A few days after TRACS opens, some advisers open their office doors to a line of panicked students hoping to be added to closed classes.

Arthur Doederlein, director of undergraduate studies and academic adviser for the department of communication, said he often finds himself in this situation.

Doederlein said the budget can be blamed for the lack of sections offered for certain classes .

“We only get so much money to spend,” he said. “We have more students than a lot of areas in the university, but we don’t necessarily get that money for staffing.”

Doris MacDonald, director of undergraduate studies and academic adviser in the department of English, said she also has many students who come to her in need of a class.

“One of the reasons we’re stuck is because we’re in a bad financial time,” she said.

Doederlein said he does have the power to add a student to a class if a student has exhausted all other methods of gaining access and needs a class to graduate on time, but class size always is considered.

“I want to keep the people I work with happy, but at the same time help the student,” he said.

Macdonald also said she would add a student to a class if another one couldn’t be taken in its place as a requirement for graduation.

“I don’t think we’ve ever kept a student out of a class they’ve needed to graduate,” she said.

Kristi Clements, a junior business management major, said she has had a problem getting into a class because only one section was offered.

“I know I pay a lot for tuition,” she said. “I’d like to see more of my money go to the business program and more teachers.”

Senior marketing major Mary MacCoubrey said she had problems getting into classes for this semester, but her adviser put her in.

Doederlein said if certain colleges were recognized for how good they really are by the state, then they may get more funding.

“We don’t have any rankings or ratings to throw at anybody,” he said. “Any time you have accreditation, you are going to have a rating and ranking that you can support requests with.”

Doederlein said he has noticed NIU President John Peter’s efforts in gaining recognition, but realizes how difficult it is to alleviate the situation.

“It’s easy to analyze the problem,” he said. “It’s not easy to analyze a solution.”