A time of the year that has been known to induce stress will soon be upon Sonoma State University students; it’s not the holidays, and it’s not finals. It’s registration.

The stories of seniors taking lower division general education classes or having to stay in school an extra semester because they couldn’t get into a class that met the ethnic studies requirement are numerous.

“I’ve been trying to get into a class to fill my ethnic studies requirement for the past four semesters,” said senior Westleigh Emord. “Every semester, I go into registration assuming I’ll get the class that I need as my registration time gets earlier and earlier, yet it never happens.”

These problems aren’t restricted to Sonoma State University; this is a problem that plagues the entire California State University system. 

The CSU system has been working to solve this problem. Their answer to the problems associated with having enough classes, staff and classrooms to accommodate every student’s general education requirements is known as the California State University Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment program.

This program is being funded by the $10 million that Gov. Jerry Brown set aside for the California State University system, according to the Daily Sundial. 

The Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment program allows technology to work in the schools’ favor by allowing any campus within the CSU system to have fully online general education courses.

These online courses can be taken by any student attending a CSU campus, and the classes don’t require multiple teachers or classrooms, which makes it financially easier for the schools. 

It also gives students the opportunity to take classes that may not be offered at their home campus and still have it count towards their degree. The credits are automatically transferred to the student’s home campus.

“I wish this program had been in place before now,” said sophomore Kayla Swenson. “I just declared my major, so up until now I’ve only been taking [general education courses], and I can never get into the ones I actually need. Plus, a lot of them are bigger lectures, which makes it hard to really get something out of them.”

The online part of the program has been in effect since the beginning of the current semester, but little was known about it during registration last semester. 

The program was put together under time constraints and was only presented to schools in April, according to the Poly Post.

The program is now a semester in and is available to students for spring 2014, and registering for these online courses is simple; students can go to calstate.edu/concurrent and follow the clearly defined steps at the bottom of the webpage.

Before registering, students should talk to their academic advisors to ensure that the classes they are considering taking are necessary. 

Classes that don’t fall under the home campus’ general education categories will transfer over as elective credit, according to the Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment system’s website.

A physical form has to be filled out that can be found on the program’s website as well. Once it is completed it has to be sent to the home campus’ Office of Admissions and Records. 

Fees are paid in the same way they are for classes at the home campus, which is based on the number of units being taken. 

Additional instructions are printed at the bottom of the enrollment form.

 “I think it’s really great that our governor cares about education and is working to make it easier to get a degree. I value my education, but I’m trying to get out of here before I’m 40,” said Swenson.