ISYS: Technology and Undergraduate Advising for the 21st Century, Part II

January 25, 2007

Picture a web-based major completion process, on-line access to students' senior pages, and vastly improved communication within the College...

These are among the proposed outcomes for the new information system targeted for completion in 2008. This new system, nicknamed ISYS, will provide the advising office with easy access to complete and centralized data and will be compatible with campus information systems such as BearFacts, MyBerkeleyApp, DARS, CalAgenda, and Cal Profiles.

During Phase I of the three-year project, Senior Analyst James Dudek examined and documented every business process in the advising office. Now in the middle of Phase II, Programmer/ Analyst Russell Connacher, the OUA head of IT, is using this analysis to design a system that will provide student information that is precise, complete, inter-related, and easily accessible. The new system will facilitate researching individual cases, managing operational efficiency, and analyzing policy effectiveness.

College staff will benefit from a simple user interface: a set of screens that are intuitive and integrated in order to eliminate duplicate and repetitive work, ease training, and minimize human error. Department staff will have better access to on-line information and forms, facilitating clearer and faster communication with the College. Students will receive speedier responses to their requests and more frequent updates from the College regarding their student records.

The ISYS team is consulting with the L&S Departmental Advisory Group (DAG) to create an interface that will work well for Undergraduate Major Advisers. The team is also collaborating with the Office of the Registrar and other liaisons throughout campus to build the agreements for data sharing and system integration necessary for the success of ISYS.

This effort comes at a time when the campus is uniting around a new vision for student systems.  See http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Fall2006/944.html for information on Student Systems 2012, an initiative that calls for “new governance structures, systematic planning of the next generation of student systems, and immediate steps to consolidate and safeguard student data.”

You can expect hear more about ISYS in the coming months. If you have questions about this project or ISYS-related recommendations you'd like us to consider, please contact Susan Hagstrom at hagstrom@berkeley.edu.