Project Updates

The federal government has changed the reporting of ethnicity data for staff counts and student enrollments. KU must be able to handle the new methods for the collection of ethnicity data by Fall 2010.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 21, 2009 SAKU, AMCAS and College Net Complete. In development for School of Nursing and Online Admission (KUMC).

Project Sponsor: Dorothy Knoll and Marlesa Roney, Student Information Systems Executive Sponsors
IT Contact: Linda Brooks
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2009 (November)

Online Process for Students to drop, add, and withdrawal from Classes. There are many times that students can drop and add on-line but currently students cannot withdrawal from all their classes on-line. Also after the fifth day of the semester students cannot add classes on-line nor can they drop classes on-line after the 20th day of the regular semester (At KUMC, students can not drop classes online after the fifth day of classes). It would be very helpful to expand these on-line services to students at additional times with the appropriate approvals. The functional reason for preventing students from performing these types of enrollment changes online is because some form of administrative approval is needed (advisor, dean's office, etc.) and paper-based forms with signatures is about the only way it can be accomplished right now.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 21, 2009 in development.

Project Sponsor: Cindy Derritt
IT Contact: Rick Hermesch
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2009 (November)

KU bolt-on mods did not handle the PC BU and Activity fields consistently. This mod is designed to do that along with meeting business requirements.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 21, 2009 in development.

Project Sponsor: Diane Goddard / Financial System Leadership Team
IT Contact: Jim Gergen
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2009 (December)

There are two primary goals of this project, providing tailored notes specific to a student's record and allowing students to make online appointments. The first goal, providing tailored notes, expands on the ability for students to see advising notes from a specific appointment. Tailored notes currently are used within the advising tool but are only available to advisors with access. By allowing these notes to be seen by the student, we can expand our scope of who students see for advising. This enhancement facilitates a student's ability to come prepared to an advising appointment and receive a consistent message whether it is from a professional advisor or faculty advisor. The second goal, decision tree for a calendar system, helps the student connect with an advisor based on assignment and/or need. This will also allow for faculty to get credit for their advising service. Both goals free up staff and faculty time that can lead to future savings.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of August 14, 2009, specifications should be completed by next week. Development will then need to review and approve the specifications so they can give time estimates for when the work will be completed.

Project Sponsor: Julie Loats
IT Contact: Roy Lytle
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2009 (December)

This phase of the Point-N-Click implementation will enable the Web functionality that allows students to manage their account and services online. Authentication will take place through the KU Portal.

Latest Status: Implementation.

Project Sponsor: Joe Gillespie - SHS
IT Contact: Roy Lytle
Planned Completion Date: Spring 2010 (January)

The purpose of this project is to automate to the greatest extent possible the entirety of processes performed by KU Purchasing Services, facilitate the coordination activities of the KU IT Initiative One Project and allow KU and KUCR an automated way to make collaborative procurement decisions and thus better leverage the university spend on commodities and services of mutual interest. The project will consist of two phases. The first phase will include the implementation of the modules purchased from SciQuest. The second phase will consist of the implementation of the sourcing modules that will be procured from IonWave. IonWave is the developer of the Sourcing Module and is a SciQuest business partner.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 21, 2009 in development.

Project Sponsor: Diane Goddard
IT Contact: Linda Brooks
Planned Completion Date: Spring 2010 (February)

Upgrade the Student Information System (Enroll & Pay) which utilizes the PeopleSoft Campus Solution software from version 8.9 to version 9.0.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 21, 2009 the Campus Solution information has been sent to the Oracle Lab to start the upgrade process.

Project Sponsor: Marlesa Roney and Dorothy Knoll
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: Spring 2010 (March)

Working together, the Sunflower Project will improve efficiency, management decision-making, transparency and customer service for the State of Kansas through the purchase and implementation of a new financial management system that will integrate the State's workforce, business processes and technology investment.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 21, 2009 in development.

Project Sponsor: KU-Diane Goddard; Denise Stephens
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: Summer 2010 (July)

Identify and implement streamlined means for students to electronically apply and contract for housing, including online payment, as well as new methods for making housing assignments.

Latest Status: Implementation.

Project Sponsor: Jennifer Wamelink
IT Contact: Mike Wright
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2010 (September)

It is the intention of the University Registrar to provide on-line event request capabilities and view access to room schedules for various departments on campus. The newest version of Ad Astra is web-based and will allow greater functionality without the need for individual client installs.

Latest Status: Approved. As of April 29, 2009 The project cannot start until version 7.4 is released. This release is currently scheduled for late 2009.

Project Sponsor: Cindy Derritt
IT Contact: Rick Hermesch
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Provide a campus-wide vehicle for accessing the computing environment required by a staff members job responsibilities from alternate locations (on or off-campus).

Latest Status: Approved.

