To the Editor:
In reading your Wednesday editorial, "OASIS Program Outdated, Inefficient", I recognized that many students share your concern about the usefulness and outdated nature of the course registration program. To be honest, I feel like I am typing in the nuclear codes to a weapons system or opening up the original DOS version of Oregon Trail every time I log on, and all of us at Vanderbilt Student Government recognize the need for improving the method by which students register for courses. In the past few months, we have been part of a discussion within the administration about reforming the system for a newer, more efficient model that would allow for drop-down menus of classes, search by professor functions, and a cleaner user interface. Having seen the OASIS reforms on the way, I am excited that change is coming, albeit very slowly.
The vast nature of Vanderbilt's IT network makes replacing OASIS difficult. If OASIS were not so highly integrated with other university databases, then the replacement would be relatively easy, as the Office of the Provost could simply purchase a new registration system from a higher education vendor and patch it into our academic enrollment system. But our network is much more complicated, interweaving student course load information through databases in financial aid eligibility, housing, student health, enrollment management and university schedules and reservations. Nearly every element of the student life cycle is connected with the OASIS system, and because our course offerings are so numerous and OASIS's interconnectivity with other IT systems is so complex, a replacement system solution must be custom built and carefully integrated.
The patches take time to create and the maze of connections within the internal network makes this process quite time-consuming. University administrators have brought in a consulting firm to determine the best method for creating a new course registration program and hired Director of Enrollment Management and Information Systems Lori Shipley as project manager to oversee the implementation of a new system. While progress is underway, the OASIS reforms may not be completely updated for several months.
In the meantime, students should take advantage of the new online course syllabi finder on OAK to learn more about the expectations of potential classes and encourage their professors to add syllabi to the database in order for us to gain a more comprehensive listing of courses. This improvement to the OAK offerings, as well as more improvements scheduled to take place in the spring, should help ease the course registration process for students until a new system is fully in place. We invite students to share their concerns or ideas for improvement of the system with us, and plan to continue pushing for a replacement to our archaic OASIS system as soon as it can be designed and integrated into our university's IT network.
Wyatt Smith
Executive Vice President
Vanderbilt Student Government
