Issue date: 12/11/08 Section: News

This program is essentially designed for those transferring to a new school or International students. (Robbie Wroblewski/The Daily Eastern News)

Eastern has recently added a new system this fall to help transfer and native Eastern students with the confusion on what classes will transfer to other schools.

The u.select system, also known as the Course Applicability System, is designed to help students obtain information about how courses taken will transfer to other institutions and to understand which classes will go toward their college degree.

It became u.select by the time Eastern implemented the program. It was created at Miami University in Ohio. Mary Herrington-Perry brought this system to Eastern after being apart of a state-wide committee.

"When the state of Illinois got involved in the project, I was asked to join a state-wide committee that was looking into purchasing a product like this before they decided which one to go with," she said.

The committee was facilitated by the University of Illinois and Northern Illinois University.

U of I is still responsible for over- seeing the program and funding it. Herrington-Perry said it allows students to be more in control of their own academic progress.

"They can see exactly what courses they need to take, what grades they need to earn, how those will apply to their degree requirements," she said. "So it allows them to take charge of their education."

The system is can be useful for faculty and students and is accessible 24-7 from any location.

"You personally have no other way to know exactly what course you take will transfer to Eastern," Herrington-Perry said

This program should also help the records office. Perry recently trained the office staff to understand the functions and to facilitate it for students on campus.

The training will allow them to tell students where to find any information.

With u.select, students can create an account that will allow them to have a profile of their own to file information needed. The profile will allow access to completed courses and show requests that are provided from schools where you are getting your courses transferred from.

The system shows how courses will transfer, how courses may apply to other majors after transferring, what courses are still needed to complete a degree and how credits may count towards other community institution degrees.

As a member on this system, students are allowed to view course equivalencies, program requirements, and course work.

To understand the information, Herrington-Perry created a handbook for students to view for any questions on how all functions work on the site for Eastern students.

Currently, a total of 226 institutions are using this system, while serving to approximately 2 million students nationwide.

According to the official u.select Web site, it strives "to provide accurate data to students regarding course equivalencies and applicability."

However, student degree audits from Eastern are not provided through this Web site, because no electronically transcripts are provided.

It is all self-reported and not interfaced with Banner. Perry said Eastern was looking into purchasing the system through grants.

"It would have purchased an import request interface, software that would allow us to upload official electronic transcripts," Herrington-Perry said. "Our governor cut the grants that supported that program."

Other schools that use this system in Illinois include Bradley University, Chicago State University, the College of DuPage, DePaul University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Brittni Garcia can be reached at 581-7942 or at bmgarcia@eiu.edu.

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