PeopleSoft

PeopleSoft Enterpise Campus Solutions is Oracle's multi-million dollar program designed to "manage the entire student lifecycle--from recruiting and admissions to student services and alumni relations--in a secure and stable environment." [1] Williams' installation, which set back Uncle Eph $5.5 million dollars, went online by parts in 2003 and 2004, replacing the human resources, financial and class registration systems (including SELFREG) that preceded it [2].

[Note: PeopleSoft has been upgraded several times since this was written and the navigation Evan describes and complains about below has been replaced and improved. This does not mean it does not still possess an abundance of issues.]

Navigating PeopleSoft [circa 2006]

Below is a map of the PeopleSoft navigation tree from hell. I would add comments, but I have no idea what most of these labels are supposed to mean. It's like driving in a foreign country that has traffic lights in places where there aren't actually intersections.

• SA Self Service
  • Personal Portfolio
    • Tasks
      • Addresses
      • Summer/Leave Forwarding Addr
      • Phone Numbers
      • Emergency Contacts
      • Parent/Guardian and Billing
      • Password and Personalization
      • Holds
      • Williams Honor Code
  • Learner Services
    • Acad Home
      • Learner Services
        • View Enrollment Appointment
        • Enroll in a Class
        • My APR/Unofficial Transcript
        • View My Class Schedule
        • View My Weekly Schedule
        • View My Exam Schedule
        • View My Grades
        • View Schedule of Classes
        • Registrar's Office Home Page
    • Catalog
      • View Schedule of Classes
    • Academics
      • View Enrollment Appointment
      • Enroll in a Class
      • View My Class Schedule
      • View My Weekly Schedule
      • View My Exam Schedule
      • View My Grades
      • My APR/Unofficial Transcript
    • Finances
      • Account Summary
• PeopleTools
  • Maintain Security
    • Use
      • My Profile
        • Change Password
        • Change or set up forgotten password help

Gripes

The PeopleSoft system, which students access and operate by their web-browsers, is widely complained about, and many students refer to the system, or the perennial practice of registering for classes through it, as the "PeopleSoft Hell". The program is huge and very powerful, but it admins have disabled student access to most of its features. Of what's left, Williams students only use a few, albeit important functions. The upshot is that the services that students most wish to use are hidden high at the tips of a huge menu tree, whose forks often contain only one option.

Students also complain of the program's speed. Because of the need to click through many menus and buttons to perform even the simplest functions, and because the display of these menus depends on the efficiency of your browser and the network's speed, using PeopleSoft can feel painfully slow. SELFREG, the Unix system for registering for classes that preceded PeopleSoft, was much faster (though arcane in its own ways), and students who remember the old ways may be more likely to complain of PeopleSoft's speed.

Evan Miller's PeopleSoft Navigator was an interface for PeopleSoft where frames in your web browser gave you quicker access to highly used parts of the system. Unfortunately, it seems to be defunct. [Note: PeopleSoft now incorporates a user-specific "Add to Favorites" function, which can be used to build a custom list of pages you use often.]