Image and Integrate

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Document Management

Image and Integrate

11/1/2007

By Neal Starkman

ISYS Search Software as a cornerstone search program, CUNY developed a policy documents site that enables users to search for documents, whether they're PDFs or XHTML pages. Moreover, the program returns only relevant sections from documents.

Steven Quinn, information management coordinator at CUNY's Office of the Chancellor (and the primary designer of the system), says that prior to the institution of the policy documents site and the search program, CUNY's website hadn't been updated in 15 years. But it was critical, he says, to get the complete board of trustees minutes from 1969 forward (plus selected minutes from 1940) onto the site. Previously, the archives went back only to the 1980s. Now CUNY not only has digitized 8,000 pages of board minutes, but also has transferred its Manual of General Policy onto the site, for quick and easy access by the chancellor, president, legal and budget staffs, student affairs officers, or "anyone in a position to implement or be affected by a policy."

According to Quinn, the ISYS:web software was critical to the initiative's success. His team initially tested version 6 of the software when it was designing and building the system, brought the site live with version 7, and has since upgraded to version 8.

Interestingly, this type of document access isn't as administration-focused as it might sound. Recently, because of soldier-students returning from Afghanistan, there was a question about veteran student reinstatement. Staff from the CUNY Veterans Affairs office needed to review the university's policy regarding students who were deployed overseas, so that they could allocate the appropriate amount of credits as those students were reinstated. Because of painless access to the policies, CUNY administrators were able to ease the reintegration process for the returning students. This access now holds true for every CUNY college: Whether it's FERPA or some arcane policy about campus plumbing, the policy document search system "makes it possible for people to follow these policies in good faith," says Quinn.

As it happens, last year a local city council member accused the university of malfeasance. Prior to the implementation of the ISYS system, that charge might have lingered overhead for months while the staff pored through thousands of documents to see if it was of any consequence. But in this case, a board member searched for, located, and e-mailed a pertinent document to the council member within five minutes. It clearly showed that the university was only guilty of something it was legally required to do. Quinn recalls arriving at the office to find the furor subsiding. Someone approached him, smiling, and said simply, "Your system worked." Says Quinn, "People are starting to develop a confidence that wasn't there before."