Glitch prevents students from paying tuition

By By Benjamin Smith

Thursday, August 17, 2006

It was an issue of capacity that caused the problem, not the product itself.

Students could not pay tuition for part of Tuesday because of a temporary glitch with the new software that monitors financial information for the University of Kansas.

The glitch has been attributed to problems with the newest version of PeopleSoft, which powers many of the online services for the University, that was implemented over the summer. According to the Bursar’s Office, students will not be charged late fees for tuition payments until Friday.

Marlesa Roney, vice provost of student success, said that the system was slow because of a taxing amount of activity.

“PeopleSoft is used not only by students but by faculty and staff as well,” she said. “It was an issue of capacity that caused the problem, not the product itself.”

The system has been functioning since 6 p.m. Tuesday, but administrators and tech support personnel are monitoring it to make sure more problems do not arise.

This PeopleSoft/Oracle upgrade of the Enroll and Pay system cost the University $70,000. The new version has been fully operational on the KU campuses since early July.

The new software underwent fine-tuning throughout the summer. This first week of the fall semester, with the number of students, faculty and staff suddenly spiking from the comparatively low usage over the summer, overly stressed the new system.

Jeff Stocker, Leawood senior, spent the afternoon trying to complete the required registration for a replacement KUID.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “I know the University is a bureaucracy, but they knew that this day was coming and a server overload should have been planned for.”

Stocker spent two hours in lines at the Bursar’s office and the KU Card Center.

“We are really disappointed that we could not provide people with the proper service,” Roney said.

The University plans to upgrade PeopleSoft again later this year.

Kansan staff writer Ben Smith can be contacted at bsmith@kansan.com.

Kansan staff writer Danny Luppino contributed to this story.

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