Philip Zoppi – General Assignment Reporter
We all know the feeling. You’re frantically logging in and out of Banner Web on registration morning with no success. The IT department is working so that you never have to have that feeling again.
David Sieser, director of Enterprise Applications at Southern, has put in hours upon hours of work the past nine months to get rid of the problems students have with registering.
“We’ve revamped the whole infrastructure,” said Sieser. “Hopefully we have ameliorated much of the bottle necks that have been occurring in the past.”
Sieser was not alone in his efforts to make signing up for classes an easier process. John Jaser, director of Systems and Infrastructure, has been working at this too.
“Unscientifically I’d say that we’re now four to eight times faster than the hardware that we were on,” said Jaser. “It’s state-of-the-art. No corners were cut on procuring the equipment in this process.”
IT had been working with hardware that was several generations old. That was part of the reason why not everyone could get onto the site at the same time.
These people care very deeply about students being able to get the classes they need in order to graduate. They all understand that students need certain classes and cannot wait for them.
For one of the IT workers it really hits home when Banner Web isn’t working because that means his son, who goes to Southern, cannot get the classes he needs either.
That man is Kevin Zibluk, Project Manager here at Southern. His son is currently a senior.
Zibluk graduated and received his master’s from Southern and has worked here ever since. Southern is a very special place for him and he wants nothing more than for the process of registering for classes to be less stressful.
“I take Southern very seriously. I bleed blue,” said Zibluk. “When the system doesn’t work it’s very personal to me. It means my son can’t get his classes. It also means my son’s friends that desperately need to get certain classes can’t get theirs.”
These three particular men have been working for the past nine months to make Banner Web an easier process for all.
They still do believe there is a chance for students to not be able to get their classes when they want due to the MYSCSU part of logging in, though. That part of the system has not been updated. Jaser isn’t overly concerned about this but he knows it could cause problems.
“One important thing is the MYSCSU part of it has not been updated,” said Jaser. “There is still risk there. 90 percent of this has been updated and is brand new.”
Sieser said that the process of updating the rest of the system is not that easy to do and that there’s a lot that goes along with it.
“It can create a bottleneck. It’s very complex and is our portal,” said Sieser. “We’re replacing things as we go and can’t just rip everything apart.”
On top of all that they’re working on a backup plan so that if any of this goes wrong they will have something to fix it fast.
They expect for the system to be completely updated in about a year. They’re all very excited for this and think registering will be a pleasant experience for students when they’re finally finished.
So, next time you register remember that these three men are doing all they can to help you get the classes that you need.
Photo Credit: Staff Photo – MYSCSU website
