Students across the University have faced extreme difficulties logging into the University's Integrated Student Information System, the computer registration and billing system, in the opening days of the spring semester.
Students say the system, known as ISIS, is constantly busy and impossible to access, preventing them from finalizing spring semester schedules or completing final registration.
Anda Webb, associate provost for management and budget, said University experts are working on improving the program.
"We've tried to take steps to try and mitigate the problems by moving administrators off the system, making some improvements to the code," Webb said. "Unfortunately, to see whether it works, students need to be on the system."
Students said this is a major issue and comes at a crucial time when they need the services of ISIS the most.
Third-year College student Frank Michael Muñoz said he was unable to print a copy of his grade report that he needed for an application.
"Students are supposed to have access to their records," Muñoz said.
He said he has observed that the ISIS situation has added extraneous work and stress for both teachers and students.
"It's hindering our ability academically," he said. "It's creating a lot more work for everyone at an already stressful time in the semester."
Muñoz added that these ISIS issues have been a problem since he was a first-year student at the University.
"It seems ridiculous that this has been happening for so many semesters," he said. "The school should be able to remedy it."
In the meantime, the system can accommodate 175 students performing transactions at any one time, according to Donald Reynard, director of application and data services. Additional students can be logged onto the system simultaneously if they are not actively processing a request.
"In the immediate short term, we can't do anything about it," he said. "We can't procure hardware and put it in overnight."
Complete relief, Webb said, will take three to five years, hopefully closer to three years. She added that the improvement process started a year ago.
"We have been engaged in pre-implementation systems for the past year," she said.
Webb said the administration is even open to questioning the process of final registration, which was implemented to draw students' attention to their financial obligations.
"In some ways it is designed to force you to interact with the system, tell us that you are coming back and address the holds that are on your account," she said, adding that it will be difficult to adjust the process because the system is built on a mainframe computer platform.
Most students ultimately are able to complete final registration without any problems. She added that on average all but approximately 100 students fail to complete final registration, and usually those students don't plan to return to the University.
Other students said the system, despite its flaws, has served their basic needs this week. Second-year College student Emily Bachman said she didn't have any problem with final registration.
"Last night I was trying to print my day-time schedule and I kept getting the 'User-Exceeded' page," Bachman said. "Last night was the first time I was running into the problems that other students seem to grapple with when it comes to ISIS."
ITC is working on providing short term relief for students with ISIS problems, Webb said.
"ITC has been working with the system to improve response time," Webb said. "We have restricted access to the system during peak hours of use so that other folks aren't using system resources devoted to registration."
These efforts have been of little consolation to those students who say they feel powerless in the face of a seemingly insurmountable technical barrier to completing basic educational functions.
"It's an ISIS crisis," second-year Engineering student Lindsey McGuire said.
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