COLUMN: Students need to be notified when classes are dropped
I used to have normal levels of respect for my hardworking professors and those typically happy-go-lucky registration people on the second floor of the TSC (the QUAD has always been annoying).
Now, I’m burning models of the Registrar’s Office, cursing QUAD operators, thinking ill thoughts about professors and calling on my distant and rusty knowledge of hexes, voodoo and curses to vent the curiously high levels of frustration they’ve caused.
Yet, it all began innocently enough.
A couple weeks ago, after visiting with my adviser to determine my graduation needs, I smugly sat down at a computer and began requesting classes for next semester. I was smug because, as a senior, I knew in my heart of hearts that I would get the classes I needed to graduate. The request went through successfully, and I was out quicker than a fat kid at dodgeball.
Thinking my brief romp through the QUAD was at an end, I resumed tediously sloshing around the swamps of academia.
In the ensuing weeks, thanks to the queries of a number of friends, I discovered that I couldn’t remember which classes I was enrolled in for next semester. So, the other day, on an unsuspecting afternoon, I went the QUAD and typed in my social security number only to discover, to my absolute horror, that two of my classes were cancelled.
OK, melodrama aside, I was sincerely perturbed that not only had the classes been cancelled, but neither the professors who cancelled them, nor the Registrar’s Office, seemed intent on informing me about it anytime this year.
Even though, to the best of my understanding, the professors are “responsible” to inform students of cancelled classes, the lack of clear guidelines and enforcement by the Registrar’s Office is just as negligent.
Theoretically, I could have found myself walking into the Ray B. West building on Monday, Jan. 10 and, completely unaware, sitting down in a class full of pregnant women learning about natural childbirth from Bill Cosby.
Not likely, but possible.
And now, because the floodgates of junior, sophomore and freshman registration have been released, every class I could possibly take for graduation is full and likely to remain that way until some befuddled chemistry major realizes – to his horror – that he’s signed up for studies in Literature and Cultural Differences.
Even though – thanks to other, more understanding professors – I’ll probably be able to squeeze into the already crowded classes, my case is not unique. Since learning of the callous cancellations, I’ve heard enough stories to make me question whether or not a bunch of trained chimps are calling the shots for registration.
I don’t really care what the excuse is. Surely the QUAD could be updated to include automatic notification of cancelled classes, and surely professors could set their schedules and … watch out, novel idea coming … stick with it. The point is, student tuition dollars are being spent to support a integral part of the university that, through neglect, is doing little to support them.
I realize that the opinion section of a college paper may not be the most effective way to challenge apathetic carelessness, but like I intimated earlier …
… my voodoo is a bit rusty.
is the assistant features editor and is a senior majoring in English. Comments can be sent to mattgo@cc.usu.edu.