Emory Report

July 12, 1999

Volume 51, No. 35

PeopleSoft student admissions systems ready to go online Emory's student system implementation team is celebrating a project milestone as central admissions, Emory College admissions and Oxford admissions "go live" today with a major phase of the PeopleSoft student administration system (SAS). Any prospective students who contact those admissions offices for materials will have created for them an electronic file that will be maintained throughout their relationship with Emory. As more aspects of the SAS come online--beginning with student applications in the fall and continuing with financial records, financial aid, etc., down the line--the new system will integrate all student records into that single file, maintained in a single database. Among the benefits of the new system is the consistency and accuracy of student data due to the integrated database, according to Jean Jordan, director of enrollment services for central admissions. Integrated data prevents certain potential disruptions in service to students. For example, in the old, multi-database environment it would have been possible for a student to be classified as "admitted" in admissions but "pending" in financial aid. If this were to happen, the student would experience a delay in the packaging of her or his financial aid. This sort of inconsistency should not occur in the new system. In addition to synchronizing individual student data, an integrated environment captures even more data about students at the point of application, thus supporting the student selection process. A future benefit is that prospective students eventually will be able to check on the status of their University applications via the web. "There is virtually no comparison between the new system and the old," said Dianna Robin, technical lead for the Oxford team. "The old sytem was extremely outdated, and everybody at Oxford is very excited about the PeopleSoft project." A second development is a new name for the student project. It will now be called ATLAS: Advancing Technology Links All Students. (LINUS, Linking Integrated New Technology for University Systems, was dropped due to copyright issues) The slogan that accompanies ATLAS is: "Supporting the world of Emory student information." "This new name and slogan reflect one of our three overarching goals of the project: to provide consistent excellence of service in administrative support to students, from the time they indicate an interest in coming to Emory on through their graduation," said Heather Mugg, ATLAS project manager. The other two goals, she said, are to provide users with timely and accurate information through methods that require only a minimum of user training and support, and to be as flexible as possible in accommodating changes in requirements and University initiatives. The human resources PeopleSoft project, LEO (Linking Emory Online), went live for the University and Crawford Long in November. --Priscilla Echols Return to July 12, 1999, contents page