WegReg will be only system for class registration

After 15 years of use by hundreds of thousands of students, RSVP, the telephone response system for payments and registration, will be retired on Sept. 22, leaving WebReg as students' only way to register for classes.

To continue using RSVP, the Center for Computer and Information Technology (CCIT) would have to purchase updated software because the software in use is no longer supported, said Bursar Suellyn Hull.

The system would also have to be brought up to date with COSMOS, the new student information system.

The final cost of the updates would have been about $200,000 ÷ more than the resource-strained university could afford, Hull said.

"Those systems are very expensive," she said. "The dollar amount exceeded what CCIT was willing to spend."

Since WebReg was introduced in November 2000, RSVP use has dropped dramatically.

Now, 15 percent of all registration is done using RSVP and 85 percent is done via student link, Hull said.

"As Student Link has become more and more user-friendly, the advantages of using WebReg outweighed the benefits of phone registration," she said.

For some students who have only used WebReg since they came to the University of Arizona, the phone system will not be missed.

"I've never used (RSVP). I don't know anyone who ever has," said Adam Deguire, a political science sophomore.

"I've never used the system, so it doesn't affect me," said physiology sophomore Lindsey Rousseau.

For some students who were familiar with both systems, however, the change will be a welcome one.

"I don't really like to use the phone system," said electrical and computer engineering graduate student Harsha Gopalakrishnan. "I like WebReg better."

"I normally use the Web so I don't think it's a problem," he added.

Other students said they think having both services would be better.

"They should have (RSVP) as a backup. What if the Internet goes down? I've had bad experiences with that before," said psychology sophomore Lucina Kress. "What if someone doesn't have access to the internet at home?"

Hull said she does not think the switch will cause too much of an inconvenience for students without home Internet access.

"We do offer so many places that have computer access on campus," she said.

Hull added that many of the people who used RSVP were students who logged onto WebReg at the same time trying to make sure that they could get into all of the classes they needed.

÷ Joshua Sills contributed to this report.