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Student Information Management System (SIMS) and Student UseR Friendly System (SURFS) Web Enabled Applications

April 2003

Objective: To provide a Student Information Management System (SIMS) that effectively supports an optimal level of student service across UMB schools and central service offices. The system will manage student processes, including those related to pre-application, application, admission, enrollment, progression, and academic history. It will maintain a central, electronic repository of current and historical student data. SIMS will provide the tools for optimizing services to students and for making management decisions intended to enhance the academic and administrative quality of the institution.

Phase I Completed: Phase I was successfully implemented in calendar year 2001. This provided the campus with a contemporary system to manage Admissions, Registration, Academic History, Financial Aid, and Accounts Receivable. After going live with the first set of modules, the Recruitment module has been completed as well as all of the reports requested by schools and central service departments. The next phase of the SIMS Project provides web-based services to students - SURFS.

Phase II Web for Student Registration- Completed tasks: In preparation for the Web for Student (WFS) module, Banner version 5 was implemented in April 2002, enabling the system to use the most current features of the Oracle database system. WFS permits students to access their grades, unofficial transcripts, course schedules, to register, etc. Following the version 5 upgrade, the WFS module was installed and the implementation team worked to become familiar with the product. Demonstrations were arranged for the user community and plans for implementation were developed. July and August of 2002 saw configuration, testing, and roll out of the first modules. Mock registration was conducted with the School of Nursing (SON) and in November, web-based registration for students in SON and selected Graduate School programs was conducted.

Phase II Web for Student Registration - In Progress tasks:

Dec 2002 - April 2003:
Began working with the schools of Law, Social Work, Pharmacy, and the Dental Hygiene Program on implementing web registration for Summer and Fall 2003. In April, 2003 implementation of this functionality began.

Phase III Web for Student Admissions - In Progress tasks:

Beginning Feb 2003:
The applications group began meetings to review the Web Admissions module. A Technical White Paper has been developed outlining the general steps required to implement web admissions.

A detail plan has been developed and the Web Admissions Team plans to begin the implementation process on April 14th.

Communications Groups: President, Deans, Vice Presidents, School Student Affairs staffs, Central Service Offices that deal with students.

Ultimate Goal: To provide a state-of-the-art, fully web-based student information management system to the schools, central service offices, and students of the University of Maryland Baltimore that meets all business and process needs.