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Academic services to move

Enrollment, records and financial aid will shift to the provost's office by June 1

by Geronimo Rodriguez
Senior Staff Writer

Enrollment, academic records and financial aid services will be moved to the provost's office by June 1 and will also be switched to PeopleSoft, the integrated computing system that has drawn criticism from University leaders.

Interim Provost Jerald Strickland and Vice President for Student Affairs Elwyn C. Lee, under whose division the departments now fall, discussed the transition with student leaders April 21. They said the move will centralize recruitment and financial aid on the academic side of the University.

Strickland also defended PeopleSoft, which was introduced at UH-Clear Lake in 1998 and at UH in 2001. By 2002, the University had spent nearly $29 million on implementation, leading members of the UH System Board of Regents to question its effectiveness in a November 2002 meeting.

"With all due respect, we're laughing about spending tens of millions of dollars on something (that isn't producing results)," former Regent Suzette Caldwell said then.

Strickland said the major problems with the system were "the people, not the machines." He said the PeopleSoft services should be running parallel with the current software, Banner, by the spring. Director of Academic Program Management Brian McKinney said the "huge project" should be complete by 2007.

Although the shift will take time, Strickland said this is a good point to move enrollment and financial aid considering the University's "healthy enrollment."

"Not that it hasn't been handled well in the past, but we thought (enrollment and financial aid services) could be better coordinated," he said.

Moving the services to the provost's office will have no immediate effect on day-to-day operations, the University reported.
 

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