GradWeb updates
formerly arduous
Graduate School
tracking methods
Created by two University
staff members, GradWeb
has eliminated the need for
an extended paper trail
By Caron Alarab
News Reporter
When it comes to unique and in
novative software creation, two heads
are better than one.
For two University staff members,
30 years of institutional knowledge
and three years of software engineer
ing experience combined to make
"GradWeb," the First software pro
gram designed specifically for gradu
ate school business.
GradWeb, which has been in use at
the University for more than two
years, has transformed student
records management at the Graduate
School, saving thousands of dollars in
administrative costs.
"GradWeb has positively changed
the way the Graduate School does
business," Toby Deemer, assistant
dean of the Graduate School and co
creator of the program, said in an e
mail interview.
Before GradWeb, all Graduate
School business practices required a
paper trail on interactions among stu
dents, department staff, faculty, Grad
uate School staff and the Office of the
Registrar. The University had 23 forms
to track and record the progress of
each graduate student from admis
sion through to the application for his
or her degree. Every form had to be
copied, filed with the Graduate
School and sent both to departments
and to students.
"The Graduate School printed
45,000 pieces of paper each year and
none of our processes were online,"
Deemer said.
Today, only two forms remain
while everything else is done electron
ically. Through GradWeb's six interac
tive modules, or features, the program
has cut the need to print, mail and
process more than 30,000 forms an
nually, while just one of the modules
has saved 300 administrative hours
each year.
"The University of Oregon takes
great pride in the effective use of tech
nology to do business, and it seemed
to us in the Graduate School that the
time had come to change the way we
did business," Deemer said.
During the summer of 2000,
Deemer came up with the idea for
GradWeb when she decided to plan
her retirement and realized her insti
tutional knowledge would be leaving
with her.
"I began to design a plan to pres
ent to the dean of the Graduate
School that would construct a
method to transfer my knowledge
and experience into a clear and trans
parent format," she said. "Web tech
nology was, at that point in time,
providing excellent service for the ex
change of information."
She recruited former graduate stu
dent and software designer Asif Suria,
and together they created GradWeb.
"We searched the Web sites of oth
er graduate schools and did not find
a fully integrated system that sup
ported the business practices of grad
uate education," Deemer said. "It
was at this point we decided to con
struct our own."
Since the creation of GradWeb,
Deemer and Suria have entered into a
licensing agreement with the Univer
sity and formed Eugene Software So
lutions to help market it.
Suria, who is president of Eugene
Software Solutions, once worked at
the Graduate School as a graduate
teaching fellow. He said when he
called Deemer in early 2001 in search
of an opportunity to return to campus,
he liked her idea and decided to move
back to Eugene from San Francisco.
"Working with Toby on GradWeb
has been a very enriching experience,"
Suria said in an e-mail interview. "She
Lauren Wimer Photographer
Graduate School staff member Jered Nagel uses the University’s new GradWeb software, which allows graduate students to complete
several tasks, such as applying for admission and filling out surveys, online.
has a vast amount of knowledge of
graduate school practices and an ex
cellent way of working with people."
Currently, GradWeb allows interac
tion between students, the Graduate
School and departments to be han
dled electronically with automatic e
mail notifications sent to all parties.
By creating a record of interactions,
such as applications for admission
and advanced degrees, GradWeb cre
ates virtually error-proof permanent
student records, Deemer said.
Political Science graduate coordi
nator Ilene Proudfoot said she finds
GradWeb quick, easy and efficient.
"Because there is less paperwork,
there's less of a chance of documents
getting lost," she said. "I can also keep
a nice track of students' records."
During the 2003 calendar year,
312,794 pages were accessed on
GradWeb, which includes individual
usage directly related to Graduate
School business, Deemer said. Last
year, GradWeb processed 1377 ap
plications for graduate degrees,
showing a 30 percent increase from
the year before.
Since last December, the first
month of the admission application
cycle, Deemer said she's already seen
a 15 percent increase in online pro
cessing compared to December 2002.
She added that a number of other
universities are extremely impressed
by the GradWeb modules and "have
shown a real interest in having some
thing similar for themselves."
Since GradWeb's completion,
Deemer said the biggest challenge has
been "keeping our excitement from
spilling over and trying to do too
much all at once."
