New registration restrictions hampering
Many students attempting to register for their Spring 2009 classes discovered this week that there is a new error message to be found in the ESTHER system: "Pre-req and Test Score Error." Newly-implemented by the Registrar's Office, the change comes on the heels of of the double-booking restriction put into effect during registration for this semester (See story, page 1).This newest change signals a disturbing trend in the Registrar's Office. In conjunction with the pending changes to the academic calendar, which will greatly diminish the timeframe in which students can modify their schedules, the double-booking restriction curtailes the possibilities of the course shopping period. Prerequisite checking - and the associated errors within ESTHER related to it - has done nothing to repair this situation. In fact, ESTHER's failure to properly identify cross-listed and in-progress courses has prevented students from registering for courses in which they belong.
The issue at stake is in the registrar's collection of student liberties into greater automated restriction. We have functioned without these constraints for years and there does not appear to be strong motivation for their implementation. The net effect of these recent changes is to reduce students' freedom and flexibility in creating their schedules and, ultimately, to discourage the academic growth promoted by "shopping."
Apart from the issue that these changes appear in conflict with the spirit of enlightenment Rice claims to espouse, they create unnecessary paperwork on an individual basis. The registrar's all-students e-mail advises that we complete a Special Registration Form if we have issues with the new system. While we are looking towards a 1,000-person increase in the student population, the Registrar's Office should be seeking to streamline their system to reduce the number of individual exceptions they must resolve, not increase it.
The bottom line: While these changes might seem to improve the process in the long run, no amount of fixes or adjustments will make them better than the unfettered system we enjoyed before last spring.
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