Students who created a petition to get Tuesday finals canceled after the Monday Blackboard outage are asking the University to end its relationship with the company that created the software. As of this post, it has more than 1,600 signatures.

“Any unplanned loss of access to the Blackboard system, especially during final exams, amounts to a severe impact on the studying capabilities and preparedness of students,” the petition reads.

Barbara Altmann, vice provost for academic affairs, sent a campus-wide email earlier today asking faculty to consider any inconvenience the outage caused for students.

“Students affected by lack of availability of Blackboard resources should contact their instructors to discuss accommodations if needed,” she wrote.

The petition, addressed to the University president’s office, IT department and public relations staff, originally asked the president’s office to postpone Tuesday finals. Many of the signatures were already collected before the petition’s text changed.