Starlight Software, run by two Iowa State University students, has made the program RegMan available to ISU students for several years to assist them in registering for classes. The program allows students to determine possible schedules available for the courses they want. This student-developed and student-supported program is widely used and is well-liked by many people. Mark Lanning, who supports RegMan, and his brother, Jeff, who was the original developer, deserve a big thank-you from the entire university community.

Iowa State has had no part in developing or supporting the program. Those who use it download the software and the appropriate course database from the Starlight Web site to their own computers in order to run the program. The database is updated daily by Starlight by copying course listings from the public Schedule of Classes Web site.

The students who make the program available have done so on their own, and now because of graduation they will discontinue their service as of May 12. Regretfully, the RegMan site has a statement implying that the university is withdrawing its support and that is the reason for RegMan being discontinued. The university is not discontinuing its support, since the operation has never been associated with or supported by the university. Some users think that the university is withdrawing its permission for the Starlight folks to access university information. The information is available on public Web sites, and access is permitted for anyone to those sites.

The student developers did approach the university last year with a conceptual proposal to see if RegMan could be acquired by the university after their graduation. There never was a concrete offer nor a clear business plan submitted by Starlight Software. After careful consideration of the conceptual proposal by the Registrar’s office, the office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Programs, Administrative Data Processing and other computer support groups on campus, the determination was made that Iowa State would not acquire the software. We decided that rather than purchasing the rights to RegMan (although no formal offer was ever made), we would be better off to consider developing such a capability on our own or purchasing an appropriate third-party product from a stable vendor if one were available. We continue to look into that possibility.

Thanks to Mark and Jeff, we wish them the best for their future careers.

Howard Shapiro

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Programs