What is LEWIS and does it matter to my life?
LEWIS stands for Lehigh's Enterprise-Wide Information System.  It is a project to install and implement an enterprise-wide integrated system for the entire university that will include Web-based access.  The “Banner 2000” suite of applications is a software product from SCT Corporation based in Malvern, Pa. that will provide improved services for students, faculty and staff.  Lehigh will be installing and implementing Banner Student, Financial Aid, Human Resources/Payroll, Finance and several Web related products over a two-year period.
 

LEWIS and this year's course registration process
With the implementation of the Student portion of the Banner software, the biggest changes in this spring's registration process were that 1) some sections of courses were capped at a maximum number and rules implemented to include only certain groups of students with defined pre-requisites or attributes, and 2) students could select their section up to the cap.

As you are no doubt aware, this year's undergraduate registration for fall courses was handled on a priority basis with students requesting course sections according to their class year in the fall:  seniors, then juniors, then sophomores, etc.  Students were required to fill out a registration form and for the first time, include a course reference number (CRN) for each course.  Students who did not fill out the form completely or correctly were put at the bottom of the pile for processing.

In the processing of registration forms to date, one of the biggest surprises was the number of seniors who registered early and submitted conflicting sections.  That made it impossible for the students with the highest priority to get the schedules they requested.  Consequently, the registrar's office has had to re-assign these students to other section times for some courses, and therefore, the student's resulting schedule will be different from what was submitted.

A major difficulty, and one not too difficult to predict, is that all students, regardless of priority by class standing, requested prime time sections (9 to 11 AM).  Given this, the Registrar's Office staff was required to re-build schedules to put students in sections that they did not request, but which were available.  Enrolling the student into the course was deemed more important than a specific section time.

It is important to note that the university tries to be sensitive in its scheduling of courses that are required to meet graduation requirements.  In courses that are required, but not required in a given term, it is possible that students may be waitlisted or denied enrollment until the next semester.  Students should also bear in mind that the university retains the right to adjust class schedules and sizes up to registration in August.

Graduate students registered as usual and will be placed in sections on a first come, first served basis.  Until the Web for Student product is implemented, registration for graduate students will change very little.
 

Web Access Coming
The LEWIS teams will be working with the Banner Web for…products this summer.  Current plans are to pilot Web for Student during the second summer session in order to provide course grades online.  Watch for more Web access to student information during the fall semester.
 

Accessing LEWIS
Student access to LEWIS will be primarily through the Web once the Web-based products are available; therefore, a computer that runs one of the newer versions of a Web browser (Netscape, for example) should be sufficient.
 

Advising Process Next Year
The advising process will change when the Web for Student product is online next academic year.  At that time revised advising procedures will be distributed.

Once the Web products are online and completely enabled, decentralized data entry of course and section selection will be able to be done by either the advisor or the student.  Students will obtain a PIN number from their advisor (this can be linked to a traditional face-to-face session), and then they will be able to register directly using the PIN.
 

Spotlight on LEWIS is one of several newsletters designed to keep the Lehigh community current on developments in the LEWIS project.  This newsletter is intended primarily for Lehigh University students.  Comments or questions about it or LEWIS communication in general may be directed to Jean Farrington (jwf3@lehigh.edu)