CA - Computer Woes Irk Many Community College Students

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Sunday, June 25, 2000 3:01 AM MST Computer woes irk many community college students

Ohlone College is not alone with system problems

By Tanya Smith STAFF WRITER

FREMONT -- The same computer system that has frustrated students and faculty at Ohlone College off and on since it was installed last year has caused difficulty at several other California community colleges.

Ohlone administrators say the glitches are being worked out of their $1.5 million system, Datatel, and they expect the system will operate more smoothly when the installation process is completed by the end of the year.

In April, Ohlone deans declared the college to be in a state of crisis, in part because financial statements had become confusing after Datatel began tracking the school's accounts in January.

Administrators in the college business office say the problem is being solved by computer support staffers, who are close to closing the communication gap between Datatel and the old accounting system.

Glitches causing erroneous student account balances during summer registration have been fixed, said Ron Travenick, director of admissions and records. He said he has been pleased by the recent operation of Datatel, which has made it easier for professors teaching full sections to add waiting students when other students drop.

Ohlone decided to install Datatel after realizing its previous computer system for handling student data was not Y2K compliant.

"We didn't really have a choice," President Floyd Hogue said, adding that the college would not have been able to send out transcripts last January had it not installed Datatel.

"We had to go to a Y2K compatible system. We had to make a decision," he said.

Other schools, including Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill and San Bernardino Valley College, also have had problems after installing Datatel.

Datatel glitches wreaked havoc at Diablo Valley College last year when the new system could not communicate with an old system handling students' grades. Hundreds of student transcript requests were backed up, said Gaye Ostarello, president of the faculty senate.

Ostarello said one dedicated administrator took home dozens of transcripts and calculated GPAs by hand to meet deadlines; still, many other transcripts were sent late to scholarship agencies and colleges accepting transfer students.

Ostarello said it appears the problems have been fixed.

At San Bernardino Valley College, lines around the admissions office became three and four hour hours long when Datatel began running student registration during late 1999, said Paul Rubalcaba, the school's director of marketing and public relations.

Because Datatel did not allow students to use credit cards to pay for classes over the phone, they had to pay in person, he said. After registration, administrators threw a party for students, passing out cake and buttons reading, "I survived Fall Semester 1999."

"It's gone without a glitch this summer and last spring," Rubalcaba said. "It's better now."

At San Joaquin Delta College, administrators decided against using Datatel and had their own technical support staff write a program to handle the school's needs.

"Why pay a lot of money for a system that doesn't work for our school," asked Lee Belarmino, chief information officer at the Stockton school. "I can't relate to why colleges are spending millions of dollars to solve basic problems."

At Chabot College in Hayward, administrators chose to install SCI Banner instead of Datatel or PeopleSoft in 1993, school spokeswoman Jennifer Aries said. After a few initial adjustments, Chabot had virtually no problems, said Bob Curry, controller for the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District.

At Ohlone, financial, student, payroll and personnel information will be integrated into one system by the end of the year, said Lyle Engeldinger, project manager for Datatel at Ohlone.

"We're producing the college catalogues now, and signing courses and grades out of the (Datatel) system," he said. "It's been an enormous undertaking but absolutely necessary to support students and faculty."

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