Letter to the Editor

By Shane Doherty

Now that class registration is over for everyone (or will be when this is read), I will be explaining the massive flaw that taking out the cart did for many students, myself included, as well as explaining a potential solution which I plan on bringing up at this week’s USGA.

Now, the first thing I will say is that this is a server issue, not a cart issue. In fact I would go as far as to say taking away the cart this year hurt students. Last year and before, there were many people who opened multiple tabs on their computer with the cart in each one and people would press register on all of them at the same time, crashing the system.

Though most had the system crash on them, some got through, and once they were in, they would stop being a load on the system. With less of a load, it resulted in faster times to register for people who had the system crash on them the first try. Using this system, it never took me more than 10 minutes to register for my next semester classes.

Without the cart, people did what they have done: open multiple tabs, this time with each class, not a full roster. The problem this semester stems from this fact. As mentioned before, once the clock hit 6:01 A.M. all the students registering hit the button to register. While some got in like before, most didn’t. It sounds like a very similar story to the cart story, but this is where it diverges.

While the cart had people who got their classes immediately, without it they still had multiple classes left to register for. Because of this, they were still being a load on the server, and until people got their all of their classes, they would continue to be a load. Using this system last night, it took me almost 50 minutes to register for my classes, and there were still many other issues I had to deal with such as not being allowed into a class for not having a pre-requisite for it, even though I am in the class now, which I believe is the server because without the load today at around 1:45 P.M. I was able to get into no problem (well, I’m wait listed, but it’s still better than nothing).

Now you may remember the articles 2 weeks ago about how some people registered and had a good time for once. At the time of me writing this (November 14, 2012), honor students and athletes, as well as seniors, juniors, and finally sophomores (where I am, currently) have registered, now leaving only freshmen to register. This brings up a possible exception I see to this rule. As for the first group, there are only so many honors students and athletes who will be registering for classes, so if they have a bad load, it is minimal at best, and so they don’t have a problem registering. The next group is the seniors. There are two groups of students who are seniors, students who are graduating this semester, and students who are graduation next semester or later. This could cut the potential students registering up to half (though I assume it is not that high). The juniors loose this pleasure so I believe that is where you will find most students starting to get annoyed because of the crashes.

There is also the student stress factor involved in this which I believe may play a role in the server crashing as well (though to a much lesser degree). By this I mean that the first groups of students registering are all but guaranteed to get the classes they want (both class and the time they want for it). This means that they do not need to be as fast on the 6:01 A.M. draw, some may be more lenient and wait a few minutes before pressing register button so they can get it faster. This is not possible for students who register in later brackets. They must be on the ball and press it the second it turns 6:01 A.M. or they risk not getting the classes they want.

I am a perfect example, last night there were 3 Calculus 3 classes, and I will need to take one next semester, so I chose the time slot I wanted most (with 6 open seats at the time) and when I pressed register it crashed. Not only did I fail to get the class I wanted, all 3 Calculus 3 classes were filled up, with only a waitlist option (I should mention that they have since added another Calculus 3 class for next semester, though I personally will choose to wait in the one I am in right now).

Now that I have told you the problems I have without the cart (and the exceptions), I will now bring up the plan I plan on proposing at this week’s USGA meeting, which is that the school should rent out a server that can handle the flood of students for the registration weeks, and have the rented out server run matrix that week. This will cut down on stress, time, and will make it a better experience for those who are registering for their classes.

After note: The movement was postponed indefinitely, and then moved to the attention of the technology committee. We will see where it goes from there.