Preregistration for Fall Quarter will not be conducted on the World Wide Web, administrators said.
CAESAR, the once-touted, since-doubted Web-based registration system developed by PeopleSoft, Inc., is currently accepting registrations for Summer Session and cannot handle Fall preregistration simultaneously, Registrar Suzanne Anderson said Sunday.
“You can’t do two setups at the same time,” she said.
Instead, the registrar will go to a “reserve capacity” system in which departments will reserve spaces for majors. The spaces will be available to majors when regular registration — which Anderson said will proceed as planned — begins Monday, May 22.
Students are advised to contact their major departments for information on reserving spots in classes needed to graduate. Several schools and departments — including history, English and the Medill School of Journalism — e-mailed students Friday with revised preregistration procedures.
The FallSummer conflict was unforeseen by the Office of the Registrar, Anderson said.
Anderson said that because the reserve capacity system achieves much the same effect as preregistration, some are beginning to doubt whether preregistration is necessary at all.
“Because we can accomplish a lot of the same effect through reserve capacity, it’s really kind of a debate whether we even need preregistration,” she said. “And I expect that debate will continue.”
Some reacted to the news with weary sarcasm.
“I know this will surprise everyone, but there are problems with CAESAR!” wrote Emily Haite, Medill academic records assistant, in her Friday e-mail to undergraduates.
CAESAR made its rocky debut Winter Quarter. Early system tests revealed several glitches, and preregistration was canceled.
Administrators hoped to have CAESAR ready for regular registration Nov. 15, but software problems forced the university to limit registration to computer labs in Kresge Hall. The process took more than two weeks.
Registration for Spring Quarter went more smoothly, although a group of freshmen accidentally were allowed to register before everyone else because of a human error. The offending freshmen were discovered, stripped of their ill-gotten classes and forced to register in their proper slots.
