Beginning this semester, students will no longer receive their class schedules or final course grades in the mail.
All schedules and grades will now only be viewable through Ball State's student services Web site. If students need a printed copy of their final grades or schedules they can request them at the Web site by clicking on a "mail request" icon.
Nancy Cronk, associate director of the Registrar's Office, said the reason the university will no longer mail these items is because of cost and the current accessibility of schedules and grades through the Internet.
Cronk said the university spent $20,000 mailing grades and schedules during the last academic year, which included fall, spring and summer semesters. She said money will be re-allocated by the university but she did not know where it will be spent.
"That didn't include the recent postage increase in July," Cronk said.
Cronk said the July 1 increase in postage prices was an additional factor in the university's decision to stop mailing schedules and grades home.
"When we heard there would be a postal increase, that's when we made the decision last year," Cronk said.
Besides cost, Cronk said frequent student use of online scheduling was also a factor in deciding to stop the mass mailing.
Jeff George, distributed systems programmer and analyst for University Computing Services, said more than 90 percent of students registered for classes online last year.
This is an increase from 2000, the first year online registration was available. That year, online registration was not advertised, but about 40 percent of students still used the service, George said.
Cronk said students should not have a problem using the student services Web site and most students already access it for their schedules and grades.
"A lot of students use their Outlook account to use services on the Web," Cronk said.
The Outlook account gives students usernames and passwords to access their schedules and grades online in addition to other services.
Because of security features, parents will be barred from seeing student grades unless the student shares necessary passwords.
But the university does offer a call-in service for parents of freshmen at Ball State. The service allows for parents to call the Registrar's Office and hear grade reports.
"I think the freshman year is a big adjustment and a lot of parents want to monitor what their child is doing," Cronk said.
The call-in service is not available for upperclassmen because sophomores, juniors, and seniors are seen as more independent from their parents, Cronk said.
Students have had different reactions about the decision to stop mass mailing schedules.
"I always end up losing it so I have to get on the Internet anyway," junior Cassie Buntain said.
"I like to get it in the mail," junior Emily Huemmer said. "Sometimes you can't get on the Internet so getting it in the mail is good."
George said the student services Web site should continue to run smoothly despite increased traffic from the move to online-only schedules and grades.
"If there is a problem, we'll address it at that time," George said. "But we think a majority of the kids are using online anyway."
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