On July 1, aspiring first year undergraduate applicants for the entering class of fall 2009 began to use the Common Application to apply to U.Va.  The Common Application is an on-line (or print) application new for the University that students may also use to apply to any number of over 300 participating colleges. Beginning August 4, applicant records will be imported into the new student information system and will be matched up, automatically, with any existing records that may have been created when the Prospect/Recruitment module rolled out.

Now that the Recruitment and Admission modules are live, the Student System Project is preparing for the first Student Records roll out.  Users are testing functionality for the online course catalog, which will roll out to the Office of the University Registrar this summer so that classes for fall 2009 can be scheduled in the new system by the end of 2008.

“The pieces are falling into place,” reports Susan Barr, SSP Director. “The system will evolve to accommodate these applicants as they progress through accepting admission, matriculating, registering for classes, depositing tuition, applying for financial aid, graduating, and becoming alumni. The SSP team is working on all cylinders, in concert with people throughout the University, to have each wave ready to go as these Fall 2009 applicants reach each new milestone.”

The University of Virginia Student System Project has benefited from tremendous stakeholder participation and support to date. Now, the Project is trying to find out how best to support and prepare University staff, faculty, and students as the new student system becomes a reality—how to ensure that people are ready.

“The greatest number of people affected by and involved in the implementation will be in the March 2009 time frame, when pre-enrollment and academic advisement occur in the new system for the first time,” notes Susan Barr, SSP Director. “The level of readiness across the schools and departments of the University depends on many factors, including the degree to which their areas already have been involved in the various governance groups and other communications for the project, the extent to which their current academic and student-related processes will be affected, the complexity of their organizational structures, the number of staff, faculty, and/or students in their departments who are involved in these particular academic activities, and the culture of change in their departments.

“We are actively reaching out to schools and departments in order to understand all of these success factors now, and to facilitate them to anticipate and address areas of concern. At the same time, the information we have received during these meetings has informed the team of issues that have not surfaced in other forums.” 

To this end, meetings have been held or scheduled with representatives from each school. Meetings with administrative departments will continue throughout the summer. These will be followed in the fall with demonstrations of the system and other activities designed to help users be ready for the new system as it begins to affect them over the course of the next year.

In the face of increasing attempts by hackers to compromise personal data, in 2007–2008, ITC commenced an intensive $1.2 million program of hardening and securing the University's information technology infrastructure. It also instituted a new policy on use of SSNs and a sensitive data storage policy to ensure the safeguarding of information about students, faculty, and staff. As noted on the ITC website, “The University is working to improve computer security across the grounds at a variety of levels including improving user awareness of security issues, promoting the use of anti-virus software and proper computer management, and providing an additional layer of security within the University network.”

ITC has presented an overview of their efforts to SSP governance groups in anticipation of the new student information system being the first large scale project to employ the University’s recently deployed “additional layer of security.” The first layer is created by installing secured firewalls to protect servers with sensitive data.  These firewalls require Virtual Private Network (VPN) software in order to access data.

The second layer is called the More Secure Network. (for an explanation of the VPN and More Secure Network, click here.)

“It is essential that we protect our student’s personal information,” says Shirley Payne, Director of Security Coordination and Policy. “To that end, anyone who uses the new student system and has access to sensitive data will be required to have a computer that is configured for the More Secure Network.”

What is an iKey?
“A second layer of security also requires a second layer of authentication,” says Teresa Wimmer, SSP Technical Director and Project Manager. “In addition to user name and password, users of the new student system will be required to use an iKey, a hardware identity device that looks like a flash drive and plugs into an available USB port on the computer.  The good news is, you can log in with your iKey in the morning, and it will not time out until you turn your computer off. In addition, it will work for any system for which you need a VPN, and you won’t have to reset your password.”

Not everyone who uses the system will have access to sensitive information, so not everyone will be required to use an iKey, according to Wimmer.

“We will have two levels of security,” she explains. “Applicants, students, and faculty who use only self service will be able to log on with their computing ID and password. No VPN is required. However, anyone who uses the system beyond self service or who runs reports will need to have an iKey.”

How do I get one?
SSP is working closely with ITC and with departmental LSPs to establish a process for distributing iKeys and configuring desktops for the More Secure Network as the system continues to rollout (see Rollout Reminder). The team also is working with governance group members to identify people who will require access to the system beyond what is offered through self service.

“It is the University’s responsibility to protect the sensitive data that is entrusted to us by the people associated with U.Va.,” says Payne. “SSP has worked cooperatively with us to help those with access to the student system meet that responsibility.”

Team Activities:

• The Admissions team has assisted in the rollout of the Common Application (see Just Days Until Fall 2009 First Year Applicants are in New Student System) and is preparing the Undergraduate Admission Office to process those applications in the new system and in ImageNow beginning in August. Professional and Graduate School admission testing and training is underway, as well. The team has also been working on retrieving and loading test scores (SAT, ACT, TOEFL, AP, GRE, and GMAT) to the new student system.
• Student Records continues to work on the conversion of historical data from ISIS into the new system, and has begun training users for the roll outs of the Course Catalog and Schedule of Classes. Over the course of the summer, the team also will work with stakeholders to develop the assignments for users’ security and access.
• Financial Aid completed the Wave 1 business process flows up through the point at which students are awarded their aid. The Wave 2 process flows are near completion. The Financial Aid security roles have been defined. Next steps involve compiling the test scenarios for a month of system testing in August. Also, development has begun on the financial customizations, including the electronic University Financial Aid Application (eUFAA).
• Student Financials business process flows and security role definition are in progress. The remaining setup for SCPS is underway.  A significant amount of effort by the team will continue to be focused on creating mechanisms for the transfer of data for student accounts into the University’s financial system.
• The training team completed recruitment/prospective student training, and continues to train on admission-related functionality.  As the phases of the project unfold, the team has turned its attention to the development of Student Records and Financial Aid training materials.
• The technical team continues to work on data conversions for student records:  program/plan and enrollment history. In addition, the team continues data mapping of interfaces and working on approved customizations.

New on the SSP Website

• Updated Desktop Requirements
• May and June Progress Reports
• Applicant and General FAQs
• New Training Website

New SSP Team Members

• Jill Brown, Systems Analyst for Financial Aid (Student Financial Services)
  Jill is on loan from Student Financial Services, where she has worked as a programmer/analyst since 2007. She has been at the University since 1995.
• Wende Hope, Usability and Security Team Lead
  Wende brings experience “digitizing” manual processes and converting legacy systems to a standard tech stack at GE Fanuc Automation in Charlottesville to SSP. She is overseeing testing and security for the project.
  Sri Rangaraj, Developer
  Prior to joining UVA in May 2008, Sri worked as a PeopleSoft Technical Consultant supporting PeopleSoft Financials and HRMS modules for 8 years. Some of his clients include GEICO, State of Florida, Lazard Freres, Nextel, GE, and Omaha Public Schools.

New CedarCrestone consultants:

• Tricia Campbell, CCI Admissions/Recruiting Lead
  Tricia has more than nine years of higher education industry experience, with roles including project management, training development and delivery, and application testing of the Student Administration/Campus Solutions system.
• Srinivas (Srini) Dasari, Technical Consultant
  Srini has more than 11 years of professional experience in the areas of ERP implementation and more than nine years of experience in PeopleSoft higher education and HRMS/HCM implementations.

BACK TO TOP