Students with a declared major experienced difficulty during pre-registration Monday while using CAESAR, a university official said. The course registration software experienced difficulty with an upgrade installed over the weekend, causing several students with senior standing to encounter problems pre-registering.
Registration functions on CAESAR were shut down later in the day as technicians worked to correct the problem.
“We feel the most fair thing to do is to take it down,” said University Registrar Suzanne Anderson.
CAESAR’s problem may have resulted from students being allowed to register outside of their appointed time, said Tom Board, NUIT director.
Anderson said there was no way to anticipate Monday’s problems because CAESAR could not be tested after the upgrade this weekend.
She said she did not know the number of students affected by the technical difficulties.
Students could not pre-register for certain Spring Quarter courses as a result of the technical difficulties, she said. After technicians could not correct the problem, Anderson said she decided to shut down CAESAR’s pre-registration functions.
A message posted Monday evening on CAESAR said undergraduate pre-registration will be unavailable until further notice.
Anderson said she planned to work with Northwestern University Information Technology officials Monday night to fix the problem.
The message on the Web site said undergraduates will receive an e-mail notification once CAESAR is repaired.
Jessica Jackson, a Weinberg senior who tried to pre-register at 9 a.m. Monday, said she received an error message indicating she had not declared her political science major.
“That made me a little upset, because I’m a senior,” Jackson said.
After trying again at 11 a.m., Jackson said she got into her classes.
Though the Office of the Registrar did not notify departments of the problems Monday, the political science department sent students an e-mail at about noon.
The message warned political science majors and minors of the problems but recommended they “continue to try registering throughout the day.”
