The spring schedule of classes is available today, which means it is time to start preparing for registration.

But as students page through their schedule in anticipation of finding the right class at the right time, most are unaware of the work that goes into its making.

Preparations for the spring schedule began in April of this year, according to Registrar's Office reports.

Noris Williams, office supervisor of room scheduling, said toward the end of April, all the educational departments on campus received a master copy of the schedule in order to make corrections, deletions and additions.

Departments were asked to have the updated version back by July 5.

This is where the problems arise, Williams said. She said most of departments meet the deadline, but there are several that do not.

"Then we receive calls from a department asking why their class was not put in," Williams said. "Simply because they did not meet the deadline."

Room scheduling and the departments maintain a good relationship and have continuous contact throughout the process, she said.

Williams said the copy is proofread many times to avoid errors.

Then the location of the courses are determined by a computer process called Schedule 25 that assigns 85 percent of the rooms, she said.

Some rooms are pre-assigned and approved by the department, and are not affected by Schedule 25, Williams said. Also, she said rooms with a capacity of over 100 are also assigned and not affected.

The computer system chooses from one of the department's first three choices, noting special requests for rooms with features such as a TV/VCR, movable chairs or a sink and tables, Williams said.

Courses that are two to three days per week are assigned first, Williams said. One-day lectures or discussion sections are completed later.

This is why students may have a history class in Modern Languages or an English class in Phyics and Atmospheric Sciences, Williams said.

The remaining 15 percent of room assignments are completed manually, she said.

All campus buildings are filled quickly, and are totally full 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays, Williams said

In the case where rooms are double-booked, Williams said the error is usually in the manual part of the scheduling. For example, she said one master copy is used in creating the schedule, but one person may assign a room in the morning and another employee may accidentally assign the same room later that day.

"It comes down to plain human error," Williams said. "We have a good record and this rarely happens."

Another reason for scheduling problems is that professors go into empty rooms and conduct class where they should not be, she said.

After the scheduling process, Williams said campus departments receive a new master copy for any last-minute corrections before the schedule is printed.

Toni Holloway, Registrar Office application systems analyst and the person responsible for the schedule's typesetting process, said a job that used to take almost two weeks can now be completed in three days to a week.

Sandi Kewley, Registrar's Office supervisor, is responsible for the information in the front section of the schedule.

Copies of the university information from previous schedules are sent to departments, such as the Bursar's Office and the Office of Student Financial Aid, to be updated, Kewley said.

The schedule's front section has "crucial" information that most students do not read, Kewley said. She said only when students miss deadlines do they realize the information was in the schedule of classes.

After all the corrections are made, the book is sent to American Passage, a company based in Seattle, which compiles the book, she said.

The schedule is then printed by Intermountain Color Inc., a Phoenix-based company, Kewley said.

"They have a web press, which is needed to print the newspaper-like copy," Kewley said.

There are 50,000 copies of the spring semester's schedule of classes printed.

The schedules will be distributed today and tomorrow at Bear Down Gym from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and can be picked up in various locations thereafter.

The class schedule is also accessible through UA Info, and Kewley said it has the most current class listings.

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