diff --git a/home/management/commands/updategeneds.py b/home/management/commands/updategeneds.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5aac4de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/home/management/commands/updategeneds.py
@@ -0,0 +1,259 @@
+import sys
+import requests
+from requests import adapters
+from datetime import datetime
+from time import sleep
+import threading
+import concurrent.futures
+from urllib3.util.retry import Retry
+from urllib3.exceptions import MaxRetryError
+from requests.exceptions import SSLError
+
+from django.core.management import BaseCommand
+from argparse import RawTextHelpFormatter
+
+from home.models import Course, Gened
+from home.utils import Semester
+
+class Command(BaseCommand):
+    help = '''Updates the database with new courses and professors during the provided semester.
+    The semester argument must be in the numerical form YEAR+SEASON (see ** for exception).
+    The season codes are as follows:
+        Spring -> 01
+        Summer -> 05
+         Fall  -> 08
+        Winter -> 12
+    EXAMPLE: Spring 2023 = 202301
+
+    ** NOTE: Starting from Winter 2021, the values for winter semesters are off by one year. Winter 2021 is actually 202012, not 202112
+   '''
+
+    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.num_geneds_updated = 0
+        self.num_courses_processed = 0
+        self._lock = threading.Lock()
+
+    def create_parser(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        # to format the help text that gets displayed with the -h option
+        parser = super(Command, self).create_parser(*args, **kwargs)
+        parser.formatter_class = RawTextHelpFormatter
+        return parser
+
+    def handle(self, *args, **options):
+        start = datetime.now()
+        # I don't know which approach will actually be used so for now
+        # they live in separate functions and one will move here once we decide
+        #self.comparator_approach()
+        self.threaded_approach()
+
+
+        runtime = datetime.now() - start
+        print(f"number of geneds updated: {self.num_geneds_updated}")
+        print(f"total runtime: {round(runtime.seconds / 60, 2)} minutes")
+
+    def comparator_approach(self):
+        # TODO: I want to use the comparators for the semester field (e.g. |leq) so that we can
+        # query all courses less than or equal to the current semester. Unfortunetely,
+        # the comparators for the semester field is broken so this will need to be revisited
+        # when that is fixed.
+        kwargs = {"semester": f"{Semester.current()}|leq", "per_page": 100, "page": 1}
+        umdio_courses  = requests.get("https://api.umd.io/v1/courses", params=kwargs).json()
+        pt_courses = Course.recent.all()
+
+        while umdio_courses:
+            for umdio_course in umdio_courses:
+                # if umdio does not have this course continue to the next course
+                if isinstance(umdio_course, dict) and 'error_code' in umdio_course.keys():
+                    continue
+
+                umdio_course_id = umdio_course["course_id"].strip("\n\t\r ")
+                print(umdio_course_id)
+                pt_course = pt_courses.filter(name=umdio_course_id)
+                self.update_course_table(pt_course, umdio_course)
+                self.update_geneds_table(pt_course, umdio_course)
+
+            kwargs["page"] += 1
+            umdio_courses  = requests.get("https://api.umd.io/v1/courses", params=kwargs).json()
+
+    def threaded_approach(self):
+        failed_courses = []
+        pt_courses = Course.recent.all().order_by('name')
+        num_total_courses = pt_courses.count()
+
+        # necessary to overcome errors related to exceeding maximum retires for a url
+        retry = Retry(total=1)
+        adapter = adapters.HTTPAdapter(max_retries=retry)
+        session = requests.Session()
+        session.mount('https://', adapter)
+
+        # Each thread will be reponsible for querying umdio for a particular course.
+        # If something happens and the course cannot be retrieved, return None
+        def thread_task(pt_course):
+            # query umdio for this course.
+            res = session.get(f"https://api.umd.io/v1/courses/{pt_course.name}")
+
+            # TODO: figure out why some courses cause a code 500 error
+            # In the mean time, return None
+            if res.status_code == 500:
+                failed_courses.append(pt_course.name)
+                return None
+
+            umdio_course = res.json()
+
+            # if umdio does not have this course, return None
+            if isinstance(umdio_course, dict) and 'error_code' in umdio_course.keys():
+                return None
+
+            with self._lock:
+                self.num_courses_processed += 1
+                sys.stdout.write("\r" + f"Collecting courses from umdio ({self.num_courses_processed}/{num_total_courses})")
+
+            # otherwise, this thread completed its job, so return the result
+            return (pt_course, umdio_course[0])
+
+        print("Setting up thread pool...")
+
+        # The expensive part of this script is querying umdio for each of our courses so we create
+        # a thread pool that will break the task up into min(32, os.cpu_count() + 4) threads.
+        # Wait for all the courses to be collected before moving on to updating the database.
+        # We use submit() instead of map() because wait() expects a list of futures.
+        # This part takes a long while (make sure your computer's auto-sleep feature is disabled).
