Online course registration is still years away and will cost millions more than originally anticipated, Provost Robert Zimmer told the faculty at its monthly meeting Tuesday.
Implementation of the Banner computer database, a campus-wide computer records system, will have to be significantly overhauled - with a new, realistic timeline and budget - and reapproved by the Brown Corporation, Zimmer said. He called for major changes to project management, oversight and internal communication.
Vice President for Computing and Information Services Ellen Waite-Franzen set a tentative launch date of Spring 2007 - pushed back from an original goal of April 2005 - in an interview with The Herald last week, but Zimmer told the faculty that online course registration, the most high-profile component of Banner, will not be available for at least "a couple of years."
University officials predicted as recently as last fall that online course registration would launch in April 2006 for Fall 2006 registration.
"It's a very complex project - we started in January 2003, and it's going to go on for a number of years yet," Waite-Franzen said. "Right now, we're at a pause in the project. We're re-evaluating where we are and what we need to do to move forward."
Upon completion, Banner will integrate 11 student administrative departments including the registrar, bursar, financial aid and admission for both the undergraduate and graduate schools.
Simmons, Zimmer and Waite-Franzen did not offer reasons for the significant delay and cost overrun Tuesday, but Zimmer stressed the complexity of customizing a database system like Banner to meet the needs of each institution.
"Of course we are very disappointed that we have had to delay this project," President Ruth Simmons told the faculty, adding that Corporation members and University administrators will look carefully at the new timeline and budget to make sure they are realistic.
In an interview with The Herald last fall, Waite-Franzen estimated that Banner would cost an initial $10 million to implement and between $250,000 and $300,000 in additional annual maintenance fees.
Banner's implementation is now estimated to cost about $23 million - around $10-12 million more than previously anticipated, Zimmer told the faculty.
Looking at the larger picture, Waite-Franzen anticipates that Banner will allow the University to operate more smoothly and efficiently. The program will unite the previously segregated student administrative offices, making it possible to share information and reduce the confusion that often abounds when students attempt to access or change their personal records.
The most highly anticipated and public aspect of Banner is online registration for courses. Students will be able to see how many seats are available for a class upon submitting their pre-registration, and therefore choose a different course if one is already filled, Waite-Franzen said.
"It is not appropriate that an institution like Brown doesn't have online registration in 2005," Zimmer said Tuesday.
The University purchased the license to run Banner from an outside company specializing in higher education software, Sunguard SCT. For an annual fee, Brown owns the right to run the application on its servers.
Both Dartmouth College and Yale University are Sungaurd SCT customers and use Banner. Waite-Franzen said that both schools seemed satisfied with Banner and that the programs, especially at Dartmouth, where Banner has been in place for a number of years, have been running successfully.
Brown's Medical School already uses Banner for its admission database, Zimmer said.
During a temporary break for reevaluation, the Banner committee is currently working to convert the Brown course catalogue and student transcripts into a format that will allow them to be transferred from the old departmental programs to the new Banner system, Waite-Franzen said.
One area of the University which will not be directly affected by the Banner program is Health Services. The University's Health Services will be able to access Banner in order to find information regarding student addresses and social security numbers. However, other knowledge not directly related to the general information a student provides to the University is maintained behind a separate and confidential firewall, Waite-Franzen said.
The committee working to implement the Banner program consists of over 100 staff members from all parts of the University. Aside from a very large technical staff, other prominent figures include Registrar Michael Pesta, Director of Financial Aid Michael Bartini and Director of Financial Services Beth Gentry.
