Perhaps You Do Give a Damn

Greeted with the efficiency of a bank, uptown undergraduates welcomed the sweeping reforms undertaken by the Office of the Registrar to ameliorate the registration ills experienced by students during past semesters. While registration for the fall 1998 semester was not free of glitches, students were treated to an enlightened registration experience befitting any fine institution.

Instead of the usually crowded wait in the hallway of Furst Hall, registration took place in a spacious room on the fifth floor of Belfer Hall. Advisors were mere feet from the registering students and were readily available to approve course schedules and answer questions. Deans were present in the room at all times, relieving students of the often frustrating wild goose chase to track down administrative authorities for signatures. All of these improvements, along with the additional computer terminals and operators, ensured a smooth and speedy registration process.

We acknowledge the effort of the Office of the Registrar to alleviate this point of past difficulty and are optimistic that it will continue down the path of progress. Successful implementation of online registration by the Spring semester would signal the seriousness of the Office of the Registrar’s commitment to improve its service.

The improvements achieved in registration also mark a victory for student activism. Students, under the leadership of this paper, unleashed a torrent of opposition to Registrar ineptitude that qualitatively transcended the conventional petty complaints that have proven ineffective in forging policy adjustment. The administration could no longer afford to turn a deaf ear on student interests. Let this success herald the commencement of a new era of student expression that engenders policy innovations that benefit student interests.