ACES Wild!

By Phillip Bowie | Pulse Staff Reporter

Alamo Colleges Education Services (ACES) is useful when registering for classes, but using it for communication between students and professors seems to be a problem.

Before ACES, students would register for classes using their social security number instead of a Banner ID. The first time ACES was introduced, a lot of students and professors did not understand the system and found it very difficult to use. Registration issues seem to have subsided.

However, difficulties persist when it comes to using ACES for communication between professors and their students, or between the college and students, since many students never check their ACES email account.

Carlos Hutchinson, a sophomore Education major, said, “I think ACES is not the best way to contact students, and I also think that there should be a way that when you get something on ACES it is sent to your personal email.”

One other problem Hutchinson had with ACES is that he paid before the semester started during early registration, but he was still dropped from a class. Although he has taken the course, Hutchinson said his grade still hasn’t been posted on his ACES transcript.

Some students said that they would rather their professors text them information instead of using an email at all, because they don’t like to search through all the junk mail in their ACES email account. Others said they don’t check their ACES account at all unless their professors tell them to check it.

Professors say that the college district does not want them to use personal emails to contact their students, and instead professors should use the ACES student email. The professors have been told to do this for safety reasons, not only for themselves but for the students.

ACES is not all bad news. Some students have success stories of being able to contact their professors without any problems at all.

“I’m not very big on email, but the times I’ve tried to email my teachers using ACES student email, I’ve been able to,” said Paul Ochoa, a sophomore Communications major.

A good number of students only look at their ACES account for one reason, and it’s to register for class. Unless you have a course where it requires you to log onto your ACES account on a regular basis, chances are you won’t be getting on ACES very often.

Alyssa De La O, a freshman Communications major, said, “I am new to the whole ACES thing, so I’m still learning how to do everything students can do on it. But with the help of my counselor, I was able to register using ACES without any problems so far.”

To log onto your ACES student email, go to ACES Home Page and click on the ACES login tab. Students also have access to two gigs of storage space on this site.