Northern’s undergraduate bulletin will become an online-only publication next year. Printed copies will no longer be available.
Fred Joyal (Academic Affairs) said the university printed 7,000 copies of the 2006-07 undergraduate bulletin at a cost of about $12,000.
“But our biggest reason for doing this isn’t financial,” he added. “The campus rightfully requested an online version soon after we rolled out the laptop program. Because we have to offer it online anyway and because of our high-tech environment, it makes sense to transition to a totally electronic version. The printed copy is a throw-away in that it doesn’t have much longevity because it’s replaced with a new one each year. Some still think of bulletins as recruiting tools, but that’s not their intent. They’re only useful if a student has already decided to come to Northern.”
Joyal said the goal is to develop a more user-friendly online format that is searchable by keywords and sections.
“I know of no one, except the registrar, who uses the whole bulletin,” Joyal said. “Most people are only interested in the pages that relate directly to their academic programs and the specific courses they’re taking, or perhaps to the liberal studies requirements.. They can easily print those pages off their computers if they want printed versions.”
Joyal added that the change to an online-only format will have little impact on existing deadlines for the submission, approval and editing process required to finalize the bulletin content. |
