Work has started on a project that will enable NIU students to use the telephone for schedule completion, late registration and schedule changes.

“It will be at least two years before the system will be in operation,” said NIU Associate Provost Lou Jean Moyer. “We will have to educate people in how to run the system.”

Phone registration has not been installed in the past because there has been a lack of funding, Moyer said.

Students will be able to use any touch tone phone to make schedule changes, said Richard Durfee, NIU Registration and Records director.

“The equipment translates the touch tone signal into a signal that the mainframe computer understands,” Durfee said. The message is then translated back into a voice the student hears, he said.

Computer development has been started, but to make the system operational “the university will have to add memory to the mainframe and we will have to increase the number of phone lines coming into the university,” Durfee said.

NIU approved $60,000 to purchase computer hardware that will allow students to register seven days a week for 12 to 16 hours a day.

Once completed, the new registration system will allow faculty and administrators to determine how many students have registered for a class at any time.

However, students will still have to register on paper and mail it in as before. The phones will only be used for add/drop, late registration and schedule completion. Students will be assigned a day when they can call in and make schedule changes to prevent too many people calling in on the first day.