Quote:
Originally Posted by jo87
I don't have a problem with it at all. If they are going to change anything it should be Solar, that thing creates stress for every student Im sure.
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Hey Jo,
As I have explained on numerous threads(Including earlier on in this thread) they cannot "change" SOLAR and Mugsi according to the direct conversations I have had with the Chief Information Officer and the head of the registrars office separately.
Since it is a sensitive system that directly deals with student records and other interdepartmental issues the ONLY way the university can do anything about it is by investing
$20-25 million dollars into the overall IT infrastructure of McMaster. Which is definitely not happening in the next few years given our predicted $40 Million dollar university budget deficit.
MUSS & MUGSI both come under that IT system overhaul, however the distinction is that MUSS is replaceable by an innovative solution that has proven to be very successful all over more prestigious USA universities & Two universities in Canada.
I am currently investigating solutions like Cloud Computing for MUGSI/SOLAR and in the official Letter the CIO wrote for the MSU he said is open to the idea of investigating it but in reality that is another fight for another day.
And Danny no the student fees won't go down but that is just a pessimistic way of looking at things, the other way to look at it is that it will free up money for UTS that has been a victim of budget cuts like all university departments on campus. They can re appropriate it to other areas and possibly even use the server bandwidth to aid student records, accounting, financial office or even Mugsi.
Quite often in the past SRA has been heavily criticized for doing nothing that is directly relevant to students and that criticism probably was warranted, but myself and Mr Leitch here are new SRA reps trying to change that by directly attacking something that we can push for in the short term. There are issues the SRA cannot touch, we cannot get the $20 Million for MUGSI Solar but this is instead a solution that sounds feasible. I sincerely hope everyone reading can think of the potential it has rather then the current bandaid solution you guys prefer(Forwarding) while your tuition is still being used for MUSS; while at the same time not forgetting the majority of students who don't have email forwarding or any collaborative tools or access to a centralized calendar.