In the last newsletter, we informed you about changes to the application process beginning Fall 2016 and hinted that this was only one change coming. The University has been undertaking the massive task of upgrading from a homegrown Student Information System (SIS) to Catalyst, the UC branding of PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. Along with this, they have adopted a new Prospect Management and Application Management system (Radius). Getting these new systems to talk with each other, and with other systems and data warehouse applications that are staying in place, is a huge task. If you've been through adoption of a new large-scale EMR application, you have some idea of what is involved with changing a system that affects nearly every aspect of your business. We'd love to believe the rollout will be smooth and seamless, but we know there will be bumps and glitches along the way.
By Fall 2016, all student data will be migrated from the current SIS to Catalyst.
How this affects our students
As Catalyst continues to be customized, we are learning little-by-little about what changes to expect. We will learn much more once the system rolls out and gets widespread testing by users.
However, we do know now that, beginning Fall 2016, all of our students will have to register for courses themselves. We will not be able to submit course registrations in bulk for our courses. This has implications for how and when we bill for our courses, and we still need to work out those specifics. So, stay tuned for lots more information to come!
