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Enrollment Council conducts stress tests for Animo.sys

Ready for another round? Animo.sys may be up for its second run for the third term enrollment of AY 2013-2014.

With pre-enrollment for the third term of AY 2013-2014 slated for November 13, the Enrollment Council will be deciding on the enrollment service provider to be used through a ‘stress test’ of the Animo.sys platform to be conducted tomorrow, November 9 at approximately 3 pm. Selected students with advanced enrollment have been asked to log on to the Animo.sys site at  http://www.animo.sys.dlsu.edu.ph tomorrow to check whether the system is ready for use by the entire student body.

The University is set to replace the 13 year-old server, the My.LaSalle System (MLS), with the Oracle-powered server, Animo.sys, for the longer run. The Oracle server, the same used in international universities such as the National University of Singapore and Stanford University and touted to be able to accommodate a heavier user capacity, is a product of the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions Project by the Information Technology Services (ITS) office that is set for deployment at the soonest possible time.

According to University Student Government (USG) President Migi Moreno, the stress test for advanced enrollees tomorrow afternoon is not the only stress test set to be conducted, as selected USG officers were set to test run the server this afternoon.


“ITS has not given any feedback on the initial testing that is currently being made now with selected USG officers which is merely a familiarization test to ensure whether the enrollment process will be efficient and time-saving,” states Moreno. “Once ITS has given feedback on this, only then will we be able to inform the advance enrollees about the stress test which is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Moreno cites that the test run today, however, may not have been executed as planned. “We are experiencing difficulty in coordinating the initial test since classes were called off today. The original plan was the initial test will be conducted in school to be supervised by ITS and the Oracle Team.”

Enrollment Council student representative and Legislative Assembly Chairperson for Students’ Rights and Welfare Gregg Tolentino shares, “Since there will be a stress test on Animo.sys tomorrow, we will request for data from ITS and feedback from the students [who were part of the testing]. In the event that Animo.sys will run smoothly, we will approve the use of the system. Otherwise, if it fails or works worse than MLS last term, we will attempt to have MLS for the meantime, again.”

Students and other stakeholders largely criticized the Animo.sys server during its unsuccessful first run earlier this May, when students jammed the server whose capacity of 2,500 users per timeslot is supposed to be an improvement from MLS’ 1,200 user capacity. In a previous interview with The LaSallian, University Registrar Dr. Voltaire Mistades stated that an unexpected volume of 4,000 students tried to log on even if it was not their registered timeslot, 60 percent more than the expected number.

The Enrollment Council is arranged to meet a last time before officially announcing the final enrollment scheme for the third term.

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How did Animo.sys fare last time? Read our headline last June here: http://thelasallian.com/2013/06/11/animo-sys-failure-results-to-mls-return/

The enrollment schedule may not be as you remembered. Read about the student-led revisions in the enrollment schedule in our feature here: http://thelasallian.com/2013/07/27/revised-enlistment-scheme-to-take-effect-this-coming-enrollment-period/

Juan Batalla

By Juan Batalla

24 replies on “Enrollment Council conducts stress tests for Animo.sys”

On the 8th of November, 2013, The LaSallian wrote about how the Enrollment Council conducted stress tests for Animo.sys, as it is the program to be used for the third trimester of AY2013-2014. One of the stress tests comprised of having USG officials as the participants, in which 701 students were given access to the system, according to Mr. Voltaire Mistades’ tweet last November 9, 2013. This stress test was considered a success, as compared to the other stress test made for advanced enrollees, in which most participants encountered an error message of “You do not have a valid enrollment appointment at this time”.

What is not fair, however, is the fact that those who “enrolled” during these test runs are actually ALREADY ENROLLED. Is there a different denotation for the phrase “test run” that students should know about? In my understanding, all the data collected from this experiment shall be used to explore the efficiency, durability and feasibility of using the program for actual enrollment – so why is it that the participants were privileged to have an unfair advantage of being ACTUALLY ENROLLED IN THEIR PREFERRED TIME SLOTS? Isn’t it that the outcome of the “test run” should be deleted prior to the actual run?

