ConnectCarolina: Enterprise Resource Planning

The initial step that will lead to the first build in ConnectCarolina of the Schedule of Classes was successfully completed on Sept. 26-27, 2009, when the course catalog conversion took place. The load of the course catalog included 210,439 rows of data representing 27,148 distinct courses – the entire course inventory that was in the current Student Information System (SIS) going as far back as 1953. When this conversion is validated by the Office of the University Registrar, schedulers around campus will be able to begin building the Schedule of Classes for Fall 2010 (around the first week of October).

In addition, the migration of Ad Astra was completed on the same date. Ad Astra is a third-party product that the University uses for event-management and room-scheduling. A real-time interface between Ad Astra and ConnectCarolina complements the Schedule of Classes process:

• Schedulers enter class information (when the class is taking place, who is teaching the class, what the enrollment capacity is, etc.) into ConnectCarolina; this information flows into Ad Astra
• Schedulers enter room requirements (type, size, equipment, etc.) into Ad Astra, which assigns rooms; room assignments flow from Ad Astra into ConnectCarolina

Next steps in the Student Records implementation are:

• Program and plan – PeopleSoft-speak for degree programs and majors (scheduled to go live in late October) – all academic program and degree records in SIS back to 1953, including more than 1.4 million rows of data, almost 350,000 students and more than 250,000 awarded degrees.
• Conversion of the schedule of classes – all scheduled sections of classes in SIS back to 1953 – scheduled to be completed in mid-November
• Conversion of Student Enrollments records totaling more than 10.4 million records – scheduled to be completed in mid-November

All of these implementations are steps toward student registration for Fall 2010 that will take place in ConnectCarolina in spring 2010.