[nerual]

On Wed, Aug 4th, the MSU's Board of Directors met with Richard Levin, the University Registrar. The meeting was held to discuss collaboration between the two organizations throughout the year. At the meeting, Mr. Levin requested the formation of the Registrar's Student Advisory Group in association with the MSU. The RSAG will work to provide student insight and advice to the Office of the Registrar. The advisory group will meet quarterly and lunch will be provided.

The main issues to be addressed by this group are the replacement of the SOLAR system and the introduction of a new form of student cards. The MSU is looking for seven students from across the spectrum to sit on this board. Mr. Levin has asked for a broad range of students from the highly engaged, to the disengaged and all points in between.

If you are interested in becoming a member of this new advisory panel, please contact:
Joe Finkle
VP (Education)
[email protected]
Ext. 24017

Taken from the MSU website: http://msumcmaster.ca/news/msuNews.htm

I'm curious why SOLAR is on the agenda to be completely replaced? The system works, just need to upgrade things to accept more concurrent students at once (ie. not getting kicked out for too many students on at one time).

Originally Posted by Chad

I'm curious why SOLAR is on the agenda to be completely replaced? The system works, just need to upgrade things to accept more concurrent students at once (ie. not getting kicked out for too many students on at one time).

Maybe the cost to update SOLAR is too high and that they would rather invest a bit more to get a completely new system that will last longer?

Originally Posted by Chad

I'm curious why SOLAR is on the agenda to be completely replaced? The system works, just need to upgrade things to accept more concurrent students at once (ie. not getting kicked out for too many students on at one time).

I'll try an keep it untraditionally short!

UTS hired a top of the line outside consulting company(Gartner) to analyze our IT & Registration systems and their report will be released to public possibly soon(I've been trying my best to get access to it). In a May Meeting with the CIO myself & Mary Koziol(New MSU President) he informed us that he "wants" to implement the improvements to MUGSI and roll out an ambitious multi year improvement program.

The Board Of Governors also approved a $25 Million 5 year fund for IT Infrastructure Upgrade.

Student Records aka MUGSI has been working for a decade now on patchworks and is by no means capable of supporting an exponentially growing student body.

McMaster remains the last school within the Canadian G-13 to undertake a systemic review and upgrade of its IT Infrastructure, whatever we have right now is from the 90's and according to what I heard is not salvageable by further patchwork and upgrades.

Similarly all systems are interconnected and compatible only with each other, hence we can't directly target MUGSI and leave the other sections alone.

Its financially more feasible for the university to undertake one big upgrade, though its not going to happen in one go...It'll be spread over a period of 5 years from what I heard.

But I would definitely encourage everyone to apply/respond to this! I've put my name forward as well because it has been an important issue for me over the year!

what would one exactly have to do on this panel... like i wouldn't mind just sitting in a listening. im not good at voicing my opinion (but ihave ideas). it might be kinda fun. I wanna scrap this SOLAR, its just too old, too ineffective but by the time we get a new system, I will have graduated :(

So, I know I was the one who posted this on here, but I really don't know anything other than what's posted I just saw this announcement on the Daily News: http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca /story.cfm?id=6903

McMaster registrar Richard Levin has announced that he has accepted a new position at the University of Toronto. Levin joined McMaster in 2008 and since then has been instrumental in McMaster's success in student recruitment and the development of both the admissions and records divisions.
"Richard has been a wonderful leader within the Registrar's Office and within the broader university," said Ilene Busch-Vishniac, provost and vice-president, Academic. "Together he and his staff have created a team that is committed to attracting the most qualified students to McMaster and to ensuring the Registrar's office provides the best possible service to students and the University."
Levin joins the U of T as executive director, Enrolment Services. He will continue his role at McMaster until the end of October.

Does anyone know if the Registrar's Student Advisory Group will still happen in his absence?

do you know if first-years can apply to be part of the RSAG?

Well the Registrar's office originally asked the MSU to round up these students; I'm assuming this Advisory Group would be like an open forum where you are allowed to voice your opinions and propose ideas, provide personal experiences and other such stuff. I'm not 100% certain if it would still continue(I do hope it does).

And rcmp sure, they asked for a wide spectrum of students so since you had your first contact with SOLAR recently you qualify as a unique entity?

What are my chances of getting 1 of these spots??? ( :