Published: April 9, 2009

In order to register for Fall 2009 classes, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) students had to go through the new portal, My.Fordham, to access the new Banner system. While most feedback received by Fordham Information Technology (IT) has been positive, some students had less than perfect experiences.

“When I originally went to log onto My.Fordham at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning, I was having trouble accessing the site,” said Brian O’Connell, FCLC ’11. He said that he tried to access the site using two different browsers on his desktop computer, and when neither worked he switched to his laptop instead.

“I was still having trouble accessing the server; whether it was because of a design flaw or that the server itself was experiencing too much traffic, I wasn’t actually able to get in to register until 7:08 or so, and as we all know, every second is crucial with registration,” he said.

O’Connell said that when he finally did access the site, the class Introduction to Public Policy appeared to be closed already, which surprised him because of its undesirable time. He said that, later, after a friend consulted a professor in the political science department, O’Connell learned that the class was not closed and that My.Fordham had simply incorrectly listed it as such. Eventually, he was able to register for the class, O’Connell said.

Christina Halligan, FCLC ’10, said that she somehow registered without having to provide her PIN. She said that she used the “Look Up Classes” link to find the courses she wanted and clicked the “Register” button next to them.

“[The Web site] didn’t ask me for my pin in doing this,” Halligan said. However, when she wanted to view the classes that she had selected at a later date, she said that her pin was required.

According to Lauren Caminiti, FCLC ’11 and a student worker for Fordham IT, O’Connell and Halligan’s experiences were unusual. Caminiti said that she has received positive responses from students during pre-registration training sessions as well as after the registration process. Most of the questions students had were in regard to the organization of the site, as it differs substantially from OASIS, she said.

“You may have noticed core requirements, special programs and such are listed differently via the attributes and times, and lab classes are also listed differently. But once students learned about the changes things went smoothly,” Caminiti said.

Deirdre Dillon, director of Fordham IT training and communications, also said that the feedback she had received from students was all positive. She said that after registration is complete for all campuses, there will be a meeting about how the process went and any changes necessary will be discussed then. Dillon said that considering the responses she had received so far, she did not anticipate many changes being necessary.

Cassie Foote, FCLC ’10, said of Banner, “It was exactly like OASIS, I don’t see the difference. I typed in the numbers, hit click, and it worked. I approve of Banner.”