. As I noted above, we’re also working to identify lessons learned to help prevent or reduce the impact of potential future outages.

Again, thank you for the flexibility and coordination that you extended to our students while we worked on restoring the service.

With gratitude,

John Zumbrunnen

Provost

From: Provost John Zumbrunnen

Thank you for your patience as university teams worked to restore Canvas access during this national outage. Canvas is now back online at UW–Madison, although not all connected tools may be available immediately. Please visit outages.doit.wisc.edu for current status information. 

If you continue to experience issues, clear your cache and cookies in your desktop and mobile browsers, then contact the DoIT Help Desk.

We have told instructors that it is essential to remain flexible on tests or assignments that were scheduled for May 7 and May 8, 2026. If you still have pending exams or assignments, please wait for instructions from your instructor. If you have questions, you should contact your instructor directly. 

If further updates are appropriate, they will be posted at alerts.wisc.edu.

With this type of high-profile outage, there is often an increase in related phishing attempts. Please be alert and use caution when interacting with unsolicited emails that create a sense of urgency, contain grammatical errors, misspelled URLs, or have unusual “From” or “Reply-to” fields.

While this event was beyond our control, we do acknowledge the stress and inconvenience that it may have caused. We hope this information is helpful, and you have a successful end to your semester.

To: Instructors

CC: Deans and Dept Chairs

Dear instructors,

Thank you for your patience as university teams worked to restore Canvas access during this national outage. Canvas is now back online at UW–Madison, although not all connected tools may be available immediately. Please visit outages.doit.wisc.edu for current status information. 

If you continue to experience issues, clear your cache and cookies in your desktop and mobile browsers, then contact the DoIT Help Desk.

Communicating with Students

A separate update is being sent to all students and can be found on alerts.wisc.edu. Students with questions have been instructed to contact their instructors directly. 

If you have any outstanding assignments or exams that were disrupted or postponed by this outage, please be in touch with affected students. 

Providing Flexibility

As we have previously shared, it is essential for you to remain flexible on exams or assignments that were scheduled for May 7 and May 8, 2026. Please keep in mind that beginning yesterday afternoon (May 7), students did not have access to materials in Canvas to prepare for their remaining finals and assignments.

Grading 

• The grading deadline has been extended to 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 14, 2026.

• Refer to these guided steps to grading in Faculty Center.

Downloading and Securely Storing Canvas Content

We encourage you to download and back up your Canvas course content. This is considered best practice in any semester, as it can protect not only against system disruptions but also against accidental deletion of content or other unexpected technical issues. There are multiple ways to export content:

• How to export and securely store your Canvas gradebook. Use a secure cloud storage location for storing student grading data, such as UW-Madison Box or UW-Madison Google Workspace. 

• How to export quizzes or student submissions.

• How to export your Canvas course – A course export will make a copy of your course content, minus all the interactions of students (such as discussions and submissions).

Additionally, with this type of high-profile outage, there is often an increase in related phishing attempts. Please be alert and use caution when interacting with unsolicited emails that create a sense of urgency, contain grammatical errors, misspelled URLs, or have unusual “From” or “Reply-to” fields.

While this event was beyond our control, we do acknowledge the stress and inconvenience that it may have caused. We hope this information is helpful, and you have a successful end to your semester.

If you have questions, please contact your department chair and/or dean’s office. If further updates are appropriate, they will be posted at alerts.wisc.edu.

The following message was sent to all instructors, deans and department chairs at 11:45 a.m. Friday, May 8

To: Instructors

CC: Deans and Dept Chairs

From: Provost John Zumbrunnen

Dear instructors,

Thank you for your patience as campus teams work to address the impact of the national Canvas outage at UW–Madison. We understand this disruption creates significant difficulties and, despite reports from other institutions, Canvas is still down for UW–Madison. A timeline for the safe return of Canvas remains unclear.

If you have a final exam or any outstanding assignments that have been disrupted by this outage, please continue to be in touch with affected students. See an overview and step-by-step guide to accessing class rosters through the Faculty Center.

Reminders

• Providing Flexibility – It is essential that we all provide flexibility to students with any outstanding exams and assignments. As of 3 p.m. yesterday (Thursday, May 7),  students lost all access to Canvas, including all materials that may assist in their exam or assignment preparation and submission.

• Final Exams

  •  If you are unable to administer your final exam or you feel students cannot prepare adequately without access to Canvas, you should use an alternative option, such as basing grades on work completed thus far. You are encouraged to consult with your department chair, academic dean’s office, or other colleagues as you weigh the options.

  • However you plan to proceed, please communicate with your students as soon as possible.

• Grading

  • If you are able to submit final grades without the use of Canvas, please continue as planned. Refer to these guided steps to grading in Faculty Center.

