Author: Gary Jones

WCU College of Business

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February 2005

Faculty suggestions are being solicited regarding the new academic advising and degree-audit software now under preliminary testing at Western, according to new Asst. Chief Information Officer Gregg Gustafson..
The software is part of “Banner,” a six-module suite of integrated digital campus solutions provided by SCT, a company with over 800 clients and 35 years experience in collegiate administrative applications.
“From advising to the way we accept payment for tuition—we are looking at all of it in connection with this implementation,” said Gustafson during an informal presentation to COB faculty and staff in mid-February.
Hired in January of this year, Gustafson acknowledged that solicitation of faculty input regarding the academic advising aspect of the software was not what it could have been—and still needs to be.
“Re-enfranchising this process is an important part of the reason why I am here,” stated Gustafson, who plans to announce a more formal schedule by which faculty can explain their needs and make suggestions.
Although aspects of the program interface are fixed, some elements can be tweaked, and the reporting function of Banner is extremely flexible, the Asst. CIO said.
Gustafson sees an important element of his position as the management of change, with a focus on the end-user.
“We are in the process of breaking down the stovepipes and engendering the appropriate sharing of information. And with that additional access comes responsibility,” he said—adding that “People who are uncomfortable sharing information may be in for the occasional bad day.”
The objective is to have everyone pulling from the same relational database. All users will extract information in real-time; the dataset will be current and accurate.
Gustafson underscored the cooperative, campus-wide nature of this implementation. “This is not an IT project; implementation of Banner is a University project,” he emphasized.
Also present at the presentation were IT Services Computer Consultants Phillip Garrison and Akum Jamir. Both are affiliated with the College of Business, and both expressed their continued commitment to COB faculty and staff concerning computer hardware and software issues. Both will be able to offer assistance with the SCT Banner software platform. The e-mail address for COB assistance is: cobhelp@email.wcu.edu

Reliable Degree-Audit Software Coming, Really...

Degree audit software

A Snapshot of the SCT Banner Student Module Interface

With the advent of channels students no longer need to click through hypertext links to see and access their information. It is 1:00 a.m. and Amy Brown, a sophomore, has just logged onto the portal. With one logon and ID, Amy now has access to information at her fingertips.
[ For more, see: http://www.sct.com/Education/index.html ]

Topic Date Time Room Presenter
Basic Web Page Construction 3/09 12:30 116 Gary Jones
COB/Hunter Library Q&A 3/23 12:00 213 Dana Edge
Introduction to WebCT 4/06 12:30 116 Gary Jones
See: http://paws.wcu.edu/gjones/WCU_COB_Web_Resources_Home.htm
Published by COB Faculty Technology Fellow; sponsored by IT Services

Assistant Chief Information Officer Gregg Gustafson addresses College of Business faculty and staff

Coming IT Events for COB this Spring

SCT Banner Implementation
Towards the Unified Digital Campus
Advancement January 2005
Finance Summer 2005
Admission September 2005
Financial Aid Summer 2006
Student [SIS] Summer 2006
Human Resources January 2007

Faculty Input Sought on New Advising Module

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WCU College of Business

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