Maine Street is a dead end

Upon entering the University of Southern Maine in the fall of 2005, I took an instant liking to the University’s website. When I wanted to register for classes, check my student bill, or just print out my schedule, it was simple. A few clicks and I was on my merry way. However, now with the new modifications made and the creation of Maine Street, I’ve been loathing the web site in its entirety.

Let us all sit back and enjoy the difficulties Maine Street embodies, shall we? First off, we run into a problem before we even get to Maine Street. Getting directed straight to Maine Street is impossible from USM’s home page. It can’t be done.

The school assumes that internally we have some sort of switch in our brain that tells us to look to the right side of the page and click “current students.” What if we aren’t currently a student? What if I graduated a year ago and need to find out if I took “Intro to Computers” for a job I’m applying for. I’m not currently a student but I need Maine Street’s help. The old homepage had a scroll down selection which visibly showed Web DSIS; it was a piece of cake. So now after my psychic powers have led me to believe “Current Students” indeed is the gateway to Maine Street, I am taken to another page. This is the best part. On the right of the webpage we now have the choice of Web DSIS or Maine Street. Hmm.what’s the difference? Wow, thanks USM for letting us know before clicking it! Printed above the two selections state:

“USM is transitioning current student information into Maine Street, the University of Maine System’s portal for System-wide online resources. Beginning with the Fall 2008 semester, students will register for courses using Maine Street. The older system, Web DSIS (Web-based Distributed Student Information System), will continue to be available for students to access financial aid information exclusively.” Ok, so let me get this straight. Before, we were able to access everything with Web DSIS but for some reason we now have to start using Maine Street which doesn’t allow us access to our financial aid information. I don’t know about anyone else, but financial aid is a huge reason why I’m able to attend this school. This should have been one of the first things added to Maine Street, but it’s not even included.

So finally, I’ve clicked on the Maine Street button. Alright, simply type my user I.D. and password. And I’m finally in! Wait what the hell is this? Welcome to the most complicated web page any college has ever created.

The first time I made it to this page, I didn’t even click anything: I just signed out due to frustration. What are all these buttons? Employee Self-Service? Student Self Service? Enterprise Applications? Enterprise? What am I on Star Trek? Training Tools & Materials? I’m just going to take a gamble and click “Student Self Service”; I guess it makes the most sense. I now have the choice of “Student Center” and something that should’ve been on the first page; “User Guides & Demos.” Ok, I’ve clicked “Student Center” and my class schedule is now in front of me. But it’s not telling me my professor’s names or even what the class is. It’s just giving me a bunch of numbers and letters. I need more information; luckily they offer it in a different view, which tells us both the professor’s name and the class we’re signed up for. Alright, let me just print my schedule now.where’s the print button? There was one on DSIS, where’s the print button here? There isn’t one! We can’t even print out our schedule in a print friendly format. What a joke! I sign out and abhor the next time I have to log back in.

The University of Southern Maine has to go back to Web DSIS. I can’t even imagine the trouble that first year students had to go through, trying to figure out how to use Maine Street. Web DSIS was simple and user friendly. Before I leave in the spring, I’d like to see at least one logical decision made by the University staff.