diff --git a/user.inc.php b/user.inc.php
index 6af94abf..2821c574 100644
--- a/user.inc.php
+++ b/user.inc.php
@@ -29,6 +29,23 @@ $user_what =  array('student'=>'Participant', 'judge' => 'Judge',
 			'committee'=>'Committee Member','volunteer' => 'Volunteer',
 			'fair'=>'Science Fair');
 
+
+/* Duplicate of common.inc.php:generatePassword, which will be deleted 
+ * eventually when ALL users are handled through this file */
+function user_generate_password($pwlen=8)
+{
+        //these are good characters that are not easily confused with other characters :)
+        $available="ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyz23456789";
+        $len=strlen($available) - 1;
+
+        $key="";
+        for($x=0;$x<$pwlen;$x++)
+                $key.=$available{rand(0,$len)};
+        return $key;
+}
+
+
+
 function user_load_fair($u)
 {
 	/* Double check, make sure the user is of this type */
@@ -182,7 +199,7 @@ function user_set_password($id, $password = NULL)
 		$q = mysql_query("SELECT passwordset FROM users WHERE id='$id'");
 		$u = mysql_fetch_assoc($q);
 		/* Generate a new password */
-		$password = generatePassword(12);
+		$password = user_generate_password(12);
 		/* save the old password only if it's not an auto-generated one */
 		if($u['passwordset'] != '0000-00-00') $save_old = true;
 		/* Expire the password */