Project Sponsor: Chuck Crawford
IT Contact: Wayne Trowbridge
Planned Completion Date: TBD

The project would develop an efficient online system that allows students to grant authorized users (parent/guardian) access to certain aspects of their student record as well as manage their privacy restriction for diretory information. It will also provide a new electronic bill which would be static and retrievable, and also provide a electronic refund check advices/notices that would be static and retrievable.

Latest Status: Research/Analysis. As of October 21, 2009 completed the data flow for authorized user. Defining the data flow for the Ebills.

Project Sponsor: Marlesa Roney & Dorothy Knoll
IT Contact: Linda Brooks
Planned Completion Date: TBD

This project is to integrate Bb rosters with Enroll & Pay features to streamline Bb roster creation, provide greater flexibility in timing of roster creation, and allow faculty more control over their Bb sites. (Inclusion on a Bb course roster is what allows students to gain access to that course site.)

Latest Status: Planning. As of July 30 2009 the requirements are currently being written.

Project Sponsor: Susan Zvacek
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

This project seeks to define the requirements, research options, and make a recommendation for a centrally-managed blogging platform to be made available to faculty and staff.

Latest Status: Hold.

Project Sponsor: Julie Loats / Chuck Crawford, Information Technology
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Students within SAKU are currently designated as Declared with a positive service indicator which attaches to the person record. This needs to be changed so that the Declared designations attaches specifically to a unique major. This needs to be done through a plan attribute on the program plan stack in SAKU.

Latest Status: Research/Analysis. As of October 26, 2009, this project has not been assigned.

Project Sponsor: Cindy Derritt, University Registrar working with Student Information Systems.
IT Contact: Rick Hermesch
Planned Completion Date: TBD

A digital collection registry provides the ability to discover digital collections, and maintains information on services that enable access, metadata harvesting, and federated searching of the collections. The registry will serve both as an administrative tool for KU Libraries, Scholar Services, and IT to support efficient discovery, use, and management of digital content, and as an end-user tool or catalogue of current collections, project partners, and projects.

Latest Status: Research/Analysis.

Project Sponsor: Deborah Ludwig
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

There is a need to find a more efficient way to back Digmaster due to its size.

Latest Status: Hold.

Project Sponsor: Deborah Ludwig
IT Contact: Wayne Trowbridge
Planned Completion Date: TBD

This project will create a way for staff in academic units to submit electronically new courses for catalog and changes to existing courses. The process needs to include any approval processes for the course and any workflow from the schools. The course cannot appear in the catalog prior to approval but once approved by all parties (including the Registrar's Offices) then the course needs to appear in the final catalog within SAKU.

Latest Status: Hold. As of October 21, 2009 this project is depended upon Campus Solution upgrade to 9.0.

Project Sponsor: Cindy Derritt and Chris Meiers
IT Contact: Rick Hermesch
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Certain fields have been deemed not needed with the current business process and leaving them available to the end user only adds confusion. New business processes have made changes to certain fields related to a KU mod necessary. These business processes came to light after the go-live date of the project. This project will make changes to the KUEA Loan Amount field.

Latest Status: Hold. Per the customer, this project has a lower priority.

Project Sponsor: Diane Goddard / Financial System Leadership Team
IT Contact: Linda Brooks
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Make changes to the Secure Withholding check box on Vendor Identifying Info page to gray out access to the field based on Role security.

Latest Status: Hold. Per the customer, this project has a lower priority.

Project Sponsor: Diane Goddard / Financial System Leadership Team
IT Contact: Linda Brooks
Planned Completion Date: TBD

GRE provides a file once-a-year that contains names and data for approximately 4,500 prospective graduate students. Graduate Studies would like to download this file and create prospect records for these students.

Latest Status: Hold. The customer requested that some quick, smaller projects be worked on before this request.

Project Sponsor: John Augusto
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

When faculty give students a grade of Incomplete, it is only supposed to be for a limited time and then the grade is supposed to change to a failing grade if the student does not complete the work. Currently grades do not automatically lapse and manual intervention needs to be involved to change a grade from incomplete to a different grade. The result is these changes often do not happen. A process needs to be created to allow each school to apply their policies for incomplete grade lapse. Faculty should also be allowed to give their own lapse information within policy guidelines (for example give a shorter deadline timeframe or a grade besides failing).

Latest Status: Research/Analysis. As of October 21, 2009 identified delivery function that will meet the requirements. SIS reviewing the delivery function.

Project Sponsor: Cindy Derritt, University Registrar and Chris Meiers, KUMC Registrar working with Student Information Systems.
IT Contact: Rick Hermesch
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Notification to faculty of functions in SAKU relating to grade rosters. Notification to faculty of the availability of grade rosters for short courses, that their grades have been posted, that they have incomplete grades that may lapse, and that they have missing grades (WG).

Latest Status: Hold. The customer requested that some quick, smaller projects be worked on before this request.

Project Sponsor: Cindy Derritt, University Registrar and Chris Meiers, KUMC Registrar working with Student Information Systems.
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

The Online Progress to Degree Process (OPDP) will replace the current paper based Progress to Degree Forms. Electronic tracking and administration of graduate student progress to degree completion will improve services to stakeholders.

