For Your Convenience

My fifth registration week at Trinity College arrived and departed in a like manner as the prior four had. There was the initial moment of confusion upon discovering the registration materials in my mailbox, then the overpowering need to seek out a Spring Schedule of classes, and of course, the ensuing chaos and scrambling to obtain instructors' signatures, pending 0800 hours, Monday. My attitude toward the affair remained mostly apathetic throughout most of the week, but at times, such as on an expedition from MCEC to Williams Memorial, my mind would generate questions.

The first of these queries arose when I returned for a PI slip I had left to receive a signature. I won't say what class it was for, but the final list of students enrolled in the class was puzzling. The source of my perplexity was that one of the students on same named list is currently abroad. If that student has some mystical way of delivering PI slips without simultaneously being physically present, then I think that they should disseminate such information to their fellow students. However, I believe such an occurrence to be extremely unlikely, which still does not explain how said student became enrolled in the class. I certainly hope that they are not given special preference above the majority, the plurality being students who are not abroad. Such a policy would violate the general precepts constituting unspoken concepts such as equality and equity. I think we already know how upset the inhabitants of a democratic society become when they perceive a violation of equality, don't we?

Second, why must we march repeatedly across campus with a Spring 2000 Schedule of classes and a directory, for up to five days a semester, for eight semesters (hopefully no more than) in four years? I'm not opposed to walking by any means, but registration week is wastefully expended effort and time. Other colleges have an on-line registration system, or a phone registration system. I can't imagine an on-line or phone registration system requiring large amounts of resources or manpower to maintain. In times when technology has been developed to reduce the amount of labor required to complete mundane tasks, I feel that the physical registration system here has become antiquated.

Also, why can we not be informed in advance of the arrival of registration week? I don't recall one instance where I received a letter in my mailbox or a voice mail that registration week was pending. If we receive multiple voice mails regarding trivial campus occurrences every day, how difficult could it be to notify us of registration week a few days ahead? This notion occurred to me when I attempted to meet with my classroom instructors to prepare for the tests that I also had scheduled during registration week.

There are those who believe that changes are bad, and should be feared. However, ancient thinkers with the same shortsightedness once adamantly refuted claims that the world could be anything but flat. If the brass are so eager to tinker with "Midsession" experiments, I don't see why we can't test out a new registration system. Unless they're only expending research efforts into projects that cause more inconvenience for students, instead of less. It would surprise me as much as seeing the sun at noon.