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WebReg pushes hours of operation to 2 a.m. Stephen Weiss Associate News Editor
Rutgers students will now have an additional 25 hours per week to adjust their class schedules online. The Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) has succeeded in working with WebReg, the site students use to register and adjust their schedules, to expand its hours of operation. The site’s previous hours were from 6:30 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The new hours of operation will be from 6:30 to 2 a.m. every day, including during the course registration period. Christopher Markosian, RUSA’s academic affairs chair and a School of Arts and Sciences senior, said working to expand the registration system’s hours of operation has been on his to-do list since the election this past spring. “Concerns have been continuously raised by the student body regarding the hours of operation of WebReg. In particular, many students question the closing period of the online service. Our goal as RUSA is to make the academic process easier for our students,” he said.
Markosian said that in addition to allowing students more time to adjust their schedules late at night when they are likely to be awake, the new hours of operation entail less confusion as they will be the same before, during and after the course registration period. The reason WebReg is not available all day is because the system needs a window of about four to six hours for data backup in case of unexpected issues or emergencies. If WebReg were live at all times, the data would not be backed up accurately and thousands of student records and files would be jeopardized. Markosian, along with RUSA’s vice president, Christie Schweighardt, worked with Kenneth Iuso, Rutgers’ executive university registrar, to discuss options regarding WebReg’s hours of operation expansion. “Iuso was more than willing to address our concerns,” Markosian said. “He was ver y receptive to requests regarding changes to the hours of operation in order to create a better experience for students.” After discussing their options, Markosian, Schweighardt and RUSA president Evan Covello, decided to propose longer hours
This summer, the Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) collaborated with WebReg to add 25 hours each week to the platform’s hours of operation. The course registration tool will now be available from 6:30 to 2 a.m. every day. JEFFREY GOMEZ / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR of operation while allowing ample time for data backup, he said. The proposal was also suppor ted by multiple other RUSA chairs and representatives. Iuso told The Daily Targum that there are no tradeoffs or implications surrounding this expansion
of hours and that no additional money is required to go through with it. “The changes to WebReg will affect all Rutgers undergraduate and graduate students across all three campuses, directly impacting a total of close to 70,000 people,” Schweighardt
said. “RUSA is always committed to helping students first. We work with University faculty, staff and administration to address these concerns. RUSA’s success in improving WebReg is one of numerous examples of our commitment to serving our constituents.”
Rutgers named best 4-year school in N.J. Chloe Dopico Associate News Editor
Based on qualifications that included tuition, retention rate and student services, Rutgers was named the top four-year university in the state. Competitors included The New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rowan University and Montclair State University. JEFFREY GOMEZ / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR
Rutgers—New Brunswick was recently named the best fouryear university in New Jersey by schools.com. The University was ranked first, beating out other in-state competitors such as Ramapo College, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The website analyzed 33 New Jersey institutions for factors such as cost, flexible learning options and program availability, according their site. The schools were assessed on a 100-point scale using the most recent data available from government databases and based on criteria such as number of degrees of fered, tuition and fees, flexibility, student ser vices, and rates of student graduation, retention and transfer, according to tapinto.net.
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“In addition to ranking first for the number of programs, it also ranks second for the number of distance education options available,” according to the site. “As one of the best online colleges for New Jersey, Rutgers Online offers a number of master’s degrees as well as bachelor degree completion programs in nursing and business administration.” Rutgers also held a top 10 ranking for the average net price and the low amount of debt carried by graduates. According to their site, schools. com ranked 1,649 4-year colleges and universities in the U.S. Each school was scored on a 100-point scale, factoring in data including tuition, the cost of books, scholarship aid for low-income students, median debt of graduating students and more. “Rutgers University—New Brunswick has far and away the most degree programs available at any one institution in the state,” according to the site.