Latest Status: Planning. As of August 5, 2009 we are working on writing the requirements.

Project Sponsor: Sara T. Rosen
IT Contact: Roy Lytle
Planned Completion Date: TBD

This project will upgrade the current PeopleSoft HR/Pay system to version 9.0 which is a web-based environment. This will allow us to develop further self-service including time and leave recording and reporting.

Latest Status: Research/Analysis. As of June 1, 2009, Completed the Oracle Insight program.

Project Sponsor: Danny Anderson and Diane Goddard
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Implement PeopleSoft delivered process for determining satisfactory academic progress (SAP) for career UGDL and all KUMC careers.

Latest Status: Research/Analysis. The original solution did not handle "Attempted hours" as expected, and the team is waiting to see what version 9.0 will deliver.

Project Sponsor: Sara Honeck and Brenda Maigaard
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Latest Status: Approved.

Project Sponsor: Ola Faucher
IT Contact:
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Upgrade of hardware on Library web servers.

Latest Status: Planning.

Project Sponsor: Deb Ludwig
IT Contact: Roy Lytle
Planned Completion Date: TBD

This project would upgrade to a newer version: Version 7.0.2. KU is currently on Version 6.2, and this version is about to become a non-supported. This upgrade includes improvement to the staff client functionality, and will allow for improved staff efficiencies and productivity.

Latest Status: Planning.

Project Sponsor: Mary Roach, KU Libraries
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

Servers are being built to accommodate students and faculty increasing the size of their e-mail mailbox from 500MB to 1GB. The architecture for the system is also being improved.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of July 1, 2009, this project is still active, but will now complete later this summer.

Project Sponsor: Denise Stephens
IT Contact: Wayne Trowbridge
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2009 (November)

Xythos is a document management system made available on a limited basis in February 2007 for the primary purpose of managing documents for the KU policy web site. The system, branded Hawk Drive by KU, is a complete, full functioning document management system, including a Records Management module and document workflow. This phase of deployment will focus on broadening access to more campus departments and implementing records management functionality in support of the campus Information Management Program initiative (http://www.provost.ku.edu/policy/infomanagement/).

Latest Status: Implementation. As of June 1, 2009: Hawk Drive is available to all faculty, staff, and student employees as of April 6, 2009. Students will be granted access during a Fall 2009 roll-out.

Project Sponsor: Denise Stephens, Vice Provost for Information Services
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: Fall 2009 (December)

The objective of this project is to move to a modern product-based solution to improve security and maintainability while retaining the ability to handle custom situations that arise at KU.

Latest Status: Implementation. As of October 20, 2009: Implementation of phase 1 is complete.

Project Sponsor: Chuck Crawford, Director of Information Technology
IT Contact: Jaci Matney
Planned Completion Date: Spring 2010 (January)

This project will provide a video conferencing service that will allow faculty and staff to teach remotely, interact with research colleagues, and generally improve collaboration and communication.

Latest Status: Implementation. Updated October 15: Full roll out of this service is scheduled for Fall/Winter 2009.

Project Sponsor: Dilawar Grewal, Director of Research Information Technology
IT Contact: Chuck Crawford
Planned Completion Date: Spring 2010 (January)

This phase of Online Advising will add the display of Degree Audit functionality.

Latest Status: Hold. As of March 31, 2009, the project has been completed. Move to production is on hold due to capacity issues that are being addressed.

Project Sponsor: Richard W. Lariviere, Provost
IT Contact: Julie Loats
Planned Completion Date: TBD

This project will upgrade the EndNote software that is available for download and in the public labs to the newest version, EndNote X3

Latest Status: Complete. As of July 16, 2009, The new version will be made available on public machines in August, 2009. The EndNote X3 download and revised web site will also be made public in August, 2009.

Project Sponsor: Julie Loats
IT Contact: Marianne Reed, Kim Glover-Instructional Services
Completed: November 2009

Build RGS a PI Portal Discovery Environment.

Latest Status: Warranty. As of August 5, 2009: We are working on getting a Server Hosting agreement completed. The current plan is to start development on August 24th.

Project Sponsor: Rick McMullen
IT Contact: Roy Lytle
Completed: October 2009

This project will provide requested enhancements to the Online Advising Degree Progress functionality prior to its initial release to campus. Currently, this module is in a test environment where continued enhancements and testing are taking place by Student Information Systems. It is essential this project be completed so that Schools and departments can better interpret and test the detailed and very complicated requirements being displayed in the Degree Progress Report. Functional testing by selected departments must take place prior to the Degree Progress module being released to campus. These improvements will allow for the functional testing to occur.

Latest Status: Complete. As of August 14, 2009, specifications have been developed and approved by the development group. They plan to begin work on the project next week. The target date for production is the third week of September.

Project Sponsor: Julie Loats
IT Contact: Roy Lytle
Completed: September 2009