Copiah-Lincoln Community College: Improving Campuswide Communications

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Copiah-Lincoln Community College: Improving Campuswide Communications

7/24/2003

"In essence, Jenzabar's software allows us to bring the various databases of information directly to the user, which dramatically cuts down on the time it would take the IT department to respond to them if our homegrown software applications were still in use today."

Financial Aid
There is no department on a college campus with more data flowing in and out on a daily basis than the financial aid office. Aside from maintaining accurate information on students receiving financial aid, this office needs to meet the demands of the federal government and their numerous rules on reporting. Federal regulations regarding electronic filing dictated the need for a comprehensive software package that allows the office director and staff to compile, manage and report on hundreds of eligible students. Using Jenzabar's Financial Aid module, Copiah-Lincoln has simplified the process of extracting value-based data from application systems for trend analysis, with consolidated reporting across multiple subject areas of the campus. The director and staff can now access and compile information on student's grade status, work study enrollment and payment schedules on a regular basis, providing them with up-to-the-minute reports of a student's eligibility and aid status.

At the outset of its relationship with Jenzabar, Copiah-Lincoln was most concerned with its return on investment. After all, the software license, installation, and recurring maintenance costs can run anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars at a small college to millions of dollars at a large college or university. Proving that Jenzabar's products are cost-effective, Copiah-Lincoln looked at the remarkable savings seen across all departments, especially the registrar's office where grades are compiled. Administrators were faced with the daunting task each semester of printing pricey, individualized scanable forms, manually filling in countless grade bubbles, uploading the grades into the database, and correcting the foreseeable errors. Since taking its grading process onto the Web, Copiah-Lincoln has nearly eliminated the paper trail of grades, thus saving thousands of dollars in printing costs and reducing the number of human errors that occur when thousands of grades are being scanned by hand onto paper. Faculty have found the software easy to use and the most technically challenged professors are up and running in 30 minutes or less after a short training session.

"You would think that at least a few professors would have difficulty learning the new process but to its credit, Jenzabar has built a module that is powerful yet easy to use. It's not often that you find that," explains to Dykes.

"As Copiah-Lincoln continues to evolve and shape the young minds of its students, these future leaders will know that Copiah-Lincoln made a substantial investment in their future by providing them with the most powerful higher education tools available today," according to Dr. Garner. "Using Jenzabar's Internet Campus Solution has enabled Copiah-Lincoln Community College to move to the information age where the delay in sharing information between students and faculty is no longer hours or days but only minutes."

Howell Garner, Ph.D. (howell.garner@ colin.edu), is president of Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

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"Copiah-Lincoln Community College: Improving Campuswide Communications ," Campus Technology, 7/24/2003, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=39443

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