Some students think that CAESAR is a pain, so much so that there is a group on thefacebook.com named “CAESAR MUST DIE!”
But the Registrar’s Office is trying to change students’ opinions by offering new features on Northwestern’s registration system to make it more useful.
“We’re trying to make doing their business more convenient,” University Registrar Suzanne Anderson said. “The new features allow them to transact business from their rooms or wherever they are instead of going to the office.”
Some new features include a section to let students pay for transcript requests online using a credit card, one that allows students to print their proof of enrollment from their computer and a tool that lets students search for Weinberg distribution requirements online.
Previously, students needed to go to the Registrar’s Office, located just south of the Sorority Quads in the Rebecca Crown Center, for majority of these services, instead of doing them online through the registration system.
“We work as a team to test these and so forth and so we work to have (the new features) meet the needs as best as we envision them,” Anderson said.
Students said they appreciated the additions to CAESAR.
“My favorite new feature is the distro search because I won’t have to print out pages and pages of stuff and figure out which classes I need and which classes I want to take that way,” said Amita Shah, a Weinberg sophomore. “I think that the new features will definitely help me when trying to figure out exactly what classes I need.”
Weinberg sophomore Ang Li said he plans to use the feature that allows students to place online orders for their official transcripts.
“The online transcript request makes it easier to pay for your transcript online instead of going to the Registrar’s Office and wait in a long line whenever you need a transcript,” he said. “Even if you are at home in the summer, or it’s late-night during the school year, you can still pay for a transcript.”
In addition to the changes that have already been added, the Registrar’s Office is planning to add even more new features to CAESAR soon.
One such additional feature will let students accept or reject their financial aid award package online, Anderson said. She also said new graduate students will be able to accept or decline their admission through CAESAR.
“I think that over the years that CASEAR has existed, we have continued to add features that will make students like us more, and we hope to continue to do that to make CAESAR more efficient,” Anderson said.
Reach Sameera Kumar at [email protected].
