9/15/23 1:30pm Update:
Microsoft has now confirmed this the alert they've posted is creating the symptoms that are being reported with Outlook freezing. They are actively working to identify and address the issue.

Initial:
Starting on Thursday September 14th, we began receiving several reports about Microsoft Outlook performance issues, with the most noticeable issues being that the installed version of Outlook on Windows computers was frequently freezing up while reading or sending email.

Our research indicates this issue is not isolated to William Paterson and seems to be a service issue on Microsoft's side. Early Friday morning, Microsoft posted a service alert with the subject 'Users may be unable to access the Exchange Online service through multiple connection methods'. While this symptoms are not an exact match, we believe that the reports we are getting are related to this issue. We'll be monitoring the status of Microsoft's alert, and the expectation is that they should have this resolved before the end of the weekend, at the latest. 

For those experiencing this issue, we recommend the web-based Outlook (at https://outlook.office.com) as an alternative.

Thank you for your patience.
Information Technology

Information Technology is currently working on a project to improve the automation of how our Microsoft 365 licensing is assigned to WP employee accounts. As part of that work, two new Microsoft features are in the process of being enabled for a portion of our employees.

The first is the My Analytics feature, which provides individuals with enhanced information on their usage of email and other Microsoft services.

The second is an Audio Conferencing for Microsoft Teams feature. This enables a 'call in' phone number to be added to all Microsoft Teams meetings scheduled by those with this feature assigned to their account.

Why am I getting random Outlook Calendar Appointment updates?
Over the past two days (and possibly continuing into the next few days,) you may have received seemingly random Outlook Calendar appointment updates for future or recurring appointments. This is the result of the Microsoft updating those future or recurring calendar appointments to add in the call-in phone number in the details of the appointment. Unfortunately, the initial assignment of these licenses did not process properly, so you may see three sets of updates for calendar appointments: one for the first addition of the call-in number, a second for the subsequent removal of the number, and a third for the re-addition of the number. Our apologies for the inconvenience these may have caused to those receiving these emails.

In addition, some may have received emails indicating that 'Audio Conferencing for Teams has been turned off' as well as emails indicating that the feature has been added. These emails can be ignored.

If you have any questions or concerns about these notifications, please feel free to contact our IT Helpdesk at www.wpunj.edu/helpdesk or (973) 720-4357.

Thank you.
Brian Fanning
Director, Information Technology User Services