The KU Directory, also called the People Search or Online Directory, is a tool that allows users to search for active KU users, including students, faculty, staff, and retirees/emeriti. Users must be signed in to search for student information, and will only see limited faculty/staff information if they are not signed in.
If a user sees an Authorization Failure message when trying to access information in the KU Directory, either when signed in or when not signed in, the cause is typically one of the following:
- Browser
- Browser extensions
- The default search engine in the browser
Browsers That Don't Work with the KU Directory
As of this writing (November 2024), the following browsers are known not to work with the KU Directory:
You'll need to change to a different browser to access the KU Directory.
* In SeaMonkey, you may be able to make it work by changing the default search engine. The stock installation of SeaMonkey uses DuckDuckGo as the search engine, which is not compatible with the KU Directory.
Browser Extensions
There aren't, as of this writing, known specific browser extensions that cause errors with the KU Directory. Any browser extension that's designed to obscure user information may cause the above error in KU Directory. This also includes extensions that disable certain browser features, such as JavaScript. If you're using a supported browser and still getting this error, try to access the directory page in an incognito window with all extensions disabled or see the related article Browser Troubleshooting for information of managing browser extensions.
Default Search Engine
The KU Directory uses a background captcha system to determine valid traffic — and traffic that looks like spam is blocked. If your default browser search engine is set to DuckDuckGo this causes the captcha to flag your attempt to access information in potential spam, because DuckDuckGo obscures user information by default. Changing the default search engine may resolve the issue.