Registrar: Course catalogs not shifting to online format

By Richard Nieva

After some concern that course description and schedule guides would move to an exclusively online and paperless system, University Registrar Monica Augustin confirmed that Santa Clara would still be producing printed schedules for next fall.

"We will continue to print scheduled classes for students," said Augustin. "And we will also continue to look for technology that will empower students and faculty to get resources at the desktop."

The concern came at the end of fall quarter, when the course description guide for the upcoming winter quarter was noticeably modified from the previous magazine form to the current newsprint tabloid form.

"There were no classrooms, no descriptive blurbs for each class," said Bobby Philbrook, Associated Students vice president.

The condensed catalog gave Philbrook the inkling that a shift would be made toward a more online-oriented system, which prompted him to go meet with Augustin the same day the catalogs were issued.

"It wasn't a broken system. There would have been no need to fix it," he said.

At the meeting, Philbrook said that Augustin told him the reason for the change was because the university wanted to move toward a paperless system, although he said she may have meant it would be a gradual move.

Augustin said that when she met with Philbrook, the digital form was only in the discussion stage.

"There was never a final decision made to remove the printed schedule for our production calendar," she said.

AS then solicited responses from students through its comment card system, the "Be Heard" forum.

AS also posed the question of whether students would want the catalog to go paperless in an event calendar e-mail. AS received several responses favoring the old magazine form, Philbrook said.

The student senate picked up the issue, which prompted it to draft an official resolution at the end of January requesting a return to the previous course catalogue style.

"Many students felt as if the decision to move from the magazine-style course catalogue to a digital form was made without their knowledge," AS declared in the official resolution.

Augustin cited a real-time component as one of the reasons for the shift to digital guides. She mentioned that the paper guides are printed at an off-site printing office about a month before registration begins. With any printed document, there are bound to be immediate changes, she said. Online, these changes can be updated directly.

"We want to provide you with the most current information we have," she said. "As technology increases, we look to see what we can bring to the community that will enhance their informed decisions about the curriculum."

She also cited one of the reasons for a switch to paperless as a move toward sustainability.

"We want to stop killing trees," she said.

While Philbrook said he understands the environmental argument, he also stressed that the paper catalog is a resource worth using, since many students highlight and mark up the guide to note which classes they are considering.

"Plastic is bad, too, but that doesn't mean we should get rid of the forks in Benson," said Philbrook, adding that the printed schedules are worthwhile as long as there is a demand from students.

She said it was her understanding that Philbrook represented the students and that she was willing to listen to his points.

The catalogues will remain printed next fall, returning to a stapled booklet form, though Augustin said she doesn't know what will happen in the future.

The guide will not fully return to the old magazine form, but most likely a horizontal booklet due to logistics about how the data fit on the pages, she said, adding that whatever it will be, the booklet will be recyclable.

Though the booklet will still be available, other online enhancements are constantly being added to the registration process, she said.

These include different ways to search for classes, a PDF document that students can use to search by subject, and a feature called the "enrollment backpack," which will bundle information together for students, said Augustin.

Contact Richard Nieva at (408) 554-4546 or rnieva@scu.edu.