Resources for Schedulers & Departmental Staff
Systems overview
Northwestern University uses multiple systems to maintain student and curricular information. These are the administrative systems and their functions which are maintained by the Office of the Registrar.
Caesar {Main Records System}
CAESAR is Northwestern’s system of record for student data and academic operations. There is a student-facing view of CAESAR, an administrator-facing view of CAESAR, and an instructor-facing view of CAESAR. For students, CAESAR's functions include registration, financial aid, billing, grades and academic progress. For instructors this includes class schedule, class rosters, grade input. Department staff may use CAESAR to view class rosters, update class descriptions, manage enrollment permissions.
- Course Catalog
- Course descriptions (updated through new/update course forms or annual catalog audit)
- Requirement groups (not automatically enforced from course description; email to update)
- Quarterly Enrollment Requirements & Pre-registration Set-up
- Class Descriptions
- Permission numbers
- Reserve capacities
- Class rosters
[Caesar Resources & How-To Guides]
CLSS {Class Schedules}
Course Leaf Section Scheduler (CLSS) is Northwestern’s primary academic scheduling tool. CLSS updates CAESAR through the first week of each academic term and gives department schedulers control of their schedules from initial planning through the end of student registration.
- Scheduling new classes & updating class schedules
- Setting & updating class enrollment capacities
- Changing registration permissions (department/instructor consent)
- Creating waitlists
[CLSS Resources & How-To Guides]
[CLSS Important Dates & Deadlines]
CAT {Online Course Catalog}
CAT is the interface that hosts Northwestern’s online course catalogs. This displays general school, department, program, and curriculum requirements information. The active courses that the catalogs reference are fed directly from CAESAR. The catalogs are published once a year in August, and represent a snapshot of the requirements effective during that academic year. Departments start editing for the subsequent year’s edition during Winter quarter.
- Academic Program Information
- Course Descriptions (Published in CAT, but housed and updated through CAESAR)
25Live / RES {Room Scheduling}
The Room Event System (RES) powered by 25Live software allows students, faculty, and staff the ability to request classroom or other academic space on campus. This include 120+ registrar controlled “General Purpose Classrooms” as well as other departmentally scheduled spaces. All users have default access to request many of the spaces on campus, but staff and faculty in certain schools and departments have further access to view, request, or approve departmentally controlled rooms.
- Schedules classes created in CLSS to classrooms
- Room reservations for ad-hoc events
[25Live Resources & How-To Guides]
Calendars & Deadlines
Scheduling Calendars for AY21-22 | Deadlines | Planning Calendars | Term Session Dates
Guides & Help Documents
Training Documents | How-To Guides | Frequently Asked Questions | Glossary of Common Terms