Students wishing to declare or change their major or minor now must go directly to their academic department rather than the Registrar’s office due to a new policy taking effect Oct. 1.

The university decided to make this switch after many years of debate on the issue in the University and Student Senate, registrar Sue Moore said.

The switch has the potential to affect many students.

According to Career Services, 60 to 70 percent of all college students will change their major at least once during their college career.

Because so many students change their majors, the university hopes to improve the process for students by making changes to it.

“It’s better that (students) get advising before they actually change majors,” Moore said. “Not after they have gone to the Registrar’s and switched.”

Improved advising is one of the reasons for the switch, she said.

“It will result in better matches for students,” Moore said.

The university also has designed a Web site where students can find these new procedures, program requirements and department locations.

The Web site gives students information on what is required in certain programs, Moore said.

She said it’s a great resource and lets students see exactly what they must do if they decide to switch by way of a “what if” degree audit.

The “what if” degree audit can be attained at the Registrar’s office the same day as requested and soon will be available online.

An e-mail sent Friday to all students explained why the university is implementing these changes.

The new procedure shifts work usually done by the Registrar’s office to program assistants and department heads.

Accounting and Finance program assistant Gail Nelson said her workload already has increased because she had to be trained on handling students coming to her office to change their majors or minors. Other than additional training, she doesn’t think her job will be affected greatly by the change.

“Although it added to my responsibilities, I don’t see it impacting my work that much,” she said.

But not everyone believes this is the best way to handle major and minor declarations.

Management and Marketing department chair Robert Sutton is not happy about the added workload.

“I support the idea and can see the benefit of it,” he said. “But when they decided to make this change there was not much consideration given to the impact it will have on the departments.”

Sutton is the head of the largest department on campus, and he said it is already busy. Because of the changes, there will be increased traffic in the office and more work for him and the program assistant, he said.

Despite mixed feelings among faculty, some students seem to think having more information is better.

“It is a good idea for the students to be better informed,” sophomore Kendra Luebke said.

Moore said the new policy would help improve the flow of communication between students and academic departments.

“It can only improve the quality of the decision students have to make when choosing a major,” she said.