For students tired of CasperWeb and its unreasonable office hours that don’t fit into their schedule, fret no more. Sacramento State is currently kicking out CasperWeb and hiring Peoplesoft for a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week job.

According to a previous State Hornet article, the portal will embody a one-stop access spot where students, with a name and password, can access personal information, holds, dues, classes, grades, and registration without a time limit.

Although 24-hour access will benefit the campus community, it is argued that Peoplesoft has its share of flaws.

Rafael Fornillos, a junior at San Jose State, one of the first CSU campuses to implement the program, has doubts about the system.

Fornillos agreed that 24-hour access is a perk to the program. It allows him to access all his information, but the system is not perfect. Problems have occurred without warning.

“Every now and then the system has problems, 4 out of 10 times I have had trouble with login,” Fornillos said.

But the benefits of the program are not limited to just 24-hour access. Peoplesoft will include a fully integrated system. It will offer a one point of entry to all CSU applications through the self-service portal, and will promote sharing information across campuses.

Additional self-service features for students ?” like expanded degree audit capabilities including information on changing majors, graduation status and retention rates ?” will also be provided.

With more than 23 campuses that have implemented the system, Sac State is the last to implement the program, but not without further questioning.

“There are faculty who think the entire CMS (Common Management Systems) project is unnecessary and wasteful,” said Cristy Jensen, faculty state chair. “I think the concern is more about cost versus benefits of the system and the expense at a time when student fees are rising, and class sizes are growing.”

Jensen stated that the university secured a long term ?” possibly a ten-year loan ?” with the Chancellor’s office to fund the project cost for the student affairs implementation of Peoplesoft. The long-term loan means that the annual impact on the campus budget is less.

According to John Tarjan, a CSU Bakersfield professor, most of the cost lies within the programs labor ?” Bakersfield has implemented the program in certain modules including finances.

“The major cost of implementation is not licensing the program, but rather inputting data, running systems, hiring consultants, and training people,” Tarjan said.

Tarjan added that no analysis has been done on how much the implementation cost at Bakersfield, but talk of approximately $10 million has floated around.

The difference of cost between CasperWeb and Peoplesoft and the cost of the implementation at Sac State is unknown.

Kristen Arata can be reached at [email protected]