Washington University will replace its Student Information System (SIS), the core technological system for information services and academic operations, with Workday Student. 

The replacement of the current SIS with Workday Student is the core initiative of the Student Sunrise project, which launched in 2020 and is slated for completion by the end of the Fall 2025 semester.

The current SIS encompasses over 30 individual platforms, including WebSTAC, WebFAC, and WUCRSL. Workday Student, in contrast, will serve as a single, consolidated technological system. 

According to the Student Sunrise website, Workday Student will be the primary platform used by WashU students and faculty for maintaining academic records, programs, and calendars; facilitating registration and curriculum-related tasks; managing student advising; and handling student financials.  

Junior Omeed Moshirfar, a member of the Student Sunrise Undergraduate Student Advisory Group, said that while the existing SIS was created by WashU, Workday is an external, pre-established, and reputable provider of cloud-based administrative services.  

Workday’s website indicates that its services are already utilized by numerous other institutions in higher education, including Yale University, Brown University, and the University of Virginia. 

Erin Culbreth, Senior Associate Provost and Student Sunrise Executive Project Director, said that a primary reason for the change to Workday Student is the limited functionality of WashU’s current SIS.

“Our systems, built way back in the 1990s, are aging rapidly and don’t provide a lot of functionality that a modern university like WashU needs [to have],” Culbreth said.

Culbreth added that Workday Student’s user-friendly interface and innovative features make it an excellent choice for a university SIS.

“Workday Student is an industry-leading, modern Student Information System,” she said. “It is more mobile-friendly [and] has a lot of features that we really need as a university.”

Workday’s mobility will be particularly beneficial for WashU students, Culbreth said. She emphasized the convenience of accessing class schedules, advisor details, and other essential information through a single, unified app. 

Culbreth also said that Workday Student will provide students with innovative academic planning tools while aggregating advising systems and support networks across schools, streamlining resource access for interdisciplinary students. 

Ellen Rostand, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Student Sunrise Change Director, said that Workday Student will help to improve the accuracy of student information.

“A lot of what our developmental administrators, registrars, advisors, and other [faculty] do to help students with their academic planning and course management is very manual,” Rostand said. “As a result, the information we get from [current capabilities] isn’t accurate at times. Workday will really help us to streamline and automate these things.”

Moshirfar said that Workday will change students’ relationships with their advisors. 

“Your relationship with your advisor will become less of a task, as it is now,” he said. “[Right] now, you have to meet with your advisor and they have to approve you, but I believe that may become [digitized].”

He also said that Workday will address various challenges and alleviate confusion that students sometimes face during course shopping and registration. 

“There are a lot of different ways you can search for classes, [search for] particular course attributes, and register. And things that are just much more manageable and less clunky,” he said. 

Of the existing SIS programs, the University will continue to use Slate and PowerFAIDS after the transition to Workday. Slate will remain the primary tool for undergraduate admissions, and PowerFAIDS will continue to be utilized for financial-aid administration. 

According to its website, Student Sunrise will host monthly webinars titled “Workday Student Sneak Peaks” to familiarize WashU faculty members with the platform, beginning in January of 2024. 

Students will also have opportunities to acquaint themselves with Workday Student and share feedback with Student Sunrise on their experiences using the platform. In November 2024, Student Sunrise will host a testing event in preparation for Spring 2025 registration.

“It’s an experience event for students, where they will come in, have the opportunity to log in, and experience the system,” Rostand said.