[Ed. note: Beth Broyles is the Director of Student Information Systems in the Office of the Registrar.]
April 1 was OPUS’ 20th birthday and this is no April Fool’s joke. OPUS went live on 4/1/2000 with all features. Why April Fool’s Day, you might ask? This day was the first day of Fall 2000 preregistration. Our first support question was from a student accessing OPUS from a semester abroad. The day was a very successful one after several years of hard work. It was a labor of love to bring OPUS into the Emory world and it has been a pleasure watching it grow over the past 20 years.
Thanks to all of the people who were there during the initial implementation. There are around 10 team members who were part of the original implementation who still work tirelessly to support OPUS every day. Some originals have moved on to support Emory in other roles and some who support OPUS now were end users at the beginning. I won’t name anyone for fear I leave someone out, but I appreciate you all for everything you do.
Thanks also to the majority of you receiving this email who weren’t part of OPUS 20 years ago. Some of you work tirelessly as part of the OPUS team now or as partners who support the system. Others are our loyal users who provide us with an endless supply of great ideas to enhance OPUS for students, faculty and staff. We need every one of you and value your guidance and support.
We wanted to mark this day with a small celebration, but as we are in unprecedented times, this email acknowledgement will have to suffice (for now.) Next year OPUS will be an adult, so that might be a fitting time to get together and celebrate.
Stay safe, and I look forward to seeing you on campus in the not too distant future.