DegreeWorks a big waste

DegreeWorks, a degree auditing software integrated with Banner, will be available today to provide academic advising, degree auditing and transfer credit evaluations, according to the Sungard Higher Education website.

The software will show coursework needed to complete a degree.

Or students can keep up with this by printing a degree plan at http://legacy.alamo.edu/sac/csd/grad/html/associate_degree_forms.htm.

But as the college is moving to a paperless system, the software was purchased last spring for $151,000.

But that wasn't enough. The district is considering purchasing an upgrade from DegreeWorks 4.0 to 4.9.

That means more money wasted on unnecessary software.

Kudos for trying to "go green."

With a tech-savvy generation and budget constraints, it makes sense to move everything online, but it would definitely cost less for students to just print out a copy of the degree plan (or copy it to a flash drive to stay green).

But let's face it: This is not rocket science. If you can read, you can decipher a degree plan.

Students used to get a walkthrough of a degree plan with an adviser. All their questions could quickly be answered. Software can't do that.

Katherine Beaumont, recruiter and adviser at the center for academic transitions at Palo Alto College, said the software would not eliminate the need for counselors or advisers.

She's right. Just because information is available doesn't mean students will avail themselves of it.

If district officials think this lightweight piece of software is going to fill the void left by reassigning counselors to save money, they really have no idea who our students are and what they really need.