After Stony Brook University took down a syllabus website where students could look up their syllabi and rate classes about a month ago, one senior took matters into his own hands and created the new site: “Syllabus search.”
With the second week of the semester over, many Stony Brook students took to Reddit to express their disappointment with the removal of a very well-known syllabus website: Stony Brook Classie Course Syllabus Explorer.
However, not all hope was lost. Stony Brook student Samuel Katsaros, a senior majoring in business management, made sure that all students at the University had an easy way to access class syllabi. Katsaros created a new syllabus website, which launched on Sept. 1, 2024 after he discovered the official site was no longer online. According to Katsaros, the website had been taken down two to three weeks before the school year began.
On Katsaros’ new website, students can search different class syllabi based on subject, teacher, department and semester. Students can also contribute to the website by uploading their class syllabi through the upload form on the website.
Katsaros spent a total of three nights making the website, ensuring it didn’t have any bugs. He attended classes during the day and at night spent hours crafting the website.
Katsaros was so invested in the creation of the website, saying that “There were times where … instead of going anywhere I wanted to do this.” He didn’t want to sleep or eat as the website was his top priority.
Katsaros taught himself how to make websites using books he purchased online. After being waitlisted for the Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming (CSE 114) course, he taught himself to code. “I’m a senior, I can’t really switch my major, right? But you should never feel trapped, if you want to learn something, go learn it,” he said.
When asked why he decided to make the website completely free when having the option to run ads or prompt students to pay a fee, he said, “I’d never do that. I know there are struggles behind that. This is not anything for profit. Like I said, this is a passion project.”
Katsaros hopes to leave his project to someone else once he graduates in the spring of 2025.
The website is also a significant step up for Katsaros, who said that while this is not his first time building a website, it is the first time he has created one by himself.
Katsaros gives credit for the website’s success to Reddit, namely the Stony Brook subreddit r/sbu. The subreddit is where he first posted about the website’s reupload, and since being shared, the website has already gained hundreds of visitors. Katsaros himself admitted that while he’s never been an active Reddit user, it kick-started his web page and alerted him that the original syllabus website was taken down.
However, he does see Reddit as a communal place for many other students, saying, “it’s great, students need a community more like that. They need a place to talk.” Since the website was created, Stony Brook students have expressed their gratitude for Katsaros’s work.
Katsaros is also working on improving the website. By surveying fellow Reddit users on how he could improve the website and studying the analytics, he decided to optimize the website for mobile devices.
He also said that he is looking for other projects he can create and contribute to the Stony Brook community.
“I’m always thinking of ideas,” he said. “If I have another one, I promise I’ll develop it and get it out to the students.”
Correction Statement: The previous edition of this article stated that Katsaros was denied acceptance to the computer science minor. It has been corrected to state that he has been waitlisted for the CSE 114 course.
