Returning on-campus Binghamton University students may find housing registration to be less stressful and more convenient next semester if officials are able to get all of the kinks worked out on time for a new online system.

According to Chris Cullinane, associate director of Residential Life, the office is working to have the program ready for sign-ups come spring, but wants to make sure it is as secure as possible before officially making the switch over from the traditional process.

‘We want very much to do online registration this year, but we haven’t made that call yet for sure,’ Cullinane said. ‘We need to be able to demonstrate that not only will it be successful, but it’s also going to be secure and it’s going to work well with all the systems.’

BU is undergoing a shift of its Web center from the BUSI system ‘ which includes student records and allows access to online files ‘ to the Banner system, a program used by the majority of SUNY campuses. The phasing out of BUSI was set to begin in November, but officials said students would not likely notice a difference until later on in the academic year.

Since the Banner system would not have the capacity for online housing registration, the University purchased a product to handle the new procedure last year. Because of certain aspects of BU’s registration process, however, the product was not immediately ready for use.

One such aspect is the priority system, which sets students’ registration times according to a certain set of standards ‘ such as credit hours and scholar status ‘ and, according to Cullinane, helps make registration ‘as fair as possible.’

‘We firmly believe that having those priorities is very important because we believe it’s one of the reasons that people like to stay at Binghamton for as long as they do,’ Cullinane said. ‘It helps sustain our communities.’

If the new system does pan out for next semester, students will most likely be able to access the system in February after paying the housing deposit, and will form ‘teams,’ which Cullinane likened to one person ‘ the captain ‘ collecting housing cards in the virtual sense. The captain, who sends messages to others inviting them to live with him or her, would log into the system in March during a designated time slot, which would coincide with both credit hours and the group’s priority level, and students would then proceed to sign up.

In the new system, however, groups will no longer be lined up in a single-file order based on credit hours, but put into time slots, which would still ensure priority, Cullinane added.

Officials plan to test the system next month.

‘The main thing I want to emphasize is that if we deem that it’s not ready for prime time, or if there are bugs or glitches or problems, or performance isn’t there, then we’re not going to push it,’ he said. ‘If we’re not 100 percent confident that this is going to work perfectly, well, then we’re going to hold back on it.’

‘Our intent is to use it this year ‘ but we’re definitely going to be doing it no matter what as we go on, and I really hope it’s going to be this year,’ Cullinane said.

The assistant directors of each community were contacted, but declined to comment until there is an official decision on the procedure.