By Emily GlazerThe Daily Northwestern
As Fall Quarter registration comes to an end, CAESAR is gearing up for a major facelift that will take place beginning this summer.
CAESAR will be upgraded to have an improved navigation and look and feel, said Ann Dronen, Northwestern’s director of enterprise systems.
While Dronen said NU is still working out specific changes, she said there will be a new feature called the Student Center, which will combine many functions, such as class schedules, to-dos and holds, onto one page.
Dronen said she will begin to hold initial discussions with Associated Student Government next week about the actual implementation and upgrade procedures.
“We’re working on opening up a dialogue with the students to make sure we’re focusing on the right things for the program,” she said.
These changes will be made possible because Oracle, the vendor product that NU uses, releases upgrades every four to five years, Dronen said.
“We look at when the upgrades are coming out to get new functionality, improvement of technology and to keep up with federal regulations,” Dronen said.
The changes will occur in August because fewer students will be on campus, and also in October, which comes between fall and winter registration, Dronen said.
“There’s no perfect time to do this,” she said. “We’re just finding a window of time when there isn’t a major activity going on, such as admission or financial aid.”
A number of extra precautions will be taken during this upgrade because the last major CAESAR upgrade caused a crash just as freshmen attempted to register for classes at the beginning of Fall Quarter 2003.
Dronen said the crash has “been at the forefront of our minds.”
Dronen and her team will employ an outside firm to set up a production-like environment simulating the registration period to see how well the new system responds, she said. She said these tests will occur as many times as necessary in advance of “going live” to ensure that the updated system will work properly once available.
CAESAR debuted Fall Quarter 1999 and crashed the first quarter it was implemented. At the time, students could only sign up for classes in computer labs.
It crashed the next quarter as well, but remained stable for about another four years.
The Daily reported another crash in September 2003 that resulted from a combination of new software installed in July and the load of freshmen registration data. Freshman registration times were extended one day, and the drop/add registration period was adjusted as well. Despite those accommodations, students covered The Rock in anti-CAESAR graffiti in protest.
While some freshmen had to wait in lines for hours at several campus locations to sign up for classes, others said they were not affected at all.
Lexi Barta, now a Communication senior, said she thought the 2003 crash had a greater impact on certain students, depending on their school and preregistration dates.
Fortunately, Barta said, the crash did not affect her, but her neighbor in Bobb Hall did not have the same luck.
“The girl next door to me did not get into any classes and was freaking out so much and calling her parents and crying and was stressing out,” Barta said.
Medill senior Emily Horbar did not have to wait in line at the time either, but she recalled a very stressful registration period because of the “added burden of a glitch in the system.”
“Everyone thought we’d get shut out of everything and didn’t know what to do,” Horbar said. “The panic that normally ensues during registrations increased tenfold.”
Though Weinberg sophomore Michael Marsh-Soloway said he has no major problems with CAESAR in general, he pointed out the current system leaves much to be desired.
“I don’t think there’s anything specifically wrong with CAESAR, (but) I think it could be more efficient,” he said.
Horbar had specific suggestions, including a more “user-friendly” interface.
“I think that the program itself can be kind of awkward to stumble around in,” she said.
She said she would certainly “applaud” aesthetic changes to the system.
“Sometimes you feel like you’re clicking back and forth for a thousand things,” she said. “Especially the ambiguity and confusion between the distinction for a class and a discussion section.”
Reach Emily Glazer at [email protected].
