University Registrar Georgia McRae faced tough questions from the Academic Senate members Monday afternoon as she discussed the university's plans to eliminate printed copies of course schedules.

McRae said the decision to discontinue printed schedules after this academic year is designed to provide students and faculty with accurate, real-time information about the schedule of classes.

"Before the (paper) schedule even goes to print, it's already out of date" because changes are constantly being made to the schedule, she said.

Instead of a printed copy, an up-to-date schedule of courses will now be available exclusively on CheckMarq, she said. The university has been posting the schedule of courses on CheckMarq since 2004.

But Senate members voiced concerns about CheckMarq's reliability and the impact a paperless system would have on the burden already placed on students' advisers.

Senate member Jason Rae, a College of Arts & Sciences freshman and student representative to the Senate, said students like hard copies of the schedule because they are clear and easy to follow.

"Students want it laid out in front of them," Rae said.

The Registrar's office is aware of these concerns and is working with Information Technology Services to develop an updatable PDF version of the schedule to put all the information in one place, McRae said.

A number of senators said CheckMarq operates too slowly to be used effectively by advisers who require quick and easy access to information about their students and about the schedule.

Associate Professor of History Carla Hay said CheckMarq slows advisers down and is often not available, particularly when many students are using it at the same time for scheduling purposes.

Hay said she often ends up printing out information "because that's the most efficient way to advise my students."

Marquette Student Government President Alex Hermanny, a College of Arts & Sciences senior, said the elimination of printed schedules does not eliminate the costs of paper if students and faculty still prefer printed materials.

"As we go to a paperless system, it seems like all we do is add more paper and shift the costs to students and departments," he said.

Rae also questioned how advising sessions for freshmen during campus Preview weekends and orientation week will work without hard copies of schedules.

"Are freshman at Preview going to have to sit in a room with computers?" Rae said.

McRae said other institutions that have made similar moves to eliminate printed schedules had many of the same concerns that the Senate raised about the process.

She said those institutions typically took about a year to get used to the changes, but ended up preferring the new system "because they knew when they were advising their students they were providing them with the right information."

But Hay questioned whether those institutions actually prefer the new system or if they have simply learned to live with it.

Associate Professor of Psychology Kristy Nielson said the most important aspect of advising was student-faculty interaction, and she and others want a system that will allow them to spend most of their time working with students.

"We will get used to whatever we have," she said. "What we're requesting is that we spend more time working with students."

McRae said the Registrar's office will continue to work to address the concerns raised at the meeting.