The latest step in BU’s upgrade of its Student Information System will give Terriers more information so they can set their fall class schedules with just a few keyboard clicks.

University News

Schedule Builder: A New Online Tool to Register for Fall Courses

Part of the two-year upgrade of the Student Information System

Students at most BU schools can begin planning their fall class schedule now in the new MyBU Student portal, where they’ll use a new online tool—Schedule Builder. It’s the latest step in an ongoing modernization of the four-decade-old mainframe Student Information System (SIS). 

SIS comprises the information technology systems that store data about student-University interactions, including applying for admission, financial aid, or study abroad; registering for classes; paying bills; meeting with advisors; and managing student employment. 

MyBU Student includes the course catalog and offerings during a specific semester. In mid-April, students will have appointments for formally enrolling in their schedules.

Daniel Parks, assistant vice president and University registrar, says that regardless of whether a student uses the Class Search function through Schedule Builder, or separately, they can search attributes that are not available in the current system, including instructor name, up to three Hub attributes, and preferred time.” (The Hub is the University-wide general education requirement.)

“Once a student finds the classes they would like to take and builds a schedule that works for them,” Parks says, “they can save it in a Shopping Cart. When Enrollment does open [in April], students with saved schedules will be able to enroll quickly, with only a few clicks.”

This nine-and-a-half-minute video explains how to prepare before your registration appointment at MyBU Student. This four-and-a-half minute video explains how to use Schedule Builder.

Registration for summer classes will continue through the current system, which includes the Student Link. 

Marylou O’Donnell-Rundlett, deputy sponsor of the University’s SIS Renewal Program, explained several aspects of the new system during a recent informational webinar. To ease any confusion during the transition, she said, “we are managing this by providing pathways from the faculty, staff, and Student Links to the new system, and then back again.” O’Donnell-Rundlett is also associate vice president of enrollment and student administration.

“As we sort of have one foot in each system,” she said, “we have focused on providing pathways by task, as opposed to expecting people to know what system they must be in.” (This short video explains how to navigate course selection for different semesters.)

The Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, the Goldman School of Dental Medicine, and the School of Law have different registration processes, although ultimately, they “will join us in the new, unified system,” O’Donnell-Rundlett said.

Parks says that “students’ enrollment history and spring 2024 processes, including May graduation, will remain in the current system. This information will move to MyBU Student at the end of May, when enrollment history, grading, billing, and advising will launch in MyBU Student.”

In a memo last month to faculty and staff, Kenneth Lutchen, interim provost and chief academic officer, called fall registration and accompanying updates of SIS the “most complex phase of the new system rollout.” The University ran several information webinars explaining what faculty and staff need to know about changes, including this one. 

“Changes of this size and complexity are disruptive by nature, and we are doing everything in our power to anticipate and respond to challenges quickly as they come up,” Lutchen wrote. “The effort, we are certain, will be well worth it, and we will be excited to bring students, faculty, and staff into this new, more capable and usable environment.”

The MyBU Student system, he wrote, is “designed to lead students through registration and supporting processes.”

Earlier steps in the two-year-long SIS upgrade included allowing students to update their pronouns and display names in the University Directory—that is, how they identify and wish others to identify them, as opposed to their legal names. They are able to provide their gender identities, which won’t be displayed in the Directory; their legal names will remain unchanged in BU’s records. 

This summer, students will begin paying bills and managing enrollment through the new SIS, while faculty will use it for grading and advising.