+        with concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor() as executor_:
+            futures = [executor_.submit(thread_task, course) for course in pt_courses]
+            concurrent.futures.wait(futures, return_when="ALL_COMPLETED")
+
+        print("Updating planetterp courses...")
+
+        # go through the courses collected by the thread pool and update our database
+        for future in futures:
+            res = future.result()
+
+            if not res:
+                continue
+
+            pt_course, umdio_course = res
+
+            print(pt_course.name)
+            self.update_course_table(pt_course, umdio_course)
+            self.update_geneds_table(pt_course, umdio_course)
+
+        # sort the list of courses that caused an error, if there are any, by
+        # their planetterp name so that the courses print in alphabetical order (A->Z)
+        def keyfn(e):
+            return e[0]
+
+        failed_courses.sort(key=keyfn)
+
+        if len(failed_courses):
+            print(f"{len(failed_courses)}/{Course.recent.count()} courses failed to retrieve from umdio")
+            print(failed_courses)
+
+
+    # Go through all of umdio's courses by delegating smaller chunks of our
+    # courses to threads that will each search umdio and combine their results
+    # into a single list for us to process later.
+    def get_umdio_courses(self):
+        # list of (pt_course, umdio_course) tuples that threads will add to
+        courses = []
+
+        def thread_task(pt_courses):
+            thread_courses = []
+
+            # for each pt_course in the given chunk of pt_courses...
+            for pt_course in pt_courses:
+                # query umdio for this course.
+                req = requests.get(f"https://api.umd.io/v1/courses/{pt_course.name}")
+
+                # TODO: figure out why some courses cause a code 500 error
+                if req.status_code == 500:
+                    print(f"code 500 for {pt_course.name}")
+                    continue
+
+                umdio_course = req.json()
+
+                # if umdio does not have this course continue to the next course
+                if isinstance(umdio_course, dict) and 'error_code' in umdio_course.keys():
+                    continue
+
+                # otherwise, add the tuple to this thread's personal list of courses
+                thread_courses.append((pt_course, umdio_course[0]))
+                sleep(1)
+
+            # once this thread has finished its task, add its personal list to
+            # the main list in a thread-safe manner
+            self._lock.acquire()
+            courses += thread_courses
+            self._lock.release()
+
+        # chunk_size is an arbitrary number with almost no significance.
+        # It's a minimal effort guess at trying to find a balance between
+        # #threads and runtime.
+        # Python does technically have a maximum allowed thread count,
+        # but its somewhere in the 18,000s which currently isn't a problem with a chunk_size >= 100.
+        # The only factor that will affect this concern is the number of courses we have.
+        chunk_size = 200
+        imin = 0
+        imax = chunk_size
+        threads = []
+        pt_courses = Course.recent.all().order_by('name')
+        num_pt_courses = pt_courses.count()
+
+        # while the upper bound of a chunk is still a valid index...
+        while imax < num_pt_courses:
+            # create and start threads
+            t = threading.Thread(target=thread_task, args=(pt_courses[imin:imax],), name=len(threads))
+            threads.append(t)
+            t.start()
+            imax += chunk_size
+            imin += chunk_size
+            sleep(0.5)
+
+        # if the last chunk range exceeded the valid range but there are courses left,
+        # create one more thread to handle the remaining courses.
+        if imin < num_pt_courses:
+            t = threading.Thread(target=thread_task, args=(pt_courses[imin:],))
+            threads.append(t)
+            t.start()
+
+        for t in threads:
+            t.join()
+            print(f"thread {t.name()} is done")
+
+        return courses
+
+    def update_course_table(self, pt_course, umdio_course):
+        # umdio uses an empty list if a course has no geneds but
+        # we want to use null because that's what our schema is expecting.
+        if not umdio_course['gen_ed']:
+            pt_course.geneds = None
+        else:
+            pt_course.geneds = umdio_course['gen_ed']
+
+        pt_course.save()
+
+    def update_geneds_table(self, pt_course, umdio_course):
+        # create a list of all the umdio geneds for this course.
+        # This list is considered the "correct" geneds for this course.
+        umdio_geneds = []
+        for gened_lst in umdio_course['gen_ed']:
+            for gened in gened_lst:
+                # To account for cases that have a pipe |, split the gened
+                # on the pipe and take the first part. If there is no
+                # pipe, the gened will be unmodified.
+                gened_name= gened.split("|")[0]
+                umdio_geneds.append(gened_name)
+
+        # if we have a gened linked to a course but umdio doesn't agree,
+        # assume our records are outdated and delete this link.
+        for gened in pt_course.gened_set.all():
+            if gened.name not in umdio_geneds:
+                self.num_geneds_updated += 1
+                gened.delete()
+
+        # if we don't have a gened for this course that umdio does have,
+        # add it to our records.
+        for gened in umdio_geneds:
+            if not pt_course.gened_set.filter(name=gened).exists():
+                self.num_geneds_updated += 1
+                Gened(name=gened, course=pt_course).save()