Everyone has gone through the process. It’s one of the most frightening things of being a freshman, or a transfer student for that matter.

Quite possibly the most confusing part of being a student at UW-Eau Claire is having to sift through the degree audits every semester.

When students first look at these enormous documents, the only thing they can think of is that there is no way they will graduate.

Student Senate is analyzing ways to improve the degree audit.

And it’s about time.

The Senate is forming a committee to go over results of a recent random e-mail survey of students.

Degree audits are confusing primarily because of the amount of unnecessary information. It should be redesigned so that the most important information to a student – the requirements yet to be met – are up front and very clear to read.

More time needs to be taken in explaining how the audits work. Required time should be set aside in classes that just about everyone has to take, such as English 110, or a freshman experience class.

However, the audit should be designed in a way so that it doesn’t take long to learn. Students should not have to teach themselves how to read an audit each time they register. The important information should be clearly indicated on the document.

Publicity for available help also needs to be increased. There are plenty of advisers and counselors on campus willing to help with the degree audits and registration in general. But too often these resources go unnoticed.

Hopefully the Student Senate committee will go beyond discussing results of the survey and find a way to get rid of the nonsense found in a degree audit.

The Senate should be commended for realizing the side effects of a degree audit. Hopefully, something will be done about it.