John B. Welty is President of California State University, Fresno

There continues to be considerable discussion about the implementation of the Comprehensive Management System (CMS) -- sometimes better known as PeopleSoft -- at the California State University. CMS seeks to establish an all-encompassing computer system for the entire 23-campus university system to improve services to students and the overall management of the university.
Questions have been raised about the need for the system and the system's cost. Others have asked whether CMS will meet the most pressing needs of the CSU. Some faculty and staff have been concerned about the system's complexity, security and the time needed to change over to new methods of record keeping.

It 'works well'

Our continuing experience with CMS at California State University, Fresno is that, overall, the system works well and has improved many essential services on campus -- especially those that are most important to our students.

That's not to say that the development of the CMS system hasn't presented many major challenges. Our staff has worked hard to tailor the new computer system to the unique aspects of our campus. We had particular difficulties with the shift of our financial aid records.

Much important work remains to be done in areas such as student advising. But even with all of the challenges, the net improvements to Fresno State's ability to better serve students are noteworthy.

Registering for new classes is the bane of many college students' existence at most universities. The new CMS system at Fresno State has transformed the registration experience for our students. Now, 83% of all of our students register via the CMS-based MyFresnoState Web portal. Students have 24-hour Web access to their personal academic information, which means they can check on class availability, confirm their registration, review their grades and access their student financial information any time they want.

The university's admissions process also has been improved. That means students receive notice of admission much more quickly, making it easier for community college students to transfer to the university and helping older students return to campus to complete their courses of study.

Conversion of the university's financial aid programs to the new CMS computer system posed extremely daunting challenges to our staff. Each student receiving financial aid represents a set of widely differing combinations of personal factors, including income, loan packages, residency issues and scholarships, to name just a few. Our staff worked diligently to sort through the problems, logging countless hours making the data on each student consistent and designing systems flexible enough to accurately reflect the individual needs of students.

Our spring semester this year showed dramatic improvement in our ability to disburse financial aid to students. In fact, $26.5 million in financial aid was provided prior to the beginning of the semester -- an amount higher than that disbursed using the old system during the Spring 2002 semester.

Steady improvements

Finally, the CMS system enables the university to unify a wide range of critical campus services such as accounting, human resources, finance management and payroll. Information is consistent throughout the campus, and matches similar data at the other CSU campuses. That means the CSU system can be better managed and students better served.

There is significant work to be done in the development of the system across the university, but improvements are steadily being made and will continue to be made in the future.

The big picture is that the CMS system has established a new framework for organizing the most important information on campus and at our fellow campuses across the state.

The California State University system is the largest university system in the world, with 23 campuses, 408,000 students and 44,000 faculty and staff. It is critical that the CSU has the information systems in place that will accommodate the needs of our students, faculty and staff today and in the future.

The work being done to establish that essential foundation is well under way, with Fresno State playing an important role as one of the pioneering campuses in the development of the new CMS system.

While the transition from our old computer system to a fully automated digital system has been trying, the rewards are being realized in a very real way each day by our students.