Hallelujah!

Usually such religious exclamations are reserved for, well, religion. But not this time. As students, we should all be very happy, in a non-religious sort of way.

NIU’s overhaul of the aging, annoying, cumbersome, excuse-for-good-technology WebConnect can be summed up with one word.

Groovy!

The biggest change is how students will be able to access the system: anytime, anywhere. No more denied access because you weren’t able to sign on before 10 p.m. Searching will be easier, and all your financial records will be in one place.

Identity theft, always an issue with older technology, will be a non-entity. The software, PeopleSoft, put out by the Oracle Corporation, has been used throughout government agencies and has yet to be cracked.

There is, unfortunately, some bad news. We won’t get to use it until August 2007, and even then, it will only have entered the first phase of implementation. But to that we say, “Whatever.” After the next two stages go into effect, with full operation expected by March 2008, all we’ll remember is how clumsy the old system was and how good the new version is.

On top of that, the developer said NIU Connect will have the greatest success if it’s phased in. Phasing removes the likelihood of bugs developing, which would just be sad.

We don’t need to be sad. Rather, we should walk around, quietly exclaiming “Hallelujah!” and “Groovy!” to ourselves because NIU just made signing up for classes much more convenient.