Student registration system advances another step

The hot commodity today is not stock in fast-growing technology companies — it’s information, information, information.

UW–Madison is making a major investment in this valuable resource with a new $12 million student records system that organizers say will increase the access to and processing of information for students and staff.

“Students want more information related to courses and grades, and university managers, department chairs, deans and directors all need more information to make better decisions,” says Ron Niendorf, project manager for the new system. “This is a ‘decision-support’ system.”

The Integrated Student Information System is replacing the 30-year-old Integrated Student Data System. ISIS is a “client-server” system, where data is stored on a server and accessed and processed by a student or employee using a computer and software.

In UW–Madison’s case, the software is from PeopleSoft, which is providing this particular kind of software to a number of universities. The old system, commonly known on campus by its “3270” transaction code, processes data using a mainframe computer.

“This new system environment is more flexible than the old one,” Niendorf says. “It allows us to adapt more easily, quickly and cleanly to new needs.”

Niendorf says the old system has become fragile and hard to fix with age, and it wasn’t Y2K compliant. This means the system would have read the year 2000 as 1900, which would have caused numerous data processing and retrieval problems with the 1.5 million student records on campus.

Niendorf and other university technology experts began planning to update or replace the 3270 system in late 1994. Within 18 months, they concluded that updating it was not an option.

“If we would have spent the time to make the system Y2K compliant, we would still have had a fragile system based on obsolete technology,” Niendorf says. “It would have been like putting a new façade on an old building.”

So Niendorf and others in 1996 started exploring PeopleSoft after learning about its collaboration with a handful of major universities, including Michigan, Cornell and Arizona State. UW–Madison then joined with 11 other institutions to implement the new system.

Parts of ISIS are already running, including admissions, financial aid and the “Timetable” course publication. Other areas should be online by April 1, following a three-week conversion period that starts March 5. From that date until March 25, student records can be accessed but not updated, as data in the system will be put on hold.

The EASI system that students use to update postal and e-mail addresses and anticipated graduation dates via the Internet will also be put on hold starting March 5. Paper forms must be used for these changes, which will be entered into the system after April 1.

Overall, Niendorf says students will have better access to course, grade and personal data through expanded EASI capability, improvements to the touch-tone registration system and web registration.

Currently, touch-tone availability is reduced to 12 hours a day Monday-Friday during non-priority registration times. That will improve to 24-hour access seven days a week. Additionally, Niendorf says web registration could be added within the next year.

The new touch-tone system will begin operating April 1 for summer and fall registration. At first, it will add some time to register, and Niendorf encourages students to plan for some extra time.

“We would like the new system to work just as fast as the old system, but the emphasis is not on speed this time,” he says. “At this point, we are putting the highest priority on getting it right the first time.”

The new system will operate similar to Windows and Macintosh applications. “The skills (staff) have learned with programs like spreadsheets and word processing are a fundamental part of the PeopleSoft system,” Niendorf says.

With any new computer program, glitches are bound to appear, and ISIS is no different. Admissions has experienced a three- to four-week delay in processing applications for next year, although the process is steadily improving.

Other problems have been avoided, Niendorf says: “We are constantly on the lookout for the things that could cause us a problem.”