Students at St. Edward’s University will see a gradual change this year in how the university handles technology related tasks. Students will have access to a new software called myHilltop that will change major tasks including registration and enrollment.

St. Edward’s staff in areas such as finance, student-teacher communication and other forms of administration will also utilize this software. “We are transitioning from some of our legacy systems into a more comprehensive -in a lot of ways more user-friendly -suite of tools,” Communication Coordinator for Information Technology Clair Dunne said.

MyHilltop will move on to take over many of the responsibilities that were formerly handled through EdWeb, but it will also bring together other tools for students and staff.

“It is very focused to the audiences. It is more about making sure we serve up the tools you need as a student in a day-to-day kind of way,” Dunn said, who believes this will lessen the need for students to look for information in many different locations.

The software is in its second year of implementation and has just become open to some users. It will be fully operational in three years and open to students this April. On July 1, St. Edward’s began to handle its finances through the new software.

“People on campus are already using myHilltop in production, to do things like invoices and tracking financial business operations,” Dunn said.

However, adjusting to a new way of doing things will take time.

“There are of course certain things lost when you move to a new system after so long of working a certain way, but they will come back in time,” Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services Doris Constantine said. Constantine still remains optimistic about the change. 

“The potential is there,” Constantine said. 

Starting next month, the new software will begin to affect prospective students too. Rather than enrolling through EdWeb as students have done in past years, prospective students will apply through myHilltop. This will be a large change from the more basic format of EdWeb.

“I don’t really like the fact that EdWeb is all menu based. It can be a tad over- whelming and confusing if you are not familiar with it,” freshman Mark Spink, who applied through EdWeb last spring said.

“Students and staff will be able to begin preparing for the transition several months in advance of the April registration. There will be a mock registration, workshops, as well as online videos so that students can watch it on their own time.

“If you want to watch a video in the middle of the night and make sure that you are geared up before registration, we want to make sure you have that,” Dunn said.

As the year progresses, this new technology will begin to handle more school operations.

“I’m excited to have this new tool and just hope peo- ple are able to keep an eye out and take advantage of the resources we put out for you guys,” Dunn said.