Registration PIN envelope system is inefficient, wasteful

29

Author: 

Each year registration, like room draw, is inevitably stressful for students. While much of this stress can be attributed to a desire to get the perfect schedule, popular classes or to have certain professors, and thus cannot be helped, registration could be simplified with an online PIN access system and a way for students to gauge the popularity of courses prior to registration week.

The paper system through which students receive their PINs for registration is wasteful and unnecessary, not to mention inconvenient. After meeting with advisers, students must keep track of the sheet of paper on which their PIN is provided to them or else they will not be able to register for classes. In the digital age, this system is outdated; PINs could easily be provided to students via email or online through their myOxy accounts.

One argument for the paper system is that students must meet with their advisers in order to obtain their PINs, which forces busy or unwilling students to participate in the advising system. A paperless system could still maintain this requirement by having professors send out PINs only after students have met with them. The system could be set up so that advisers would have to grant access to students individually, which would only be done after advising meetings occurred. A simple online interface would easily allow advisers to make PINs viewable and would not be more challenging than collecting, storing and distributing the paper sheets currently in use.

Currently, once students have registered for at least one class with their PIN, they are able to look up and retrieve a forgotten PIN through myOxy. With this system already in place, it would be easy for the registrar to originally post PINs through this portal. Not only would this eliminate hundreds of sheets of paper and envelopes, but also it would decrease the possibility of students losing track of their PINs and remove some of the stress of the registration process.

While many students know that certain classes will always fill up quickly, the student interest in all courses cannot always be determined before registration. It is incredibly disheartening for students to look on Course Counts and see needed courses fill up because they misjudged what classes to sign up for on each of their registration days.

If students were able to express their interest in classes in a public and tabulated manner before registration week, they could see which classes they should register for on their first and second days of registration. A simple survey box could be added to course descriptions on Course Counts so that students could express their desire to sign up for certain classes and see which classes are likely to fill quickly. Such a system would provide students with more information going into registration week, so they would be better prepared and potentially have a less stressful time.

This editorial represents the collective opinion of the Occidental Weekly Editorial Board. Each week, the editorial board will publish its viewpoint on a matter relevant to the Occidental community.


This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.

Loading

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here