diff --git a/IPython/html/services/clusters/clustermanager.py b/IPython/html/services/clusters/clustermanager.py
index 361cffee5..66fb529ed 100644
--- a/IPython/html/services/clusters/clustermanager.py
+++ b/IPython/html/services/clusters/clustermanager.py
@@ -16,8 +16,6 @@ Authors:
 # Imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-import os
-
 from tornado import web
 from zmq.eventloop import ioloop
 
@@ -26,6 +24,7 @@ from IPython.utils.traitlets import Dict, Instance, CFloat
 from IPython.parallel.apps.ipclusterapp import IPClusterStart
 from IPython.core.profileapp import list_profiles_in
 from IPython.core.profiledir import ProfileDir
+from IPython.utils import py3compat
 from IPython.utils.path import get_ipython_dir
 
 
@@ -74,7 +73,7 @@ class ClusterManager(LoggingConfigurable):
     def update_profiles(self):
         """List all profiles in the ipython_dir and cwd.
         """
-        for path in [get_ipython_dir(), os.getcwdu()]:
+        for path in [get_ipython_dir(), py3compat.getcwd()]:
             for profile in list_profiles_in(path):
                 pd = self.get_profile_dir(profile, path)
                 if profile not in self.profiles:
diff --git a/IPython/html/services/notebooks/nbmanager.py b/IPython/html/services/notebooks/nbmanager.py
index c9d5459b3..0660e3a00 100644
--- a/IPython/html/services/notebooks/nbmanager.py
+++ b/IPython/html/services/notebooks/nbmanager.py
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ import os
 
 from IPython.config.configurable import LoggingConfigurable
 from IPython.nbformat import current
-from IPython.utils.traitlets import List, Dict, Unicode, TraitError
+from IPython.utils import py3compat
+from IPython.utils.traitlets import Unicode, TraitError
 
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Classes
@@ -35,7 +36,7 @@ class NotebookManager(LoggingConfigurable):
     # 2. The cwd of the kernel for a project.
     # Right now we use this attribute in a number of different places and
     # we are going to have to disentangle all of this.
-    notebook_dir = Unicode(os.getcwdu(), config=True, help="""
+    notebook_dir = Unicode(py3compat.getcwd(), config=True, help="""
             The directory to use for notebooks.
             """)