When students are asked about the MyUA system, most give a puzzled look in response. The MyUA staff is working to change that.

MyUA is described as a Web "portal," which means, in regular English, that a student can access MyUA and reach sites of interest in three clicks or less.

The MyUA Web site gives a mission statement for the program.

"MyUA is UA's response to students who operate in a 24 hour, seven day a week technology rich environment," the site reads. "Students come to UA with an expectation that the Internet will be available to them whenever and wherever they want it."

The university has spent at least $1.9 million on the new portal. According to statistics maintained by the MyUA staff, as of Oct. 29, more than 4,600 students and staff had logged onto the portal. But the MyUA system is prepared to handle a much higher frequency of users than the current amount, said Rory O'Neill, a director in the Office of Information Technology.

"The system is built to handle the 30,000 students and staff here at the University of Alaska," O'Neill said. "We think that being able to handle 1,800 simultaneous users is a realistic expectation."

Since mid-August, MyUA has averaged around 800 logins a week, with each session lasting an average of 14 minutes. The system has currently averaged over 250 new users per week.

The MyUA staff is trying to find ways to bring the product to the attention of students and staff.

"Right now we are in the planning stage of marketing the portal to students," said O'Neill. "We are currently planning on a mid-spring marketing campaign."

The MyUA staff did a similar campaign Sept. 18-24. That week saw the largest jump in user numbers, with nearly 800 new users and more than 1,500 logins from old users.

Despite the promising numbers, many students around campus question the design of the portal. One such student, Mike Hazlett, works at the campus computer help desk.

"I don't use it at all," Hazlett said. "The designers are trying to fit everything into one page, and I don't like the way it looks."

Joe Mattie, a junior in computer science, is skeptical about its usefulness.

"I do not think it will be terribly successful among students," Mattie said. "It doesn't give you anything you don't use normally."

Mattie proposed a solution that wouldn't require a Web portal.

"One way to go about having greater efficiency is to synchronize the usernames and passwords," Mattie said. "That wouldn't require having a separate Web portal."

Concern has also arisen about the compatibility of MyUA with Internet Explorer 7, which is set to release this winter. The MyUA information page acknowledges the problem.

"MyUA is not officially supported by IE 7 and it is not completely compatible with MyUA," the page reads. "The vendor is working towards support to coincide with release of IE 7."

SunGard Higher Education, the same vendor for UAOnline and Banner, makes the software for MyUA. None of SunGard products are compatible with the new version of IE 7.

Computer support provided by OIT for Internet Explorer v7 will be limited to un-installation and restoration of service with Internet Explorer 6, the current version of IE.