Four is a good number for Southern Illinois: four non- credit program coordinators, four program assistants, and four full-time registration staff generate and record approximately 18,000 registrations annually, by any standard a successful program.

What separates Southern Illinois Division of Continuing Education from the rest? Sandy Rhoads, Associate Director at Southern Illinois University's Division of Continuing Education attributes their accomplishments to two things: a strong staff, and Student Manager.

"The program has changed as the college and the community have evolved" says Rhoads, "But we've always had a professional, experienced staff that offers quality service in the most efficient way. Student Manager supports their efforts. Everything is tied to the financials through Pocket Ledger and there are always upgrades and improvements. We keep our clients within budget. We don't lose money on any event. Our program coordinators are experts at finding that perfect match between quality and affordability."

"We get to work with the cream of the crop as far as faculty and staff. We see teachers who want to contribute to their area of expertise and the community, not the ones who sit in their seat all day and go home at night."

Rhoads is reluctant to name a favorite program, and she won't say which of their many offerings has grown the most. She will say that she's most proud of the faculty and staff at Southern Illinois and their level of professionalism, and she does brag on Student Manager."

"Our previous system was cumbersome" says Rhoads, "but Student Manager helps us keep track of everything. We're diligent about putting the necessary information in to the system and it works. As an example, we do a lot of paper mailings. But, they are very closely directed towards specialized mailing lists generated from Student Manager."

An example of just how the program has evolved over the last decade is the online registration function. "People are deciding to run programs through our department because of our online/web registration capability," Rhoads says. "We were the first department on campus to use online registration. ACEweb put us out front and now we've got it down better than most."

With three specific functional areas within Continuing Education using Student Manager daily, Rhoads hears a lot about Student Manager. Both the credit and non-credit portions of Continuing Education are long-standing ACEware customers. The Touch of Nature Environmental Center, pleased with flexible capabilities of the software, will be Southern Illinois' third group to use the software.

ACEware Software

Student Manager, ACEweb, Correspondent/Independent Study

Programs

One of nation's premier research institutions in rankings by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Southern Illinois is a state supported institution offering approximately 80 undergraduate and 100 graduate and professional programs to approximately 21,000 students annually. The Division of Continuing Education is divided in to three specific areas: non-credit, credit (which utilizes the Correspondence features of Student Manager) and the Touch of Nature Environmental Center.

350 non-credit courses, conferences, and workshops are offered annually. Varying in size from 10 to 6,000 participants they as varied in topic as they are in registrations. Primarily topics are drawn from academic areas of expertise such as agriculture, math and science, teacher conferences, health care, specialized certification, and management programs.