The Office of the Registrar recently launched a new online Major Certification Form which allows students to view their progress in the completion of their major once they have declared, as well as see what requirements they have left to complete. The new form also includes a section for planning, for overriding a class, and for explaining situations to advisers. The College of Letters, the College of Social Studies, and the University major are not participating in this change due to differing requirements.

Previously the University used a Senior Concentration Form, which students were required to turn in their first semester of senior year. This form involved manually filling out the courses they believed fulfilled the major requirements, and then handing them into the departments. Next, depending on the department, the student’s adviser or the department chair would approve it.

“It was all done on paper,” said Registrar Anna van der Burg. “So if subsequently a student withdrew from a course or didn’t actually get into the courses they said they would for the semester, they had to go get the paper form, bring it back to their advisers, people would have to adjust it, and it would get reinitialized.”

Van der Burg and Associate Registrar Susan Krajewski spent the past year and a half preparing this change. In order to provide the correct information, they went to all the departments to find out how each managed the paper forms and what the major requirements were to ensure the website could incorporate the important aspects.

“We designed it as we went, which was really kind of cool because we were flexible,” Krajewski said. “We didn’t have a predetermined notion. We worked with departments and had to make something very flexible that worked for the entire University.”

Some students have said they are confused with the new online form. Sunita Karan ’12 said that she does not completely understand how the classes are categorized.

“It puts all of your classes into categories that they’re eligible for, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they go in those categories,” she said. “I don’t know how to change that.”

Since Karan majors in American Studies, which is interdisciplinary, she says she will have a separate training session.

“It will be helpful once I know how to navigate because it allows classes that are not cross-listed to be overridden to be put [toward] the major,” she said.

Scott Shoemaker ’13 transferred to the University last year and said he found the new system helpful for planning, but frustrating when applying courses from his previous school toward his major.

“It’s kind of like an uphill battle,” Shoemaker said. “It would be so much easier if I could fill out a form, turn that in, and then just talk to a professor about it.”

Krajewski believes there are some confusions because the system is new. To account for this, she and van der Burg are holding training sessions on Wednesday, Oct. 12 from 4:15–5:00 p.m., and Monday, Oct. 17 from 12–1 p.m. in Shanklin 107. They will be showing a Powerpoint and walking through an example of what students might experience.

“We’re hoping students will come, and we’ve got a lot of FAQs out on the web to give them basic things we could think of when we designed it,” Krajewski said. “We’re learning on the fly. It’s new to everyone, including us.”

If students cannot attend the training sessions, van der Burg and Krajewski are willing to help those experiencing problems using the document. They said that problems regarding certain requirements should still be addressed with students’ advisors or the chair of their department, but confusions with the setup can be brought to the Office of the Registrar throughout the year.