Change is upon us. Last week, representatives from the Student System Project said they expect to replace the Integrated Student Information System (ISIS) within the next four years.
For better or for worse, virtually all students at the University are acquainted with ISIS and many have developed strong opinions about it.
While a common complaint may be the frequency of error messages regarding too many users, students have a number of other ideas on what the replacement team should address.
Many students would like to see improvements to an interface that can be "pretty unwieldy at times," according to second-year Engineering student Robert Carlisle.
Describing why the interface is uncomfortable, first-year College student Alex Friedman said, "Some of the stuff with grades or checking credits ... is a little confusing or hard to understand."
Carlisle said he once lost a class because he got stuck navigating the registration interface for 10 minutes.
However, this is not necessarily a universal experience.
"Even though you can't all get on at the same time, I think the registration aspect is pretty clear and pretty easy to use," third-year College student Ariel Alberti said.
One aspect of the interface that Jim Russell, second-year College student, said he has had trouble with is remembering to put in the right academic term at the top of the page.
He said he also has difficulties with the financial features.
"I had no idea what was going on, and I consider myself savvy with that sort of thing," Russell said.
Alberti agreed that those functions are often unclear.
Sometimes, she said, "I'm not sure which is a positive or negative balance."
Despite these issues, students praised other parts of the system.
Carlisle said the system is pretty fast once he is logged in. He also thought it was relatively easy to obtain his transcript.
Russell said he hoped ISIS would retain one of its less significant abilities.
"The thing that was the most helpful to me ... was the date and time schedule," he said.
Nevertheless, Carlisle said ISIS was showing its age.
"It seems like some of it could have been made like 10 years ago," Carlisle said, adding that the VISTAA report is "a huge string of horribly formatted and hard-to-read text."
Carlisle said he is glad student input is being sought while modernizing ISIS.
"This is something we have to use all the time," he said.
Alberti wants the system to be very open to student input.
"I think that [a student committee] will be effective, but maybe it will be restrictive," Alberti said. "Undoubtedly they'll miss somebody's opinion."
She suggested the use of e-mail feedback or an open forum as possible ways to address her concerns.
Russell, however, warned that "at the same time, you have to realize that the [technology] people on campus ultimately know best what can be done."
It may sometimes be hard for students to give appropriate input because they do not know how the system works, Friedman said.
Whether or not they know why things happen, students do seem to know what about ISIS they want fixed.
"I think the concerns about it are a little overblown," Russell said. "But I think there are enough deficiencies with it that it's worth replacing, especially for the long run."
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