Beginning today, students will be able to access a new portal system, myLSU, as ITS slowly phases out PAWS.
The new myLSU portal will be accessible via the header of the LSU homepage. PAWS will remain accessible for the next few years through a link in the new portal. The left navigation of the new portal will mimic the navigation of PAWS to prevent confusion during the transition, according to ITS.
Thomas Rodgers, Student Government director of academics, said PAWS is being replaced because it is more than 10 years old and is quickly becoming obsolete. The new system will integrate existing components of PAWS like the degree audit and schedule request tabs.
The function of PAWS is to take portlets — individual parts of the portal that were developed in the 1970s — and integrate them into one interface, according to Sheri Thompson, IT communications and planning officer.
PAWS was created in the ’90s and has remained largely unchanged until now. ITS will slowly switch to myLSU because the current portlets in PAWS are outdated. Replacing the components will take a significant amount of time, Thompson said.
“As we replace the individual components with new technology, the integration needs to be seamless,” Thompson said. “It would take too much time to code these new systems for classes.”
Thompson said the function of myLSU is to integrate the new portlets once they are developed. These portlets will sit inside myLSU and perform similar to the current, outdated ones.
Though myLSU will replace the mainframe of the current PAWS, Rodgers said students should not experience a major difference in performance until the individual components are also replaced. Rodgers said the most noticeable difference is the layout of myLSU.
“It is a lot more graphically pleasing than PAWS,” Rodgers said. “It also will have event notifications that will keep students better informed about what is going