Students and faculty should have an easier time with registration and class schedules next spring, UH officials said at a Faculty Senate meeting.
PeopleSoft 8.9 was intended to streamline the process of scheduling classes and registering students, Elizabeth Barlow, executive director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, said. Since the program’s implementation in spring 2007, several problems have reoccurred, such as students not being allowed to register on time, classroom changes without notification and inefficient use of teaching space.
"The transition from the old program was not a smooth process," Barlow said. "We found that we couldn’t just plug in the old scheduling into the new (program)."
Barlow said one of the biggest issues with registration was not caused by PeopleSoft, but by the program Astra Scheduler, which compiles an inventory of teaching space available for classroom use.
"Our inventory of facilities was all wrong, and we didn’t know it was all wrong," she said. "The biggest thing that needs to happen – and is in progress – is to correct that."
Astra Scheduler placed classes with specific size or technology requirements into rooms that could not accommodate such needs. Barlow said work is under way to correct the problem.
"We are adding technology features of each classroom into the system," she said. "We’ll know whether a room has a blackboard, computer or console – whatever it is the instructor needs."
Once these issues are resolved, Barlow said the system will allow for better use of space.
"We have a limited number of classrooms, and we need to be using those rooms as efficiently as possible," she said.
The senate also discussed the University’s fundraising prospects for fiscal year 2008. According to the Office of University Advancement, the UH System collected $54 million in gifts for 2007, $49 million of which was raised by UH, a 36 percent increase from 2006.
Of the $49 million, 19 percent was donated by alumni, while foundations and corporations contributed 43 percent. Individual gifts totaled 8 percent, and 30 percent was donated from other sources.
Michael Rierson, vice president of University Advancement, said this year’s goal is to raise $65 million, but in order to meet that goal the University must make a clear case for what it will do with the money.
"There are plenty of fundraising operations that are obsessed with the number – how much they are going to raise, how big the number is," he said. "But they haven’t even decided what it is they’re going to use the money for."
Rierson said faculty must take an active role in fundraising for the University by helping to identify potential donors and becoming an advocate of UH in the community.
"The faculty needs to be involved. (Donors) don’t want to talk to me. They want to talk to somebody who can inspire either a gift of passion or a gift of loyalty," he said. "The easiest icebreaker you can ask an alumnus is, ‘Did you have a favorite faculty member?’ Chances are one or two or sometimes more faculty members will come to mind, and their nausea will turn into nostalgia eventually."
