Students can send transcripts to USSR, Cuba

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established in December 1922 and collapsed in December 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.

But the Alamo Colleges offers to send transcripts there via ACES.

Well, not exactly.

When you look up the college code under the transcript request form and click on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the page directs you to Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman, Sudan.

Sudan was never part of the USSR, although the current Russian Federation has allegedly supplied weapons to Sudan that were subsequently used against civilians in Darfur.

Students can also send their transcripts to universities in Cuba, despite the embargo placed on it by the United States, prohibiting U.S. citizens from visiting the country and spending money there.

Among exemptions are students doing research there.

Students may also send their transcripts to colleges in Costa Rica, but only if they click on Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Jan. 1, 1993.

Correctly, the Czechoslovakia button informs you the country does not exist, but if you click it, you end up in Costa Rica.

Dr. Thomas Cleary, vice chancellor of planning, performance and information systems, said there are more than 1,800 institutions that use Banner and perhaps one of them requested the information be integrated into the software.

"This is not anything we put in," Cleary said.

If students click on "view student information" under the "student" tab and select "First Quarter 2011-2012," they will find their information is effective from the current semester "until the end of time."

Cleary said he does not like the word choices in Banner, but he imagines a programmer at Sungard Higher Education, the company that markets Banner, put that in to signify a student's continuing record at a college.

Cleary said if modifications were made to these areas, they would have to be made in subsequent versions of Banner, which he would rather not do because he considers the imperfections low-impact and has heard no complaints about them.

He said he does not think these imperfections would have any effect on students.

"Students are smart; they'll figure it out," Cleary said.