As the Oracle Corporation pursues its bid to buy PeopleSoft Inc., colleges that have spent millions of dollars on PeopleSoft software to manage their institutions are upset and angry. Administrators want reassurance that they have not wasted those millions if the Oracle takeover succeeds.

With the hostile takeover attempt now in its third week, Oracle "has not done a very good job of marketing their efforts or their motivations," said David O'Neill, director of information technology at Boise State University.

PeopleSoft has sued Oracle to try to block the takeover (The Chronicle, June 27).

Oracle has been telling PeopleSoft customers that it wants them to switch to Oracle's own business software, which makes it appear that Oracle wants to buy PeopleSoft and "kick everybody down the stairs," Mr. O'Neill said. "That's not been my experience with Oracle in the past, so I really don't understand."

But the public comments of Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle's chairman and chief executive officer, have hardly been reassuring, Mr. O'Neill said.

Many colleges, including Boise State, have enjoyed a good relationship with Oracle as a database company, Mr. O'Neill said. Some of the colleges, for example, use Oracle's database technology for storing data from financial-aid and payroll transactions within their institution's PeopleSoft administrative-computing systems.

Michael Sperling, a senior public-relations manager for Oracle, said that it would be "premature" for Oracle to discuss future support for specific PeopleSoft products, such as the Student Administration system that many large colleges now use to manage their students' academic and financial records.

"We're not commenting on a specific-product level at this time," he said.

Mr. Sperling also advised PeopleSoft customers to check Oracle's Web site for updates. The Web site now states that "Oracle will continue to develop and improve PeopleSoft's products for at least the next 10 years -- even longer, if customers require further support."

Only two American colleges are using Oracle Student System -- the State University of New York College at Buffalo and the University of San Diego. Eleven others have purchased the software, and six of them are in the process of installing it, Mr. Sperling said.

By contrast, the PeopleSoft higher-education user group says that hundreds of campuses use PeopleSoft's competing software, Student Administration.

For colleges that have already spent millions on software and consulting to install PeopleSoft systems, the prospect of having to spend more, if an Oracle takeover forces them to change, is "kind of scary," said Bernard W. Gleason, Internet-strategy consultant in the executive vice president's office at Boston College. "It's really unhealthy what's happening."

The University of Connecticut has allocated $20-million so far for new PeopleSoft systems and is halfway through its installation of the Student Administration system. It has also purchased PeopleSoft's Human Resources software but has not yet installed it.

The university is backing an antitrust lawsuit against Oracle, which Connecticut's attorney general and other state officials filed last week. The state is in the midst of a $100-million conversion of its central computer systems to PeopleSoft's software. The attorney general and the state controller "are in the driver's seat on this one, and we're supporting them," says Randy M. Bell, the university's vice chancellor for information services.

Besides Connecticut, other colleges that put millions of public dollars into PeopleSoft systems are feeling uneasy.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System, with 26 colleges and 65 campuses, has spent $14-million to convert all of its core administrative systems to PeopleSoft. Over the Fourth of July weekend, the college system will upgrade its student-, personnel-, and donor-management systems to PeopleSoft 8, the latest version of the software.

North Dakota is well along toward completing a $30-million PeopleSoft project that includes all state agencies and the 11-college North Dakota University System.

Administrators at affected institutions say they not only are unhappy about Oracle's attempt to buy PeopleSoft, but they also are puzzled by the "in your face" manner in which Oracle has gone about it. "I don't think it's been smartly handled," said Mr. Bell, the Connecticut vice chancellor.

In fact, few college administrators see anything good for their campuses in an Oracle takeover of PeopleSoft. "We don't think it will be to our benefit," said Jon Hesseldenz, vice president for information technology for the Kentucky system. "I think we'd find it disruptive almost immediately."

Some administrators are concerned that their colleges would not get the same service or attention from Oracle, a much larger company, as they receive from PeopleSoft. Even with a company the size of PeopleSoft, "it's difficult" to be heard, said Mr. O'Neill, the information-technology director at Boise State.

Others, like Ilee Rhimes, chief information officer at Ohio State University's Columbus campus, are worried about higher prices and about whether Oracle would make decisions that would force institutions away from PeopleSoft's products.

Some chief information officers say that it has taken their institutions nearly five years to reach a point where they are starting to see a return on their investment in PeopleSoft products. And they worry that a hostile takeover could nix the gains in efficiency that they are only now beginning to realize. A takeover that might jeopardize the quality or quantity of PeopleSoft's products "simply reduces our opportunity for the return that we'd initially expected," Mr. O'Neill said.

If Oracle were to acquire PeopleSoft and do nothing more to enhance the software, colleges could probably operate for a while, Mr. Hesseldenz said. "I think we would have about four years where we could live without enhancements and continue to run PeopleSoft." But after four or five years, he said, the technology would become outdated, and colleges would need to look for alternatives.

If Oracle wins its takeover bid and PeopleSoft users feel they are forced to find an alternative to PeopleSoft, colleges would still have a few other options besides Oracle, administrators say. SAP America Inc., the SCT Corporation, Datatel Inc., and Jenzabar Inc. also make software for running colleges.

"You can bet if things turned out that way," said Grant Crawford, chief information officer for the North Dakota system, "Oracle would not be among the favored few."