Registration Process Must Change!

To the Editor:

Ah, the joys the end of a semester can bring: finals almost over, looking forward to a responsibility-free vacation.… and just when you think it's time to kick back, you are reminded of that one traumatic event we must all suffer through - registration, a frustrating process no YU student anticipates.

In most other colleges in the United States, the registration process is fairly simple. The student picks his courses, has them reviewed by an academic advisor (one who specializes in his major, I might add!) and then registers either by phone or the internet; either way, the actual registration process takes mere minutes.

But here at Yeshiva University we like to do things differently. Instead of taking advantage of the vast computer technology so readily available in today’s society, we must register in person. Students obtain an "appointment time," are herded into a packed line like cattle, and prodded with sharp rods of verbal sarcasm from every which direction. There, we must wait for at least an hour regardless of our ‘scheduled’ appointment. In most cases, by the time we are actually honored with admission into the holy registration room, half of the courses are closed and we are forced to repeat this dreadful process once more.

The last I checked, the year is 1998. Yeshiva University could set up a registration line where students can dial up, enter their social security number, and register on the phone by punching in course numbers. Similarly, YU could dedicate a website for registration using the same concept. There is absolutely no reason for us to wait in line for what seems like an eternity only to have someone else enter our data into a computer; we should be able to do so ourselves and avoid the wasted hour s. Certainly this would also save the staff much time (and an attack of hypertension) as well.

Meanwhile, if students must be subjected to this extremely demoralizing process again, I do suggest that YU give out tranquilizer pills at the registration line, and please be sure that the registration staff are administered them as well.

Aaron Klein

Signed: YC, IBC ‘00