Recent failures of large bodies — which include those who distribute federal assistance and corporate services — highlights the need for local mutual aid groups, whose communal structure can reliably provide much needed assistance to those who are most vulnerable.
On Oct. 20, Delta students hoping to access their classes were greeted with an error message announcing that “Canvas is experiencing issues due to an ongoing AWS incident.”
“AWS,” short for “Amazon Web Services,” experienced a global outage when multiple internal systems failed in succession, as detailed by an Amazon post-mortem.
A general information email from Delta clarified that “Canvas is down due to a global outage. For now, you will not be able to access your online classes. This outage may also be affecting other programs which you are accustomed to using. Again, this is a worldwide outage and is not specific to Delta College.”
More significant than the cause of the outage is the scope of the failure. Since so many services are mediated through AWS, a single failure can have a huge reach.
However, a less centralized infrastructure would reduce the possibility of a technical error having as wide an impact on services that so many depend on.
Likewise, securing necessaries like food can become dire when the systems in place become compromised.
On Oct. 31, Bankmobile also failed, resulting in a delay in financial aid disbursements, with a campus-wide email from the Financial Aid Office acknowledging that “many of you rely on these funds for essential needs such as rent, groceries, and transportation.”
These failures occurred against the backdrop of a 43-day federal government shutdown and a subsequent restriction of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds which help low-income earners attain basic sustenance.
Although SNAP benefits have since resumed, the program still faces impediments as changes from the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), signed into law in July, go into effect.
Among other changes, the law conditions eligibility on stricter work requirements, gives states less funding for administrative costs, and eliminates eligibility “for certain individuals who are classified as an alien under federal law and legally present in the United States,” according to the bill’s summary. Sec. 10108 of the bill further explains that, ”The income … of the individual rendered ineligible … shall be considered in determining the eligibility and the value of the allotment of the household of which such individual is a member,” suggesting families of those deemed legal aliens may also be impacted.
In the face of such unpredictability, it is prudent to plug into trusted local groups that can fill the gap left by institutional failures.
Delta, for instance, has its very own Student Food Pantry in Shima 101, a resource which provides students in need with free food on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Wednesdays from 1 to 4:00 p.m.
Delta’s food pantry is supplemented by community donations that keep its shelves stocked up.
In our politically-volatile time of sudden, top-down funding cuts and an economy increasingly mediated through a concentrated cadre of tech corporations, there is a growing need to seek out community organizations and build broad, alternative infrastructure to prepare for the possibility of future failures.
For most, it is hoped that such resources won’t be needed. But for those who can’t afford to take the risk, there is much to be said for investing in nearby infrastructure that substitutes vulnerable hierarchical systems for horizontal, communal organizations that are less susceptible to the impact of individual failures.
