Site to allow online tuition
payment
By Erica Sagon
Managing
Editor
Starting in November, students will be able to
pay their tuition fees over the Internet through the Student Services
Information Web site.
Using a checking/debit account number, students
or their parents can make fee payments online and post-date their payments
up to two semesters by choosing a date for the transaction to clear
their bank.
Lee Gordon, director of Student Services Computing,
said this will be one of the most convenient ways to pay for tuition,
especially when students or their parents are short on funds.
This will be the first time the University accepts
fee payments online. Currently, Purdue accepts payments by cash, check
or money order, either through the mail or in person at the Bursar's
Office.
This is just one way that student services are
being improved by a team of 40 staff members that developed the TRAX
Initiative, a three year plan to redesign student services and create
tools to improve those services.
SSINFO is one prong of the TRAX Initiative that
intends to make data more easily accessible and put more processes in
the hands of students. Much of the information that students get from
SSINFO is stored on antiquated computer systems.
However, Joan Vaughan, the TRAX Initiative director,
said that under the program's three year plan data will be transferred
to a single system that will consolidate the programs used to store
student information.
"People across campus, advisers, anyone who applies
student services will obtain benefits from what we're doing," Vaughan
said. "We want one source of student data, and we want it easily accessible
and easily changeable."
Vaughan said SSINFO has evolved under the TRAX
Initiative, especially with changes that took place over the summer.
SSINFO broadened its off-campus housing search
engine to include more than 20 search criteria. Previously, the housing
database was limited to apartments and houses within walking distance
of campus; however, now students can search the database of 300 listings
using criteria such as location, distance from campus, type of housing,
desired rent, occupancy, lease length, number of rooms and furnishings.
Gordon said that although the off-campus search
engine hasn't been advertised, it's been a success. Gordon said 1,200
students had used the site to search for housing prior to the start
of the fall semester.
The Dean of Students Office maintains the off-campus
housing information, and landlords contact the office to post their
listings. Gordon said the site even posts listings from students that
are looking for roommates.
Another SSINFO improvement will help students and
faculty.
SSINFO added a staff interface, which will allow
University officials and academic advisers to see what students see
on SSINFO. Gordon said that some advisers had difficulty relating to
students' questions about information that appeared on the screen when
they logged on to the site.
"(Students) will hopefully get better service from
talking to officials on campus who have better access to their records,"
Gordon said.
Not all advisers, counselors and administrators
will have access to the student schedules and grades and security is
a priority, Gordon said.
Gordon said the staff interface consolidates many
of the computer programs that advisers and administrators use to look
up student records. Instead of using multiple logins and passwords,
information will be available in one place.
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