UIS works to smooth out kinks in new student information system

Students and faculty members who logged onto the university's new student information system between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 23, encountered slowdowns and a few glitches with class waitlists, drop/add functions and other features, according to campus officials.

Faster performance was restored soon after, and drop/add functions were temporarily halted to restore the appropriate waitlist priority.

University Information Systems, or UIS, which is overseeing the implementation of the system, has been working round-the-clock to tweak the system and install additional servers to handle increased loads, said Lee Ann Baronett, communications director for the Integrated Student Information System, or ISIS.

"We're running jobs more frequently to process information, and we have installed additional servers that have improved log-in times and other processes," she said. "We knew we'd encounter problems, and we're working hard to address them. We know the university community is looking to us to provide as seamless a transition as possible to the new system."

On Monday, Aug. 23, fall classes started on all four CU campuses, where some students and faculty reported delays of up to five minutes to log onto the new student information system, Baronett said.

"We cleared up that issue by early afternoon, and log-in times were reduced to less than 30 seconds," she said.

On the CU-Boulder campus on Tuesday, Aug. 24, the system's drop/add function was taken offline for several hours as UIS worked to restore ensured fairness in the waitlist priority. The feature was back up and running by 11 a.m. today, Baronett said.

ISIS integrates essential student services on a single electronic platform. The university has been rolling out the new $44 million system over the past year, testing each phase and working out problems as they arise. The new system replaces a 20-year-old mainframe system that had become outdated and was no longer supported by the original vendor.

Project managers have warned for months that the system might experience slowdowns and challenges as each phase of the system was implemented. Faculty on all four campuses are encouraged to become familiar with the new system as soon as possible by visiting the ISIS Faculty Center, which provides a single point of entry to view teaching schedules and class rosters, search for classes, browse course catalogs and other faculty members.