Parking, grades, giving, you name it; everything is going online
e-Berkeley initiative takes shape, with many new features to debut this year

22 August 2001 |

e-Giving, e-Grades, e-Alumni, e-Everything. The campus is taking giant steps into the online world — harnessing the power of the Internet to improve everyday tasks at the university — all through the e-Berkeley initiative.

From human resources to fundraising to course management, e-Berkeley is guiding the campus in its efforts to improve efficiency by using online resources. The initiative shifted into high gear with results of a Cisco Systems “net readiness” report. Cisco’s report urged the campus to develop an infrastructure and guiding principles for a Web-based university. At the same time, work has been proceeding with many of the projects or initiatives that fall under the e-Berkeley umbrella.

There are many success stories. Among them:

• A new Web service, e-Grades, was launched this spring, giving faculty the option of submitting grades via a newly developed Internet system. The next feature to be added to e-Grades will allow faculty to upload from a spreadsheet to the e-Grades system.

• University Relations has introduced an expanded e-Giving application.

• Thousands of students are participating in courses this spring that utilize course management systems. Future plans for Learning Management Systems include expanding access and providing a far broader range of services that will offer students online class discussions, online quizzes and sharing of course information.

• The e-Parking system, the first phase of which went live in June, now allows faculty or staff who buy vehicle permits by payroll deduction to renew their annual passes on the Web. Future phases of this service will allow students to pay for parking passes online and may allow the campus community to pay parking tickets online.

• The cashier deposit system, which allows departments to submit cash deposits online, will be available soon.

Other features are set to come online in the next year. They include:

• e-Travel, which will allow business travelers to file their reimbursement claims online.

• e-Alumni, which will launch a portal for alumni.

• The Kronos systems will enable staff to submit timesheets online and allow for an automated submission of information to the payroll system, with features such as an automatic calculation of vacation and sick leave accruals.

• For faculty, the Research E-Project Protocol System will enhance and streamline the research compliance review and approval process for work with animals, human subjects, biohazards and radiation sources. The system will replace the existing variety of hard-copy submissions with a uniform online process that will both facilitate the compliance review(s) and allow principal investigators to inquire about the status of their submissions.

“All of these advancements require new guidelines and policies,” said James Hyatt, vice chancellor for budget and finance. “Many departments and units have been grappling with issues around privacy, dealing with vendors providing online services and use of the university logo on Web pages and portals.“

The campus’s point person on e-Berkeley, Hyatt is working with several groups of faculty and staff to steer the complex initiative toward success.

Online information about e-Berkeley — available at eberkeley.berkeley.edu — provides updates on the initiative.