From a technical point of view,
Suria also said two big challenges
were migrating more than 10 years of
data across different databases and
platforms and ensuring accessibility
across all browsers and platforms.
"For the project as a whole, the
biggest challenge that any new soft
ware system faces is adoption by users
and making sure that the software is
easy to use," Suria said.
Deemer said she is very proud to
have been a part of the software cre
ation because of the opportunity to
serve the University.
"I have been blessed with a long ca
reer at this institution and have always
worked with people that have been
supportive and creative," she said.
Contact the business/science/
technology reporter
at caronalarab@dailyemerald.com.
GRADWEB
FEATURES
GradWeb has made six modules
available to the University community:
• Application for admission online
• Application for graduation
(master degree candidates and
doctoral degree candidates)
• Surveys and exit questionnaires
Three modules are specific to
doctoral education:
• Advancement to Candidacy
• Doctoral Committee construction
• Oral Defense of the dissertation
SOURCE: Assistant Graduate School Dean
Toby Deemer
LEHNER
continued from page 1
"The University and the organizations that
make up the University is, as far as I'm con
cerned, frankly, just another set of neighbor
hoods," he said. "We'II sit down together. We'll
talk about what the priorities are and what we
need to do about them.
Lehner said he has a
strong desire to commu
nicate not only with Uni
versity groups but also to
form partnerships with all
neighborhood groups in
Eugene.
The city announced
Lehner's appointment
Dec. 19, three weeks after
introducing him as its top
choice in a lengthy selec
tion process involving five
other candidates. Lehner
was part of a second re
Robert M.
Lehner
Eugene Police Chief
cruitment process that resulted after the top can
didate in the first process in September dedined
the position, citing family concerns about mov
ing to the West Coast from Minnesota.
The city's community relations director Jan
Bohman said the rity initially delayed recruiting
a new police department head after former
Chief Jim Hill retired in Dec. 2001 because man
agement wanted to first fill the then-vacant dty
manager position.
Although a new city manager was hired in
February 2003, the police chief hiring was fur
ther ddayed when the first candidate pulled out.
City Manager Dennis Taylor said in a press re
lease that Lehner is bright, articulate and exated
about joining the city's leadership team.
"He has finandal management strengths, out
standing communication skills and is a proven
problem-solver," Taylor said. "Mr. Lehner is the
right and best fit for our department and our dty."
Lehner, 48, joined the Tucson Police Depart
ment in 1978 as an officer and dimbed through
the ranks of detective, sergeant, lieutenant, cap
tain and assistant chief. He has a master's degree
in business administration from the University
of Arizona.
Officials said Lehner's experiences will serve
him well in working on the big issues facing the
Eugene police force such as staff vacancies.
"We've been significantly understaffed for a
while," EPD spokeswoman Pam Olshanski said.
She added that the understaffing was due to a
combination of factors including unanticipated
call-ups to active military duty and retirements.
Olshanski said the staff shortages have result
ed in multiple stints of overtime and an inability
to take active steps to prevent crime before it
happens, which has hurt staff morale.
Olshanski said Lehner also arrives at a time
when the department's image in the community
has been affected by recent unrelated charges
against two former officers for inappropriate sex
ual conduct while on the job.
Lehner will also use his experience in campus
police relations.
While he never directly oversaw policing at
the University of Arizona, he said he was "fairly
close" to members of the university com muni
ty, sitting down with administrators and stu
dents to discuss issues of importance to them.
He said he does have direct experience tack
ling the problem of large parties and empha
sized the need to keep parties small.
"It's the bigger parties that frankly get out of
control," he said. "It doesn't mean it's OK to
have underage drinking but what it does mean is
there is a reasonable balance somewhere be
tween what is the appropriate level of enforce
ment and what is the appropriate expenditure
of police resources."
This is just one of the issues Lehner said he
hopes to discuss with students, administrators
and neighborhood groups.
"I know that students want a safe environ
ment, " Lehner said. "Certainly their parents who
send them here want a safe environment, and
it's something that we will work on together to
ensure that you'll have a safe educational experi
ence while you're here."
Contact the city/state politics reporter
at nikacarlson@dailyemerald.com.
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