  • The deadline to submit grades for all courses has been extended to 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 14.

A separate update is being sent to all students. This continues to be a quickly evolving situation with global impact. Additional information will be shared as we learn more. Check the Campus Alerts page for ongoing updates.

The following message was sent to all students at 11 a.m. Friday, May 8.

From: Provost John Zumbrunnen

Dear students,

Thank you for your patience as campus teams work to address the impact of the national Canvas outage. We understand this disruption creates significant difficulties and, despite reports from other institutions, Canvas is still down for UW–Madison.

If you have a final exam or any outstanding assignments that have been disrupted by this outage, please watch for communication from your instructor. If you need clarification, contact your instructor.

Updates of note:

• Graduation ceremonies and celebrations will continue as planned and students who have pending exams should participate in ceremonies as planned.

• UW–Madison Libraries will be open for students who need extra time finishing their work, including evening hours at College Library on Friday, May 8, and open hours at Memorial Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society over the weekend. Find the full schedule of hours at library.wisc.edu/locations/.

• University Housing allows students to request up to two additional nights in the residence halls. Students can make those requests in the MyUW Housing Portal. If a resident needs to stay extra nights due to Canvas, they should apply for extra nights in the My UW Housing Portal and send an email to reslife@housing.wisc.edu to request an extra night fee waiver.

This continues to be a quickly evolving situation with global impact. Additional information will be shared as we learn more. Check the Campus Alerts page for ongoing updates.

UW–Madison Libraries will be open for students who need extra time finishing their work, including evening hours at College Library on Friday, May 8, and open hours at Memorial Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society over the weekend. Find the full schedule of hours at library.wisc.edu/locations/.

UW-Madison's Canvas outage continues. The university is monitoring and reviewing information from the vendor. Additional information will be provided on this page and shared with campus as updates are available.

From: Provost John Zumbrunnen

Dear students,

At around 3 p.m. today, UW–Madison became aware we are part of a nationwide Canvas outage. We recognize this is occurring at a very challenging time during final exams and grading, and we’re committed to providing you with support and flexibility as we navigate this significant disruption. Multiple teams are working to address this issue.

IMPORTANT: If Canvas prompts you to perform any action — such as clicking a link, logging in, resetting your password, or completing any tasks — do not proceed. These prompts may not be legitimate.

If you have an upcoming final exam or any outstanding assignments that require Canvas access, please watch for communication from your instructor and reach out if you need clarification.

We will share additional information about final exams and grading as we learn more. See the Campus Alerts page for ongoing updates.

Thanks for your patience.

To:  All instructors 

From: Provost John Zumbrunnen

cc: Deans, Department Chairs

Dear instructors,
At around 3 p.m. today, UW–Madison became aware we are part of a nationwide Canvas outage. We recognize this is occurring at a very challenging time during final exams and grading, and are committed to providing you and your students with support as we navigate this significant disruption. Multiple teams are working to address this issue.

IMPORTANT: If Canvas prompts you to perform any action — such as clicking a link, logging in, resetting your password, or completing any tasks — do not proceed. These prompts may not be legitimate.

How to proceed
It is essential that we all provide flexibility to students with any outstanding exams and assignments. As of 3 p.m. Thursday, students lost access to all materials in Canvas to assist in their exam or assignment preparation and submission.  

Final Exams:

• If you are unable to administer your final exam or you feel students cannot prepare adequately without access to Canvas, you should use an alternative option, such as, basing grades on work completed so far. You are encouraged to consult with your department chair, academic dean’s office, or other colleagues as you weigh the options.

• However you plan to proceed, please communicate with your students as soon as possible.

Grading: 

• If you are able to submit final grades without the use of Canvas, please continue as planned.

  • Refer to the following KB document for guided steps to grading in Faculty Center: https://kb.wisc.edu/65138 

• The deadline to submit grades for all courses has been extended to 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 14.

A separate communication is being sent to students. We will share additional information about final exams and grade submission as we learn more. See the Outages page and the Campus Alerts page for ongoing updates.

Thanks for your patience.

At around 3 p.m. today, the Universities of Wisconsin Administration and UW-Madison became part of a nationwide Canvas outage. 

We are aware of the outage and multiple teams are working with the Universities of Wisconsin Administration and UW-Madison to address this issue on behalf of our students.

Please note: if Canvas prompts you to perform any action - such as clicking a link, logging in, resetting your password, or completing any tasks - do not proceed. These prompts may not be legitimate while the system is down. We will send a follow-up notification when Canvas is back online. 

The original third-party cybersecurity incident, first reported May 1, affects the cloud-based system operated by Instructure, and affects UW-Madison and all other Universities of Wisconsin (UWs) campuses. 

As we know more, we will share it promptly. Thanks for your patience.