Carolina Class Master examined by ITS

Winston Howes is at it again.

The former student body president candidate has created another class registration interface.

And just like last time, the junior sent out a mass email during the thick of class registration with a link to Carolina Class Master , a website he created to help students register for classes and plan their schedules easily.

But Vice Chancellor for Information Technology & Chief Information Officer Chris Kielt said ConnectCarolina is still the only authorized course registration site.

Howes developed Connect Carolina 2.0 last semester while abroad to help a few of his friends and said he was surprised at its widespread support.

That website was taken down by Information Technology Services, but this spring’s version is still live.

ITS and UNC are still examining whether Carolina Class Master is compliant with policy, Kielt said.

Howes said students are able to register for courses through the website, and that he has spoken to ITS about Carolina Class Master.

Howes said he made technical changes to the site this weekend, and since the update, he has not heard of any issues with students who registered through the site.

“It’s not so much that the site is insecure, but because the site is independently maintained, it’s not ITS’s responsibility to monitor it,” he said.

He also said students’ credentials cannot be stolen or seen when they log in; the site was designed so that it can be examined by any user to show that Howes cannot see users’ passwords.

The only information stored is the user’s first name and Onyen.

Sophomore Nathan Cole said he used Carolina Class Master to plan his schedule because of the site’s ability to let users see their potential schedule as they choose classes.

“As far as planning goes, you can’t put enough importance on planning your classes before you register,” Cole said.

He said he still planned to use ConnectCarolina to register, to ensure nothing went wrong.

Howes wanted to improve user experience when planning and registering for classes, he said.

“(Connect Carolina is) a product that’s designed for the University, not for the students,” Howes said.

Kielt said UNC is dependent on vendors to develop better interfaces and tools for the website, but ITS also tries to make improvements.

Kielt also said he hopes in the fall, there will be a mobile app for ConnectCarolina that students can use and will find more user-friendly.

Howes said he and ITS staff have discussed collaborating.

“The possibility of us working together is open and something we’re still exploring,” Howes said.

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