Hey all,
So as expected MUGSI/SOLAR have become a debated topic again during MSU Presidential elections with each candidate mentioning it in various capacities. To clear up some potential misinformation that might be floating around and make it easier for voters I've made this thread to copypaste the not so widely read SRA Blog.
For starters it is quite obvious that most students are dissatisfied with the ease of registration when it comes to using MUGSI/SOLAR. From negative feedback online forums like MacInsiders to Facebook. On a more official capacity, McMaster has consistently also been in the bottom of Globe & Mail annual Report Card. It was at the bottom in both 2010 and 2011 report with C- as compared to very decent scores in almost all other categories of student experience.
My research on these issues is a memory locker of over a year of contacting the registrar’s office, UTS & admin for information and creeping up senate, board of governors and UPC document public documents wherever student records systems is mentioned.
In the past year I’ve met with both the head of UTS(CIO John Kearney) & Registrar’s office(Richard Levin) twice and apart from that was invited as the student representative to focus groups like the Registrar’s Advisory Group & the one held by Gartner Consulting in April for the purposes of their IT Infrastructure review of McMaster.
[Gartner Consulting was a world renowned consulting firm that specializes in analyzing the state of Information Technology Infrastructure and providing one time recommendations. They were at McMaster for a few months early on in the year and published a report in the summer that will be released sometime in 2011 to public.]
I’ll try and summarize what I know. SOLAR/MUGSI has existed in its current form since the 90’s, it is based on a highly antiquated infrastructure that has been patched up over the years as an alternative to solution to overhaul. Lack of prioritization and funding were some of the reasons, followed by exponential rise in student enrollment; made worse by the double cohort. I can assume the administration probably never anticipated such a rise in numbers and whether the system will be able to support it in the long run.
Even otherwise there is a devil’s advocate argument that experiences with MUGSI do not directly affect quality of education, because at the end of the day the courses do get filled up even if the system of allocation is not exactly fair and a completely arbitrary lottery.
Until this year McMaster also was the last school within the Canadian G-13 to conduct a technology evaluation, this year however the new CIO John Kearney as part of his Vision 2020 plan(can be found on his webpage) identified a systems renewal plan. They hired Gartner consulting who conducted a thorough evaluation of our systems and came up with report of recommendations and deficiencies.As mentioned earlier it will be made public in 2011.
Also as of writing based on the recommendations of the Gartner report an RFP has been put out for a vendor to carry out a systems renewal for which the administration in the 2010/2011 budget allocated $25 Million over a period of 5 years. More about that in the next post.
So students can expect some form of change or movement in the next few years, but there are no concrete timelines since we are still in the hiring process for the various companies and individuals required for systems renewal.
You can also find the Vision 2020 presentation to the Board of Governors here:
http://www.mcmaster.ca/univsec/mtgdocs/board/B_MTG_17Jun10.pdf, it starts at page 171.
As of writing the
Systems Renewal Steering Committee has met twice since its inception in Fall 2010. It will be meeting on a bi weekly basis throughout 2011.
For example in February I already have four 3 hour interviews scheduled to hire the Director and am contributing to the RFP scoring process for the consultancy firm.
It is composed of stakeholders from all over campus: Finance & Accounts, Research, Faculty, Registrar’s Office, UTS & Finally one official student representative as appointed by the MSU which happens to be myself. Additionally MSU President Mary Koziol will be attending in an observer’s capacity.
There are three identified sections and advisory sub-committees; Namely Academic & Student Records(MUGSI Comes under this), Research & Finance. Student records thankfully will be getting the upgrades as first priority.
Its first priority would be to short list and hire the different constituents of this project. Those are:
1) Project Director
2) Systems Integration Consulting Firm
3) Finally the Software Provider for the new IT System.
The hiring processes for some of these have already indirectly begun and interviews, presentations, town halls and so on will be conducted till the end of 2011 and possibly early into 2012.
Admittedly a large part of these meetings and the process is somewhat unrelated to my position as a student representative, because so far it seems to be dealing with the internal operations of the university and identifying best practices. However all credit to the administration I still have equal speaking rights as well as a vote in hiring of the aforementioned parties.
Similarly I anticipate a stronger role later on by working in collaboration with the hired parties to design a intuitive and more student friendly student records system. I will also be advertising any open houses or focus groups for student input.
Similarly to make the whole process more codified I will also be looking to author a preliminary policy on MSU's stance on what the next registration system should incorporate either by the end of March or by the end of Summer 2011.
I understand that this process seems a bit slow and its benefits might even be too late for a few of us who are graduating next year or after; but I am coming to realize the logistical challenges of carrying out such a project by being in these meetings. These changes will coincide directly with the vital day to day operations of different departments and subsequently they have to find a balance.
I will keep you guys updated with as many details as I’m allowed to publicly reveal, keeping in consideration hiring process bylaw tend to be closed session for the most part.
Regards,
Huzaifa Saeed
Systems Renewal Committee Voting Student Representative 2010-2013
