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December 5, 1996

SOLAR System will yield on-line student support services by 1999

By the fall 1999 term, students here will be able to register for classes by telephone or via their computers, Pitt officials say.

Students also will be able to electronically view their grades, apply for financial aid and monitor their progress toward graduation — all without leaving their dorms or homes (although flesh-and-blood advisers still will be available).

Those improvements, and lots more, are expected to come through the planned Student On-Line Academic Resource (SOLAR) System, which will replace Pitt's current Integrated Student Information System (ISIS).

According to documents that Provost James V. Maher sent to the Council of Deans on Nov. 25, software for the SOLAR System will be installed next summer. Technical and functional training for the University community will begin early in 1998.

Besides providing much-needed improvements in Pitt's student support services, SOLAR will enable the University to cope with a major computer crisis that is just three years away — the Year 2000 Problem, Maher wrote. See story on this page.

"The University's current student system (ISIS) is not designed to handle what has come to be known as the 'year 2000 problem': handling years whose last two digits suggest they precede current terms," the provost wrote. "We are implementing a new system at this time and under a tight timetable to avoid the considerable expense [$5 million, according to University estimates] of fixing the obsolete ISIS. To take advantage of this saving, the conversion from the current student information system to the new system must be complete by the beginning of the fall term 1999." SOLAR will have major implications for non-students, system planners say. "When fully implemented, this project will involve significant changes in the way student services are delivered both in central administrative offices and in departments and academic centers," a project outline states.

"For example, as the University gains on-line access to information, the need for paper reports to distribute information will decrease. Students might choose to register on-line, and many of the redundant and time-consuming steps required to prepare course-related information will be reduced. Automated room scheduling will allocate space more efficiently and systematically, enabling increased classroom utilization." Departments also will be able to electronically create and update course and section information, SOLAR planners say, and advisers will have more time to advise students on course choices, career paths and academic planning.

Vice Provost Elizabeth Baranger is coordinating a "core implementation team" that will work full-time on the SOLAR project. Dennis DeSantis of the Office of Student Financial Services is the project director. Other team members will include staff from Computing and Information Services, the Registrar's office, Admissions and Financial Aid, Student Financial Services, and a yet-to-be-determined regional campus and academic unit. DeSantis said his team will contact faculty, staff and students from various units to help identify user needs. Provost Maher wrote, "The success of the SOLAR System project depends on the active participation of the academic community." To encourage participation, the project team will publish a newsletter for administrative and academic units in hard copy form as well as electronically on a World Wide Web site (http://www.pitt/~solars) Feedback from the University community can be sent to the team via campus mail (3rd floor Webster Hall), electronic mail (solars+@pitt.edu) or through an on-line newsgroup (pitt.solars).

— Bruce Steele

Filed under: Feature,Volume 29 Issue 8

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