Freshmen who had technical trouble registering for courses Tuesday were able to sign up on the first day of classes after the university registrar and others worked late into the night and early Wednesday to resolve issues with CAESAR.
As a result of the problems with CAESAR, freshmen registration times were extended one day and the drop/add registration period was adjusted to begin at 12:01 a.m. today, University Registrar Suzanne Anderson wrote a campuswide e-mail at about 7 p.m. Wednesday.
“As for the system problems, we have solved several problems, but there are some still in process,” Anderson wrote in an e-mail to The Daily at about 10 a.m. Wednesday. “We believe that those remaining issues will not prevent the students from registering.”
Officials dedicated a computer lab at the library to assist students with registration, but Anderson said students also should have been able to register from their own computers. Many students lined up at the registrar’s office, hoping to get help there.
Tom Board, director of Technology Support Services, said Tuesday that the problems with CAESAR resulted from a combination of new software installed this summer and the load of freshman registration. The new software, created by San Francisco-based PeopleSoft, allows Northwestern to take advantage of new functions in its course registration system.
In the long run, Board said, the CAESAR upgrade will save resources because it makes the system entirely Web based, rather than relying on a separate program that can have its own problems.
CAESAR has come a long way since its debut Fall Quarter of 1999. Current seniors, the first class to have used the program every quarter, have experienced little technical difficulty.
But its inaugural year was not as smooth — it crashed the first quarter and students could only sign up in computer labs. Students were infuriated when it crashed the next quarter as well, but CAESAR eventually became more stable.
But its previous reliability was of no help to this year’s freshmen, who saw their first attempt to use CAESAR fall flat.
“What I don’t understand is how they have a whole new program and they have students register the day before classes,” said Medill freshman Christina Paschyn. “There are better ways than over the computer, like manually or by phone. You never know when its gonna crash.”
Some students, like Kelly Valignota, went to computer labs devoted to students trying to register Tuesday only to find long lines and error messages. Valignota, a Weinberg freshman, said it was difficult to attend classes Wednesday that she wasn’t sure she would be able enroll in.
“It’s funny because everyone’s white boards say, ‘I hate CAESAR,'” she said.
White boards posted on dorm room doors were not the only forums from freshmen frustrations. The Rock, NU’s collective message board, was painted by midnight Wednesday with the message, “CAESAR Sucks!”
Joann Cho, a Music freshman, said she had problems on both days of registration, although the process ran more smoothly Wednesday.
“Half the classes I wanted were filled,” she said. “I think it would have been a lot better the first day if it had run like today. I ended up missing two of the classes I signed up for.”
Others expressed similar discontent with their final schedules.
“(Yesterday) I couldn’t register at all, after three hours I gave up,” said Kate Pacher, a Medill freshman. “Today I scheduled but I didn’t get anything I wanted.”
The Daily’s Ben Figa and Andy Nelson contributed to this report.