Now, it is not that I am against giving incentives to those who participated in this test; however, I find it unfair on how these students had a very advanced schedule in enrolling and it was not notified to us students properly. I’d like to believe that this is contrary to a section from the USG’s constitution, as written in their Bill of Rights:

Article IV, Section 1: Every student has the right to be properly informed of the programs, rules and regulations and policies of the academic community.

As there is no specificity and clarifications given to what a “program” means, since the stress test is something that concerns the whole academic community, I can therefore complain that I am one of the many students who wasn’t properly informed of this “incentive.” It is unfair, for it wasn’t mentioned to us that the participants would get the advantage. It should’ve been disclosed when announced, or better yet, included in the listings of the actual enrollment schedule.

Additionally, it is unfair because the selection of participants were also not disclosed properly. Seeing how there were 701 students given access, and that only a select portion of those are elected officials, who are the other participants then? In the case of my batch (not mentioning which), there were 10 people asked to participate – 3 of them were elected officials, and the other 7 are BSG members. It is understandable how the 3 elected officials were chosen – it is a given, after all, that they are privileged to have an advanced enrollment slot; however, our BSG does not only comprise of 7 members – so how were they chosen? Is it random, or is it by analyzing “who needs/deserves it the most?” I do not wish to degrade others, but several members of these 7 are not originally entitled to advanced enrollment slots, as some are not dean’s listers or originally listed as having advanced enrollment slots from offices. It is unfair for deans listers and students recommended by offices, as they lose the chance of getting the subjects that I want and need for the next term. This is, unfortunately, what one of my friends experienced today – she was unable to get her preferred slot in a majors class, in spite of attaining first honors in the previous term.

Lastly, it is unfair how the system was not fixed for the advanced enrollees who tried to participate in the stress test. With the prompting error, the students were not able to fully experience how it is to actually enroll using the system. Now, assuming it was properly announced that those participating in the “stress tests” will actually be enrolled, it is then more unfair for the advanced enrollees, as this somehow concurs that only those who participated in the USG test run are the only ones who have guaranteed slots in their preferred subjects.

With these disclosed, I then have two requests: the first one is that I hope there will be a response to this viewpoint. The second request is more important: I hope that all the students will be properly informed of the activities concerning the whole university. It is our right, after all. Please do consider this comment. Thank you.

(1) Don’t call it a stress test if the server capacity is at 701/2500. The concept of a stress test is to torture the system to its breaking point as to determine the limits of its capacity and performance levels. If the purpose of the test was for server speed and connectivity issues or something, then call it something else. Misleading names will cause misleading interpretations; word choice is important, after all, for news.

(2) Why were there only 701 participants? (and yes, the +1 is activating my OCD) We are all pretty aware that there is more than 700 elected USG officials (considering the plethora of bodies and arms.) Just who dictates who is more eligible than others? Why were they chosen, and why in the USG alone? Does that not discriminate the responsibilities of any student to actively participate in a university-wide effort?

(3) Same sentiments with the wall of text comment pointing out the event of some “advanced enrollees.” As this was merely a simulation or test, could the ITS not wipe all existing HTTP cookies to put everyone back on equal ground? Why did they bank data and entries even if the purpose of this ‘stress test’ was merely to familiarize others with the steps of enrolling via the Animo.sys?

Of course it will run smoothly, only 701 students tried out for the run. The capacity of animo.sys is 2500. I don’t see where the stress is. Also, I dont understand why any of the data is considered valid given that the original plans werent even executed properly? From my understanding, the ITS was supposed to supervise while the test run was done, but then classess were suspended? Does that mean, these 701 students just went home and enrolled, for free, no strings attached? I find too many issues with the testing itself, I haven’t seen any data announced by the USG, they haven’t even mentioned their methodology for gathering the data. Do they even have the data? How were the 701 students chosen, and why only 701? That, plus the 2 well written comments before mine.

Anyways I remain positive, even with this retarded scenario of 701 students being advance advance enrollees. I trust that the president, Miggy Moreno, would comment on this.

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