Sonoma State University students will soon have a new and improved scheduling system called the Seawolf Scheduler to assist with class registration for the spring semester.

Last week, the Associated Students Senate had a meeting and saw a demonstration for the new software and the student body will use the new scheduling system for spring 2016 registration this November.

Kim Baptista, a junior,  dislikes the current system used for class registration and has experienced many difficulties in her time at the university so far.

“The system is not user friendly and it’s hard to navigate around. You need lots of criteria to find a class,” said Baptista. “If you are a freshman or a transfer student, the system is not intuitive. It is hard to pull up the entire catalog, and you can’t seem to simply look up the necessary class. There are too many steps involved just to find a class.”

A common frustration among students is trying to find a class to fit your schedule or even finding an open one. Many students work,  have sports practice, extra curricular activities so finding a class to fit one’s schedule can be difficult.

Director of Records Reports and Analytics Sean Johnson said the new software is designed to address some of the issues students have when registering for classes. The program will not take away anything from the current system but will have some added new features.

“The Seawolf Scheduler is going to allow you to put in the courses you want to take for the term, and it is going to allow you to put in the times when you cannot take courses,” said Johnson. “[The Seawolf Scheduler] will give you a list of all the possibilities of course schedules that you can have based on what is there in the system.”

The program is part of the E-Advising initiative, and will eventually be included in the new scheduling system. E-Advising is set up to help students make important decisions for their plan when they need them.

“[E-Advising] is designed to help get information into students hands so that they have the ability to make critical decisions about their own academic plans when they need them,” said Johnson. “That information is at their fingertips when they need it, so they are able to make decisions to move toward graduation.”

E-Advising will make class scheduling more clear and will show the classes you need or the prerequisites you have to take before entering into a more advanced course.

Johnson said other California State Universities are currently using this scheduling software.

“Students love it, faculty love it and the administration will love it. It has been great at other campuses and we expect that here as well,” said Johnson.

Student Nickolas Kling ended up in courses he didn’t necessarily want to take but desperately needed units and hopes there are courses that will be beneficial to his academic plan.

“The online list of classes I needed for my major was somewhat clear but when I transferred, trying to add a class was abnormally complicated,” said Kling. “Getting in touch with my adviser and clarifying everything was much more difficult than I anticipated. I am enrolled but not exactly happy with the outcome.”

The Seawolf Scheduler will  hopefully remove the stress and confusion students experience when registering for classes at Sonoma State.

To find the Seawolf Scheduler, visit sonoma.edu and log into your student account and visit MySSU.