When it comes to the seemingly endless and tedious process of class registration, NIU students should learn to accept complications as “just one of those things.”

That is how Director of Registration and Records Richard Durfee referred to the more than 11,000 summer schedule books mailed out last week which contain invalid course and fee information.

More than 430 errors in course information, more than 300 errors in fee information and a large number of courses with no information whatsoever appear in the recently released books. The invalid information affects courses in nearly every academic department of the university’s seven colleges.

Arthur Doederlein, communications undergraduate studies coordinator, said, “Registration is hard enough, and this just makes it a mess.”

Durfee said his office decided not to reprint the books because it would delay the summer registration process by at least two weeks.

In a memo to NIU faculty, Durfee recommended that all students see their adviser before registering for correct course information, adding that this is a normal practice for students before registering in any case.

Doederlein said he has already received a number of phone calls concerning the errors in the book and expects some serious impact on registration.

“I would have rather waited two weeks to get a correct book,” Doederlein said, adding that the supplemental information sent to departments is not very clear.

The Office of Records and Registration has included an attachment with the books listing the courses which contain invalid information, however, there is no listing of correct information and no listing for the large number of courses left blank.

Wayne Albrecht, College of Business assistant dean, said advisers in the college are aware of the problems with the book, which affect a majority of business course fees, and are prepared to handle any difficulties which might result from the incorrect books. But Albrecht said he was uncertain if there would be a great amount of students seeking advisement for business courses because of the books.

He said the college’s advisers are always busy, and summer scheduling problems most likely “will not surface until students receive their schedules in late May.”

Carol Tallman, a spokesperson for the American Passages Media Corporation which published the books, said the errors which appear in the books are the result of errors on the tape sent by NIU to the publishers.

Tallman said each university prepares its own tape. The information contained on that tape then is sent to the printer to be typeset.

“As far as we know, the errors were in the tape (sent by NIU),” Tallman said.

Durfee said the information for the books was proofed before being sent to American Passage, and the incorrect infromation was “just one of those things.”

No student fees are involved in the printing of the books, however, Durfee said he did not know exactly how much the books cost the university and that the university will not receive any reimbursement for the misprinted books.