Gary Newsom holds a sign celebrating the fourth and final software release and go-live date of the new Banner system at Purdue University.

Purdue North Central also is releasing Banner, although its implementation schedule and functionality is slightly different than that at West Lafayette.

The University is using Banner to prepare for the fall 2008 semester. All faculty and students will access it through the new myPurdue Internet portal beginning July 21.

Among its numerous features, the faculty will be able to post grades online and assign plus/minus grades, and students will have the ability to drop and add classes — and register for them online — from any computer, day and night.

“These new systems will allow our students to manage a variety of data with just a click of a mouse,” said Provost Randy Woodson at a June 10 ceremony commemorating the software launch. “Banner is already making it easier for students receiving financial aid.”

Several University leaders from both West Lafayette and North Central spoke at the event, including Woodson; Morgan R. Olsen, executive vice president and treasurer; Pam Horne, dean of admissions; North Central Chancellor James Dworkin; and Tom Robinson, vice president for student services.

OnePurdue Executive Director Gary Newsom emphasized that though one chapter of the project is closing, work will continue on an ongoing basis to continually improve the new systems.

“There is no finish line,” Newsom said. “We have laid a good foundation, and now will continue to build on it to make sure that OnePurdue remains a cutting-edge system that evolves with Purdue and meets its needs.”

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OnePurdue launching new student systems

Although Banner’s official “go-live” date is July 7, it’s a little more complicated than that, said Rita Clifford, the Enrollment and Student Affairs (ESA) team lead.

“Not all functions will be immediately available July 7. We’ll be rolling out most of it over the course of the following two weeks,” she said. (The Academic History and Degree Audit features will be released in October.)

There are three important dates to remember, Clifford said: July 3, 7 and 21.

Purdue North Central (PNC) also is implementing Banner.

“PNC is an active partner in OnePurdue and will be going live in July with Banner,” said Larry Barrett, vice chancellor for enrollment management and student services. “Its implementation schedule and functionality, however, is slightly different than that at West Lafayette.” (For more information about Banner at PNC, contact Barrett at lbarrett@pnc.edu.)

At 5 p.m. July 3, just before the Independence Day holiday weekend, a “freeze” will be put on student-related business transactions at the West Lafayette campus, said University Registrar Bob Kubat. “At that point, we will no longer process anything for the fall semester under the old system.” Registration for fall semester will stop, too, but will recommence July 21 — using Banner.

From July 7 to July 21, Banner will be used primarily by staff in Admissions, Office of the Registrar, Enrollment and the Bursar’s Office in West Lafayette, while the system undergoes final “validation.”

This process will cover a number of last-minute checks, Clifford said, including verifying that the fall schedules were converted properly into the Banner system and that course information is accurate.

Banner training also is currently being planned, and information on how to register for classes should be available in early June, said Connie Bilyeu, director of training for ITaP Customer Relations. “We’ve put together a tentative training calendar, but this is a working document and subject to change.”

The calendar, course catalog and other information can be accessed from this page:
http://www.purdue.edu/onepurdue/training/esatraining.shtml.

“July 21 is the date that will be important to most people in West Lafayette,” Clifford said. “That’s when the system will be made available to all faculty and students, in addition to staff who will use Banner in their jobs.”

The most visible aspect of this will be the widespread release of myPurdue, the Internet portal through which all West Lafayette faculty and students will access Banner and its self-services. (PNC’s Banner portal is called myPNC.) This will have an immediate impact on students, who will then be able to register for and drop and add their fall classes.

Several Informational resources about Banner and myPurdue, including online demonstrations and presentations, are available on the OnePurdue Web site here:
http://www.purdue.edu/onepurdue/about/secure/index.shtml. (You will need to enter your Career Account username and password to access this page.)

“This is not only the last piece of OnePurdue,” Kubat said, “but also the part that will impact the most number of people, including all faculty and students.

“A lot of people have worked hard to make this happen, and we’re going to build on this foundation to keep improving the system over time.”

General questions about Banner and myPurdue can be sent to onepurdue@purdue.edu. If you need specific help accessing or using myPurdue, contact the ITaP Customer Service Center at:

E-mail: itap@purdue.edu
Phone: (765) 494-4000
Online: www.itap.purdue.edu/help

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OnePurdue counts down to final Banner release

Most services were back up by 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Technicians report that ITaP’s virtualized SAN central file storage environment has experienced problems, resulting in the recent wide-spread outages of services and applications.

A virtualized SAN allows a collection of different kinds of physical storage devices to act and appear as one kind of storage that supports ITaP applications and services. The infrastructure that makes this virtualization possible has been operational at Purdue for about a year, and ITaP technicians report it has had minimal issues.

Mike Rubesch, executive director for IT Systems and Operations, says, “The quick actions of the IT staff to shut down failing components prevented the loss of data and transactions.”

More than 60 IT staff have been working in shifts around-the-clock to troubleshoot, recover data, restore services, and mitigate the impact of the outages. They have been working with 10 technical consultants flown in by the vendor and dozens of other support staff around the world to resolve this issue.

Vice President for Information Technology and CIO Gerry McCartney says, “ITaP staff came together quickly and effectively to minimize the impacts of the outages. I appreciate the sustained and professional efforts of many over the last few days.”

Now that services are restored, ITaP will take steps to prevent future issues with the SAN environment. This may involve moving crucial services like Banner, SAP, and Blackboard Vista from the virtualized SAN environment onto alternate storage systems.

Jeff Whitten, vice president of IT Enterprise Applications, says, “We understand how frustrating it is to lose access to information applications and services. We are deeply appreciative to faculty, staff, and students for their patience, and for helping us understand priorities as we strived to recover vital applications and services as quickly as possible.”

For updated information on the availability of ITaP services, browse to http://www.itap.purdue.edu/infrastructure/operations/change/calendar.cfm.

To receive outage notification system alerts about specific applications and services, go to http://www.itap.purdue.edu/infrastructure/operations/change and follow the link “Service Notification Sign Up.”

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ITaP services restored yesterday after major outage