Ah, isn’t a new school year lovely? New friends. New faces. A new batch of classes with a whole new batch of tests and papers and homework.

But all of those things have nothing on the new Norse Express, renamed myNKU – a new and ‘improved’ Norse Express, so to speak.

If one isn’t familiar with myNKU, hop on over to mynku.nku.edu and check it out. Northern Kentucky University decided that Norse Express was too easy to use and that we, as students, needed a brand new way to schedule classes, check our tuition costs, and all that other fun stuff we had fun doing on Norse Express.

So what is the difference? The difference is Norse Express was easier and less confusing. The new program is flashy, has only three separate sections to navigate, but is as confusing as trying to read German autobahn signs.

Like everything new, there are problems and things that will take time to figure out. But why change from Norse Express? Just because the software was old and a new program was in the works, that leads to the decision of getting rid of the program students liked and found easy to use. The layout was easy enough for the incoming freshmen to figure out, but with myNKU it left some students scratching their heads in front of their computers.

A big problem I had with myNKU was the fact that if I wanted to use it on my laptop, I had to go back to an older version of my internet browser. If this is supposed to be a new and improved student service, why doesn’t it work with current internet browsers?

Norse Express was better, plain and simple. It was laid out with all of its options so it was easy to navigate. Everything on Norse Express was in black and white, nothing was hidden like it is in myNKU. It didn’t require a certain version of Firefox or Internet Explorer. Scheduling classes was a breeze on Norse Express.

With myNKU I had to use the find class option of Norse Express just to get the codes for my classes. There isn’t an option like that on myNKU, and if there is I haven’t seen it. Hopefully all of the things that Norse Express had, myNKU will have.

The common attitude toward myNKU is one of dislike. There are students who agree with me and say that myNKU is a thorn in the side. And there are some such as Tiffany Gosney, an undecided freshmen, who say that myNKU isn’t difficult. ‘I never used Norse Express but I don’t think myNKU is hard to use,’ Gosney said.

But myNKU isn’t all bad. The brains behind the program are hard at work to make it easier for students. The problems might be big now, but with those problems being ironed, out myNKU looks to be very promising.

However, with all its problems at this point in the game there are quite a few things that can be chalked up in the win column. The login system doesn’t use students’ Social Security numbers anymore, so it’s a more secure login. The new program is accessible 24/7.

For those still struggling to navigate myNKU, have no fear – help is here. I know, cheesy line.

There are places set up to help students with myNKU’s troubles. The IT Web site, http://it.nku.edu/support, helps students with various problems with the program. IT also provides students and faculty with videos to help as well at http://it.nku.edu/mynku/training/index.php. And myNKU is still under development to bring an easy program to students. If curious about the changes being made, head on over to the IT Web site given.

If the creators of myNKU were expecting students to have problems, they should have waited to unveil it to students. Yes, there are all these nice things that are going to happen to this program, but right now the system is lacking in, well, everything Norse Express had.

If a help group has to be setup so students can figure out the darn thing, something is wrong with it. Why the rush to get myNKU out there? There should have been more time working things out so there wasn’t a wave of frustration hitting the campus.

I look at myNKU like Microsoft and the Xbox 360. Microsoft rushed their product into development and shipping just to get ahead in sales. Bad idea. The systems crashed, with the infamous ‘red ring of death,’ leaving consumers livid because they couldn’t play Halo 3.

What they should’ve done – Microsoft and the people behind myNKU – was work out all the kinks and bugs so people wouldn’t be so frustrated with it. Something doesn’t have to be rushed just to get it out there. When something is rushed, it leaves the people behind it looking like fools. MyNKU shouldn’t have been unveiled until everything wrong with it was worked out.