New positions and other changes totaling about $9.5 million are needed to improve the ConnectND software system that has drawn complaints from North Dakota college campuses, the system's executive director says.

The state Board of Higher Education voted to adopt the recommendations Thursday "subject to the money being available." The recommendations include 11.5 new positions, as well as technical and security upgrades.

Bonnie Neas, the executive director for ConnectND, said all but $3 million of the cost could be found in Gov. John Hoeven's budget recommendation and the current base program budget. The 10 consultants' recommendations could be spread over time, she said, but if the rest of the money is not found to pay for them, services would have to be cut or student fees would have to be raised.

Students now pay a fee to help support the software system, which is designed to link colleges and government offices. It has been plagued by complaints it is slow and not user-friendly, and auditors have said students' Social Security numbers and credit card accounts could be compromised because of the system problems.

Neas estimated the cost of adding 11.5 positions at about $825,000 a year. They would join 61 already working on the system, which is "woefully understaffed" at present, she said.

Neas said hiring the additional workers is a key to fixing ConnectND's problems.

"Without them, the rest will be very hard to accomplish," she said.

Some schools have complained about the system's ability to handle accounting for research grants and contracts. Neas said a separate software system may be needed to correct that problem.

Otherwise, she said, "It's like putting a Band-Aid on a wound that doesn't want to heal."

Neas told board members Thursday that no system is perfect, but if the recommendations are put in place, "the satisfaction level should raise considerably" in two or three years.

Neas and Randall Thursby, a former chief information officer for Georgia's university system, were hired to fix the problems with ConnectND. They said they talked with representatives of some of the 645 similar programs around the country.

"We have to do everything possible to implement this," Dickinson State University President Lee Vickers said in an interview.