The College of Arts and Sciences implemented a new RSP system for the 2017-18 academic year that mandates that RSP groups meet every other week for two semesters as opposed to meeting every week for one semester.

RSP, or Ratio Studiorum Program — Latin for “plan of study” — is a program where students are matched with an academic adviser that will act as a guide for students before they declare their specific major. Students receive one credit for RSP 101, the required class that goes along with program. In past years, students received one credit upon completion of the Fall semester. With recent changes, students now receive half a credit during the Fall and half a credit in the Spring.

The main reason the College of Arts and Sciences altered its program was to offer students further support in their journey of academic and professional discernment, according to Lisa Brockhoff, assistant dean for advising in the College of Arts and Sciences.

“During the first semester, students are just getting used to Creighton and figuring out college,” Brockhoff said. “Second semester, students are thinking about their major and whether they want to stay with their current major. There’s a lot of discernment that happens that second semester and we want to keep offering them ongoing support.”

Anna Le, College of Arts and Sciences freshman, said that although having RSP for a full year allows her to develop relationships with her classmates and adviser, it’s made registering for spring semester more challenging.

“I have to find a class that would fit around RSP rather than retake a professor with a teaching style that best fits my learning style,” said Le.

According to Anthony Hendrickson, dean of the Heider College of Business, and Amy Cosimano, assistant dean for Student affairs for the College of Nursing, neither of Creighton University’s two other undergraduate colleges altered their RSP system because of other required programs, such as the business school’s Career Portfolio program and the Introduction to Professional Nursing class that freshmen in the College of Nursing take during the spring semester.

Jennifer Yee, a long-time RSP adviser and instructor for the Department of Exercise Science, said the new system afforded more opportunities to help the students.

“I personally think that the more contact as an adviser that I can have with my students, the more prepared I feel that they are going to be,” Yee said.