By
Shana Heiser
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Cosmos team of 40 working to change financial aid, registration, billing services
The Cosmos system will replace the 15-year-old Student Information System, making it easier for UA students to navigate through financial aid, registration and billing, among other things.
"The current system is on a very old technology base," said Phyllis Bannister, Cosmos project manager.
The new system, when completed in three years, will enable students to conduct more school-related business on the Internet, said Bannister.
"It's going to create functions from admissions to registering for classes to accepting or rejecting financial aid and making payments," she said. "Students will be able to receive and send e-mail to any office they'd like and have their financial aid checks automatically deposited to their accounts."
Administrative offices and faculty also use the SIS daily to carry out necessary functions of the university. With the replacement of the SIS, the school will run more smoothly, Bannister said.
"It has a lot do with the everyday business that students will transact," she said. "SIS supports the functions of admitting students to the university, registering and offering the curriculum, providing financial aid and billing and collecting payments from students."
The implementation team is made up of about 40 people from the offices of admission, registration, financial aid, Bursar's, graduate college and the extended university. They carry out the daily work to replace the old system, said Bannister.
"They are completely rethinking how services are delivered in all areas," she said.
UA students have been involved in the process which began in March, but last year's participants left and spots need to be filled.
"Right now we're recruiting for students," Bannister said. "If students want to join this they can hit the comments button and let us know how to contact them and what kind of assistance they can give."
The role of UA students will be to review ideas and report from a viewpoint administrators cannot experience.
"(Students will) tell us which processes are the worst from a student's point of view so we can prioritize streamlining those," Bannister said.
The possibility of a more easily navigated computerized system sounds enticing, said Stacy Lees, a communication junior.
"If it was offered to me at no charge, I would take advantage of it, because right now we have to call people and talk to them and it's a huge process," she said. "If you can get it all answered from your home, it's great."
Samir Wali, a computer science freshman, said he is more skeptical about the added convenience of a completely new SIS.
"I don't think it would really make a difference," he said. "The more convenient you make it for people to use, the more people will like it. I presume not everything is going to work out the way you like it."
Currently, most complaints from students concern transfer applications and changing majors. Bannister said the new SIS will simplify these processes.
"The way we handle transfer evaluations is very cumbersome right now and difficult to get a final answer," she said. "Another example would be the current SAPRs (Student Academic Progress Report). If you wanted to, say, change your major and look at how much coursework would apply, it's still cumbersome. We want to make that available to you 24 hours a day on the Web."
