The final phase of the PeopleSoft system, a student record tracking and registration program, will be implemented this July, making the new system available for use by fall semester '04.The University has been working closely with the People Excelling At Knowledge (PEAK) project for six years to develop a more productive, and updated mode of tracking student records and managing personal as well as University-related transactions that occur through the students' usernames.

According to University Registrar Mark Hewitt, PeopleSoft is much stronger and more versatile than the legacy software currently in use. It is comprised of several mini-programs - which manage different aspects of University services including payroll, financial services and human resources--all working under an umbrella system that automatically updates itself. The old system, known as SIS (which ran such systems as WebReg and MAXX), became obsolete because it was not ungradeable.

The student module is the final and most complicated of these mini-programs.

PeopleSoft will be phased this summer beginning with pre-enrollment registration for incoming first-years. With the old system, course enrollment statistics were available on a separate page, updated every two to five minutes. With PeopleSoft, the enrollment statistics are updated and available from the instant a student enrolls.

According to Chief Information Officer Perry Hanson, the new program also features an interactive academic advising system that allows both professors and students to access the student's homepage.

But the student has access to his entire academic profile-from housing to financial aid-but professors will only be shown a condensed form of this that hides personal information.

With the advent of this new system, the use of Social Security numbers as Brandeis identification numbers will be discontinued. PeopleSoft will assign a random number to every student in place of their current student identification. After the system is implemented, all current students' ID numbers will change. The goal of this, said Hewitt, is for students to become less hesitant to distribute their identification numbers and not have the problem of the University invading their privacy.

"Phasing out the use of Social Security Numbers for Student Identification is a great idea that will benefit the safety and privacy of all students," said Aron Wolgel '05. Wolgel briefly used PeopleSoft last year and said it was more user-friendly and manageable than the current system.

"It is not that the current system is flawed," said Hanson. "It actually is a very good transaction tool. The issue is that the current system has been in use for 16 years now. Because of this it is lagging and we need something more mature, something that will keep up with the latest technology. The installment of PeopleSoft is a critical move and will prove to be much more effective."

Hanson also mentioned other new features of the program that categorize all transactions. If a student adds a certain class to his curriculum, this transaction will automatically be recorded in the "Student Courses" section. If a student makes a transaction through the Financial Aid Office, that will be filed in the "Finances" section. All of these folders will appear on the same portal page that the student will be able to access with his username, Hanson said.

"The customization of the (new) program takes a long time," stated Project Director Tracy Leger-Hornby. "We, therefore, have a strict policy of not changing any elements that do work well. Although, if we do see that the end product is not what we need, we make sure to go ahead and change it."

Williams, Princeton, Cornell and NYU are among the many institutions that currently use the PeopleSoft program.

"This process is very gradual," Leger-Hornby added. "It moves in different stages and these small components will consolidate to form the PeopleSoft program. We want to make the transition between the two systems.