Every semester, the Degree Audit Reporting System, otherwise known as a DARS report, arrives in the mailboxes of NIU students.

The report states the progress students have made in meeting their undergraduate requirements.

Before speaking with a student, most advisers and counselors require students to go to the office of Registration and Records, Williston Hall 220, to pick up a copy of the report.

Now, the office is looking to make things easier for students who want to access their class information.

Instead of going down to the office to pick up a new DARS report or having to wait for it to arrive in your mailbox, students will be able to access the DARS report through the Internet. Registration and Records is looking to enact a postcard system that would be mailed to students with general DARS information on them. Students could then go online and obtain the complete reports.

“It would be a really nice option for students to have,” said Sue Doederlein, associate dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

The office is hard at work, implementing the new accessibility.

“It’s coming, but its hard to say when,” said Suzanne Warber, associate director for Registration and Records. “The whole process is very time consuming; we have to take the current program that we are running and make it Web-based.”

NIU students seem to be receptive to DARS going online.

“It would be beneficial and more accessible,” said junior nursing major, Aisha Brownlee.

Talks of accessing the program online have been in the works for two years, but maintaining a balance between the duties at Registration and Records is difficult while trying to reformat the intricate program.

The DARS program NIU uses was originally purchased from the University Of Miami and is updated often, making formatting more difficult.

“We are working very hard on it,” Warber said.

Once the program is finished, it will have to be thoroughly tested by our staff to see if there are any glitches, Warber said.

“The contents of the program are important, so we wouldn’t want to have the program have any shortcomings,” she said.

Tracey Schwarz, a junior elementary education major, said the convenience would be well worth it.

“It would be an excellent idea; it would make the DARS easier to access and I could access it from anywhere,” Schwarz said. “I would not have to worry about losing it.”

Donald Larson, director of Registration and Records, said the cost of upgrading is unknown.

Larson also said that he hopes to have made significant progress in putting the program on the Web within the calendar year.