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Discuss “Failing online systems misrepresent Carnegie Mellon”

The recent crash of SIS (Student Information System) raises serious questions of functionality, specifically regarding the central role of SIS applications in registration and academic planning.

Considering that it’s in constant use, it would be nice if SIS and like applications could be heavily insured against crashes, but for financial reasons, the school relies on strong maintenance contracts to fix problems after they arise, instead of duplicating its systems. Since the specialists who work on the problem are salaried, the only cost the school incurs in these types of meltdowns is the cost of lost productivity.

The truth of the matter is that the applications are dated, the oldest parts having been introduced in the early 1990s. While...

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