Simpson’s new degree audit now uses colors to help students plan classes and see what needs to be accomplished before graduation.

“As we began working on the new curriculum, it seemed a natural fit to propose the new format for Simpson at that time,” said Laurie Bowers, applications systems analyst.

Registrar Jody Ragan said that the new degree audit is similar to a stoplight system. Every class that a student has completed is colored green. Classes that are in progress appear yellow, and classes that still need to be taken are in red.

“The new one’s definitely easier to navigate,” junior Katie Elder said. “It has it broken down rather than just going on and on.”

All of the individual requirements are broken into sections within each major, making it easier to determine what classes are still needed and which category those classes fall under.

“We spent a lot of time creating the degree audits in a variety of presentation formats to find the one we felt best represented the new curriculum in an understandable format,” Bowers said.

Students should be aware that there are three different categories that majors can fall into. The freshmen are automatically under the Engaged Citizenship Curriculum (EC) in Storm Front.

The second category is the previous Cornerstone System (CS), which the current sophomores, juniors and seniors remain in, unless they have re-declared a major.

The final option is the Cornerstone Curriculum with a new major (CSNW). This is for returning students who wish to complete a new major under the new curriculum system.

“We haven’t heard any bad feedback about it at all,” Ragan said.

The registrar’s office is looking forward to making things simpler for students.

“We’re excited to be able to help the students, and really that’s what the registrar’s office is here for,” Ragan said.

Elder has noticed these changes as well.

“I definitely think they have changed it for the better” Elder said.

Both the students and the faculty are able to enjoy the benefits of the new degree audit.

The faculty is also impressed with the newly improved degree audit. Ragan has heard multiple times that the degree audit is simpler and easier to read.

The changes to the degree audit are not the only changes that the registrar’s office has planned for the school year.

“We’re hoping to make a lot of small improvements like this over the next year,”Ragan said.