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Applications
Running at Last Year's Pace: PeopleSoft Has Not Crashed, Say Officials
Undergraduate applications for admission are running at or ahead of last year's pace and could top 1999's total of 19,915, according to Joseph Marshall, assistant vice chancellor for Enrollment Services and acting director of Admissions. By late week, the Admissions Office had processed about 15,000 applications, said Marshall, who scotched rumors that the new PeopleSoft system in place at Admissions had "crashed and burned." "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said. "We're still in implementation, but we're very far along." Speaking at the Faculty Senate meeting on Feb. 17, interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Javier Cevallos put it more succinctly: "We have conquered PeopleSoft." Bringing PeopleSoft systems online at Admissions is a significant milestone for the four-year-old Student Information Systems Project, an effort to overhaul the technology linking a range of offices that provide services to students. Two years ago, the project installed the PeopleSoft Student Administrative System. Eventually, the system will tie together registration and records, Admissions, Financial Aid, Housing and Bursar's Office functions for graduate, undergraduate and Continuing Education students. Right now, said Marshall, Admissions staff are ahead on using the system to enter application information and responding to inquiries on admittance. Earlier this month, a Web site allowing prospective students to check on their applications went online. "The first week it was up, we had 10,000 hits and a corresponding decrease in phone calls," said Marshall. "That frees people up to do other tasks." Marshall conceded that making the PeopleSoft system operational has not been without its glitches and problems. "It's very complex and that makes implementation difficult," he said, adding that staff are still working bugs out along the way. On the up side, the flexibility of the system facilitated the shift to the new Admissions procedures announced in January, he said. "Very soon we'll be at or ahead of the pace on admittances," Marshall said confidently. "We'll bring the fall class in successfully." Marshall praised the efforts of Admissions and SIS Project staff to smooth the transition to PeopleSoft, which he predicted will be a boon in the future. "Next year, we'll take more advantage of the opportunities the new system gives us," he said. |
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