The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Live, on April 4, it's Banner! Saint Louis University students, faculty and staff will soon utilize Banner, the new system replacing WebSTAR.

"WebSTAR was very badly outdated," said Ellen Watson, VP of Information Technology Services. "We had been holding it together with prayers, chewing gum, bailing wire and more prayers."

"The database behind it is 20 years old," said John Jaffry, Registrar. The new Banner system will allow for easier access and faster responses, he said. "No longer will you receive the 'system unavailable' message."

WebSTAR was not designed to be accessed by large groups of people at one time, or at their convenience, Watson said. "The system was used to translate old info to the Web, so anytime time there was a change, the link could be broken."

The unavailability of WebSTAR at the beginning of this spring semester, making it impossible for students to log on to retrieve class schedules, is one such hassle that is expected to be eliminated with the implementation of the Banner system.

Banner is a relational database, allowing direct user access and control, Watson said. "There is load balancing. If one server goes down, it does not all go down."

In addition, Banner brings together all elements of what is now WebFAC, WebPRO, along with WebSTAR. The system will automatically recognize whether you are a faculty, student only, student worker, etc. and make available what you need access to, Jaffry said.

"It's really so similar you won't notice the difference," he said. "Most of the changes are in the main database, accessed by the administration in control."

Some advancements were made, such as additional search options available for the selection of courses and the opportunity for instructors to attach course syllabi to the class description, Jaffry said.

The training process for faculty and advisers began last December. A load test was attempted at the start of February, but not enough individuals logged on to properly mimic a registration-day load.

"It's hard to get 500-600 people to bang against the system at once," Watson said.

"It would be possible to do another load test prior to registration," Jaffry said.

In the meantime, all functions are being tested in a mock version.

The registrar's office has various promotions and training sessions planned for the weeks leading up to the April 4 registration day, to ensure that all students know how to use Banner.

WebSTAR will still be accessible until mid summer until all records can be transferred, Jaffry said, although Banner will be used for all new inputs.

Article Tools