Mike Sharp sat in Strong Hall this week, contemplating his course schedule for the spring semester.
If Kansas University had online enrollment like every other Big 12 school he wouldn't have needed to be there.
"I wouldn't have to hassle with the lines," the sophomore said. "I enrolled and had to go to five different places."
KU has fallen behind its peers, some of which were offering online enrollment five years ago. KU's system won't be in place for at least another year.
"I think people have been rightfully critical of us and have the expectation for Web enrollment," said Bob Turvey, project director for the new student information system. "It's something we wish we would've had years ago."
Many universities began contemplating online enrollment in the mid-1990s. Most of those that created a system wrote a Web program to communicate with their mainframe computers, which dated to the 1970s.
After considering such a system which would have cost about $300,000 to create KU officials decided to pursue an entirely new student record system that will handle enrollment, financial aid, admissions, billing and transcripts.
Richard Morrell, university registrar, said he expects all universities to convert to the system, called PeopleSoft, or a similar program in the next few years.
The new online enrollment system, expected to cost about $3 million, will have advantages over the Web interface system, Morrell said. For example, the interface system doesn't allow students to immediately know if a class is full.
"That's an old, old system," Morrell said of the interface program. "It's like putting a new paint job on a very old car. They see it's a nice paint job, but they don't see the car is a 1978 model."
KU purchased the PeopleSoft program in 1999. Programmers began the installation process a year ago, and Turvey said it will take another year to complete. It should be ready in March 2003 in time for fall 2003 enrollment.
Turvey said implementation involves transferring data on more than 400,000 students to the new system.
About 10 programmers are working on numerous details, he said. For example, if a class changed names over the years, the new system will need to recognize the old name and convert it to the new name.
Or if a class such as "Algebra and Trigonometry" was entered by hand as "Alg and Trig" in the old system, PeopleSoft wouldn't recognize it.
Errors could affect student transcripts or require students to retake courses they've already taken.
"People can say we're the last in the Big 12 to get online enrollment," Morrell said. "But we're three or four years ahead on our technology. Now, does the student care? I don't think they do."
Gretchen Gier, a sophomore journalism major, said she didn't understand why the process was taking so long. She was at the registrar's office Thursday to tweak her schedule.
"I just really feel if they want to make us a better school, they need to bring up our technology and give us online enrollment," she said.
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