In 1997 the vice chancellor for information infrastructure, Sue Mettlen, appointed a task force to evaluate student information systems and to assess their ability to operate properly in the year 2000. Most existing computerized records were keyed to date-driven systems that used the last two digits of the year, assuming that the first two digits were 19. In early spring 1997, Tennessee higher education systems received one-time grants from the state to update their computer systems, and UT Knoxville received just more than $6 million for the purpose.
After months of comparison of various available systems—in particular Datatel, SCT’s PLUS, and SCT BANNER—UT Knoxville contracted with Systems and Computer Technology (SCT) to purchase BANNER 2000 in summer 1997, acquired equipment, and started training for installing the product in fall 1997. The goal was to have the new system operational by May 1999. Issues with the system, largely due to trying to apply it to a large university, were identified, and it was estimated by the project work group that fifteen to seventeen thousand hours of effort would be required either to modify the BANNER baseline code or to program an extension of baseline capability.
In January 1999 the administration agreed to find the resources to fund the modifications. But discussions with other comparable institutions led to a decision that it would be foolish to commit to such a substantial a modification of the product. The system, if modified, would be virtually impossible to maintain given SCT’s schedule of upgrade releases. UT began conversations with other large schools and formed the BANNER Large Systems Consortium, initially with six and finally with eight members.
In July 1999 work on implementation of the BANNER system was halted to give SCT time to add functionality to the product. Efforts turned to extending the life of the legacy student information systems in place.
In January 2002 President J. Wade Gilley determined that the project to install BANNER should be restarted and that it would be a system-wide project with common installation on all campuses. He mandated that the project would be moved to completion expeditiously and indicated that the UT system would pay for common-core costs and that the individual campuses would pay the additional costs for their respective installations. (The UT system initial common-core costs for UT Knoxville [software, hardware, consulting] were estimated to be $2.4 million; the estimated annual ongoing costs, or the common core for UT Knoxville, to be borne by the UT system, were $360,000.) The initial UT Knoxville operating costs estimates for FY 09, FY10, and FY11 were $1.7 million.
In June 2010 Banner Admissions went live for admission to spring 2011. But the major change on campus occurred on September 30, 2010, with registration for spring 2011 classes being made through Banner self-service, accessed through the UT portal, MyUTK, instead of through Circle Park OnLine (CPO). My UTK went live on September 20, 2010.