But for some students, the burden has been greater.

Elizabeth J. Quinn ’04, who has a work-study job at the Boston Medical Center, said she received her first paycheck a month late, for too little money and at one point was owed upwards of $400.

“As a financial aid recipient, I owe my parents $2,000,” she said. “It’s been hard because they really need the money”

No Pain, No Gain

The problems with the new Peoplesoft system have caused some to question whether the new system is worth the trouble it has caused.

“So far, it is clearly more hassle than it’s worth,” said Homer.

Touborg said that the new system may cause the reexamination of policies.

“There were people who were saying this may be too hard,” she said. “[Some are] questioning the time and labor system, and that may be something we need to talk about.”

But Peoplesoft Public Relations Manager Lisa C. Sion said she was unaware of any major problems.

“It’s a surprise,” she said. “I was not aware that there was an issue.”

She said that the Peoplesoft product may not be the source of the difficulties.

“With any system that has been implemented, there’s a lot of facets that go into the product, [including] who has implemented it...and how it has been implemented,” she said. “Obviously Peoplesoft has a strong commitment to higher ed. It is an extremely important industry to us...I feel confident that this will be resolved quickly.”

Whether or not this is an issue of getting the system running or its general use remains to be seen, said Touborg.

“It’s just too soon to know whether this is an initial problem or longer term,” she said.

Nonetheless, she said that some of these problems were expected.

“This is going to be hard and we have said so from the beginning...there’s a learning curve and brand new processes and systems that may not work as well as we had hoped.”

—Staff writer David S. Hirsch can be reached at hirsch@fas.harvard.edu.