The Daily Northwestern

The Office of the Registrar no longer will print CAESAR coursebooklets for students starting Winter Quarter due to low demand anda more convenient online PDF option, said Northwestern’s UniversityRegistrar, Suzanne Anderson.

“They don’t see the need for a piece of paper — they lookonline,” Anderson said. “The trends were showing us that studentsweren’t finding it as useful.”

The 30-page booklets — previously available at the registrar’soffice each quarter — listed course offerings for students to planout their class schedules before registering online. But nowstudents can download and print out the PDF version of the bookletsinstead of making the trip to the Rebecca Crown Center.

Students also can look up their courses on the CAESAR Web site,an option available in past years. Students were e-mailed last weekregarding the switch to electronic booklets and will receivee-mails when the schedule for Winter Quarter is available online atthe registrar’s Web site, Anderson said

One of the main problems with the old booklets was that courseinformation often changed after they were released, Andersonsaid.

“It’s out of date as soon as it’s printed,” she said. “Sostudents could be looking at incorrect information.”

Unlike the booklets, the PDF file will be updated online eachquarter, she said. Anderson recommended using the PDF file forinitial planning and then using CAESAR — which uses live data –to check for any course changes.

Undergraduate deans chose to stop printing the booklets lastspring but decided at a meeting Thursday to print it for futureincoming freshmen who still are unfamiliar with the registrationprocess. Although the class of 2008 did not receive a booklet andselected all of their courses online, next year’s incoming students– at the recommendation of peer advisers — will be able getbooklets during their advising sessions.

“I was annoyed and frustrated that we didn’t get a book ofclasses and had to do it all on the Internet,” said Weinbergfreshman Christine Campigotto. “I don’t think that way.”

Campigotto said that even though she didn’t know the PDF wasavailable online during registration, she doesn’t plan on printingout the booklet for future quarters.

“It’s a big hassle to do it yourself,” she said. “My printerwould take all day to print that thing.”

Many students complained that printing out the PDF will be awaste of time, paper and ink. Jessie Mathiason, a Weinbergsophomore, said she usually uses both the course booklet and theCAESAR Web site to search for classes but won’t “use 25 pieces ofpaper” to print the PDF.

“Having it printed out for you is the easiest because studentsare busy,” said Mathiason. “(In the past) you could just grab itand go.”

But Anderson said students don’t have to print out the entirebooklet. For example, a student in the School of Music could chooseto only print out music courses, she said, rather than having tolook through irrelevant engineering courses.

“The thought was that it would be more helpful to not have allof it and to just print the sections you need,” she said.

Not all students were frustrated by the switch, however.

Before his registration earlier this week, Medill freshman DavidVognar said he found the PDF file online and printed out the entirebooklet. He said having the hard copy made the registration processmuch easier.

“I print things out normally anyhow,” Vognar said. “This wasn’tmuch of a burden.”

Reach Andrea Chang at [email protected]