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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, February 18, 2002

Network to link UH campuses

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

The University of Hawai'i is about to commit to a $20 million systemwide student information network that for the first time will allow smooth and easy transfer among all 10 campuses — a divisive issue for the community colleges for years.

John Morton, a popular provost from Kapi'olani Community College, has been tapped to head the project he hopes will be up and running by the fall of 2003.

"If you're not doing this now, you're not competitive," said Morton, who has moved into an office at Bachman Hall on the UH campus. "It's trying to empower the students by putting information in their hands."

The community colleges have long complained about the difficulties in transferring from the two-year community colleges to the four-year Manoa campus. Some staff have commented that it's easier for the students to transfer to Brigham-Young University or Hawai'i Pacific University than to UH-Manoa.

Chancellors, recognizing the problem, began a concerted effort last October to move toward an integrative system, with Morton chairing the task force.

"What he's going to do will really help to make our 10 campuses truly function as a unified system," said Joyce Tsunoda, senior vice president and chancellor for the community colleges, "so student information, transfer and registration will be done as smoothly as possible."

All students who transfer between campuses must have their applications and other information entered into a new computer system by hand. That will change with the new system, Morton said, allowing a single entry point into a single data base.

"It means that a student at one community college would be able to say, 'Gee, that class at Honolulu Community College is filled, and I notice there's one at Leeward,' and then will be able to sign up for that without going through the bureaucracy."

Students also will be able to monitor the progress of their applications from any personal computer.

Morton said UH is close to signing a contract with a vendor, SCT of Malvern, Pa., one of the three largest in the country that provides information systems to educational institutions.

Five years ago Morton headed a similar, ill-fated effort, only to have the vendor, Buzzeo, go out of business.

The university spent $4.7 million on that contract.

"You can do low-cost," Morton said, "but the lower the cost, the higher the risk. So you're always trading off one for the other. We went into that realizing that, for the money we had available and the marketplace then, that was a reasonable decision. If it had succeeded it would have been a brilliant decision."

Much of the planning and needs analysis that went into that effort will be useful now, Morton said.

The estimated $20 million cost for the project is considered the "low end" of the price range, he said. Information networks for institutions as large as UH can run as high as $30 million, he said.

This effort has been endorsed by UH President Evan Dobelle as one of the university's highest priorities, and was listed as a necessary and crucial step by UH consultant Linda Campanella. Her mid-November report to the Board of Regents recommended that the university move forward on the project immediately.

"In ... bringing the UH system into the 21st century, the first order of priority must be bringing on line a student information system," she said.

"Use tuition fund monies earmarked for technology to launch this project and supplement these funds with discretionary special and revolving funds as necessary to complete the project on an accelerated basis," she advised.

Chief Financial Officer J.R.W. "Wick" Sloane is responsible for coming up with the money to pay for the system, which Morton said could be financed in a variety of ways over several years. The cost covers payment to the vendor, buying the data base and hardware and freeing up university personnel to make it work.

Morton noted that any student applying to enter the UH system this fall will be using the new system.

"Within six months the first pieces will be able to happen," he said.

Morton could be working on the reassignment for a year, said Tsunoda. "I'll be on loan until I know this is going to be working," Morton said.

An acting provost for KCC has not yet been named.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.