After months of deliberations, the registrar is moving forward with a new process that will divide students into groups and stagger registration times based on credits earned.

The process, known as time ticketing, will act as a trial to compare the new system with that of the previous semester, in which students would enroll at the same time at 7 a.m. during registration week.

Registrar Brian Scholten said the old enrollment process led to site crashes and freezing for many students, which he described as a “minor disaster.” Scholten said those events prompted the registrar’s office to look for alternative registration systems.

Similar to the old process, students will register on a given day corresponding with their standing as an honors student, exploratory student, senior, junior, sophomore or freshman. However, students in each of these groups will be further divided based on their earned credits. Students with the most credits will register earlier than those with fewer.

Scholten said the new process should ease traffic on the college’s Internet service provider, making registration week more efficient.

“By breaking the students into smaller groups the system should work more like it’s supposed to,” Scholten said. “You’re not getting up at 7 a.m. and competing with 1,200 of your peers. This way you’re only registering with 200 or 300 students at most.”

Scholten said reminder emails will be sent to students and faculty about the time ticketing process late this week. The college will also use Facebook and Twitter updates.

Senior Anna Ghosin-Szeliga, student worker with the registrar for more than two years, said the new process should be easier on the college’s Internet bandwidth, making it easier for students to register for classes.

“Students can do what they want and not worry about the system crashing when they’re in the middle of registering for classes,” Ghosin-Szeliga said.

Scholten said the Office of the Registrar will send out an email with a link to a survey at the end of registration week asking students to evaluate the new process and compare it with the old system.

“We’re confident this semester’s experience will be better,” Scholten said.

Ed Cluett, associate professor of biology, said he is worried students will skip his class, New and Emerging Diseases, which includes all grades, to register for their classes.

“When you have students from all classes, you’ll have this situation happening every day for a week. I guess we’ll have to see what happens,” he said.