A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: March 10. All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, campus correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Jennifer Brooks, student correspondent; Mae Nguyen, special contributor; Siulan Thomas, special contributor; Amy Lenhart, special contributor; Nick Young, photographer; layout by public relations.
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College brings in Banner
It was a Banner day at the Spring Creek Campus Feb. 3.
 Collin staff filled the conference center to officially welcome in Banner and Luminus as replacements for the current SIS, FRS and HRS PLUS systems.
“It is a great turn-key system,” Cary Israel, college president, said. “It is more sophisticated than other systems. It is very compatible with some of the new initiatives coming around.
“It will really enhance our ability to respond to faculty, students, the community and between each other.”
Banner and Luminus will take three years to fully implement. According to Dave Hoyt, Banner will provide “an integrated student, financial aid, finance and human resources system for the college. Luminus will provide the single point of access to these systems.”
“All areas of the college will be affected,” Hoyt added. “Students will be able to access their WebCT courses, register for classes, check their grades, read e-mail in their Cougarmail inbox, access financial aid information all from one web page and one user ID and password. Faculty can access their WebCT courses, submit grades, check their payroll information, read their e-mail, view and print their class rosters, send an e-mail to all students in a class and many other things through Luminus and with Banner. Staff can enter and/or approve time sheets, read their e-mail, create and/or approve purchase orders, receive merchandise, access reports and many other things. All this access is handled through a strong security system based on the individual's roles at Collin.”
About 700 colleges and universities around the nation are using the Banner system. At the kick-off event, Walt Glass from Sungard, who sold the new systems to the college, said he was “accountable and responsible for (the system’s) implementation.”
“We are here for success. We are like Apollo 13 – there is no room for failure,” Glass said.
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| Andy Hollander | He added that a number of Sungard officials, including Andy Hollander who will be stationed at the Spring Creek Campus for technical support during the system’s implementation, live in Collin County, so the success of the system is a vested interest to the company. Hollander said the keys to a smooth implementation of Banner and Luminus will depend on teamwork and communication.
“I am the one that stands on the shoulders of giants, and you guys are the giants,” he said to the staff in attendance. “It is a tremendous challenge. It is rewarding to help people get to where they are going. The other nice thing about project work is that it ends. A project has a goal.”
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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