Fresno State should halt its estimated $18.4 million transition to an Internet-based software system, union representatives say, and invest the money instead in students' instruction.

The calls come as some state legislators attempt to exert tightened control over the California State University system's information technology purchases and as CSU trustees consider a 30% tuition increase. The money from the fee increase would help the university system, the largest in the United States, offset decreased financial support from the state, which is mired in an estimated $38 billion budget deficit.

"Fresno State is already anticipating layoffs," said professor Robert Merrill, chapter president of the California Faculty Association, a union that represents about half the faculty on campus. "Some on the staff [non-teaching] side have already been called. Certainly, there will be a large increase in class sizes, and a few of the smaller classes will be eliminated."

In light of such forced economies, Merrill and the CFA have called for reallocation of money going toward the new PeopleSoft software, or Common Management System, designed to eventually link all parts of the CSU system. The system is supposed to handle student records, financial data and personnel and administrative information among all 23 campuses in the system plus CSU headquarters in Long Beach.

The system has been criticized in some quarters at California State University, Fresno, other CSU campuses and in the Legislature.

Complaints have included delays in student financial aid, lack of system security that allowed unauthorized sharing of confidential information and delays in registration.

The Legislature ordered an audit of the system and the procedure used by CSU to select PeopleSoft. Lawmakers received a critical report in March from the auditor's office that said the CSU Chancellor's Office had failed to "ensure that the expenditure of university resources is worthwhile."

The criticisms of PeopleSoft and the software system are far from unanimous, and the calls to halt Fresno State's conversion to the new system come too late, said Paul Oliaro, vice president for student affairs and dean of students. Oliaro oversees issues relating to the new system on campus.

"We are past the point of no return," he said. "We have implemented much of the system's functionality and are nearing the end of our conversion."

Oliaro admits that more problems may lie ahead, including the attempted takeover of PeopleSoft by Oracle Corp.

"We obviously hope to keep their support and maintenance," he said of PeopleSoft. "We expect PeopleSoft to do that, but the future would be unknown to all institutions served by PeopleSoft" should Oracle acquire it.

The faculty union's criticism of the system is not unanimous among CFA members.

John A. Cagle, a Fresno State communications professor, serves on a campus information and educational technology committee overseen by university President John Welty and on an Academic Senate technology committee. Cagle is a CFA member and helped form the Fresno State CFA chapter. He defends the new software system despite difficulties with its start-up.

Fresno State is one of three CSU campuses taking part in a pilot program for the software transition.

"I personally support what our university has done and what CSU has done," Cagle said. The new system "has performed pretty well. ... I think it is an immense improvement over the previous system."

The state auditor's report on the PeopleSoft system projected its cost at almost $662 million throughout the university's campuses and headquarters through 2006-07. The report listed Fresno State's costs at roughly $10.7 million for the investment plus

$7.7 million for projected maintenance and operations.

University spokesman Mark Aydelotte said officials at Fresno State arrived at the same $18.4 million figure, but that it applies to overall computer system costs from 2001 through 2007. Of that total, the costs attributed to the software system will amount to $6.1 million, he said.

The cost estimates have become more sensitive with the state budget crisis.

Assembly Member Manny Diaz, D-San Jose, asked this month for a moratorium on spending for the system statewide.

"To raise fees on students while the school is misspending almost $100 million is unconscionable," he said.

Diaz said a spending suspension would allow reallocation of about $92 million from the software system into student programs over the coming school year.

The state Assembly has approved Diaz's bill, AB 491, which would increase state oversight of CSU's spending on information technology. That bill awaits action in the Senate Education Committee.

Vonda Epperson, Fresno State chapter president of the California State Employees Association, which represents about 700 campus health-care workers, custodians, office staffers and technicians at Fresno State, said the union supports Diaz's bill.

"The CSU has no business plan, no cost control. That's why we need [AB] 491," she said.

Oliaro makes clear that a halt to Fresno State's CMS system is highly unlikely, but questions linger about the new system's worth.

Professor Henderson Yeung, chairman of Fresno State's computer science department, did not participate in the CMS selection. His expertise is in the hardware end of computer work, while the CMS is a software information system processed by hardware computers.

Nonetheless, Yeung gave his opinion about the CMS issue, based on his computer knowledge. He calls CMS "the Holy Grail" of software that makes technical sense.

"Having said that," Yeung said, "there are questions about cost and whether PeopleSoft is the right company. There is a big political storm, and computer people are not the right people to ask.

"Fabulous systems are costly and take a long time" to adjust and get working right, he said.

Fresno State is doing a favor for the entire CSU system by volunteering as a pilot campus, Yeung said.

"There will be tremendous positive benefits when the system is complete," he said, "and pain before."