Hi @Groovy Duke. Thank you! The printLn were outside a method. We do not have and IDE; for coding I have been using Visual Studio Code. But I compile in CMD: grails run-app --debug. The error did not make sense because it pointed to the function: startup failed: C\Users\matu0016\SVN TheBook\grails app\services\thebook\ScheduleUpdateService.groovy 219: Unexpected input: '{\r\n def newInstPidm = params.instAutoComplete_id.toInteger()\r\n def personIsInstructor = Sibinst.createCriteria().list(max: 1, sort: "instTermCode", order: "desc") {\r\n and {\r\n eq("instPidm", newInstPidm)\r\n le("instTermCode", params.termCode)\r\n }\r\n }\r\n\r\n //is the instructor active for the course section term?\r\n if (personIsInstructor.instStatusCode[0] == 'AC') {\r\n //does this instructor assignment already exist?\r\n def checkInst = Sirasgn.get(new Sirasgn(termCode: params.termCode, crn: params.crn, facultyPidm: newInstPidm, category: '01'))\r\n if (checkInst) {\r\n return 'This instructor already exists.'\r\n } else {\r\n\r\n // SB-741 for verification\r\n}\r\n\r\n println("instPidm: ${newInstPidm}, termCode: ${params.termCode}, CRN: ${params.crn}") \r\n println("instrApprvdTchGradCrs: ${personIsInstructor.instrApprvdTchGradCrs[0]}")\r\n \r\n def canInstructorBeAssignedCourse(' @ line 219, column 54. canInstructorBeAssignedCourse(params) { ^