Abstract
The Florida state legislature mandated creation of a new statewide student advising system, intended to provide a key piece of infrastructure to support the state's distance learning initiatives. The intended audience is 1.5 million high school senior and post-secondary students. Legislators want students to be able to shop for degrees at the various state institutions, view their transcripts, check degree progress, and assess the impact of potential transfers or change of major. The scope of the system involves 10 public universities and 28 public community colleges. This paper discusses the design of this system and challenges involved with implementation.