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The proncos’ Voice, November 1992.
Commentary
Phantasia
by Earl J. Moniz
Well, here we are again beginning
another year of exciting academic endeav
ors on the campus of FSU. What excite
ment! What anticipation! What an admin
istrative nightmare! Everyone that had
difficulty preregistering, registering, and
finding apermanentclassroom say “Amen”.
Everyone that moved into the classroom
without any problems whatsoever say
“Thank God”.
I am amazed that a university of such
major league aspirations should hold such
bush league mentalities. Preregistered stu
dents had to return to campus prior to the
beginning of classes to prove their inten
tions of returning to school. Why would
any student submit to the aggravation of
preiegistaing and then not return? If a
student on the ofHcial roll does not attend
class fcM’ the first two days, isn’t he or she
automatically dropped from the rolls? Not
so, acoM'ding to the Chancellor. Some
professors refuse to take roll at the begin
ning of each class session, or even for the
first week or two of the semester. This
policy could result in a person being given
a grade at the end of the semester and not
having attended a single class period. The
soluti(Hi to the problems caused by these
professors unwilling to satisfactorily per
form their jobs as they should is to place an
additional burden on the students. Sounds
perfectly logical to me, how about you?
Students who wait to register don’t
have an easy road to travel either. These
students are faced with long lines waiting
in all types of weather. FSU has no other
method of registering other than showing
up and doing it all in person. Absolutely no
phone registration or mail-in registration,
period. On one occasion, administrators
were in the Chick building waiting for the
official registration period to begin while
the students waited in the rain for the doors
to open. Was anyone considerate enough
to open the doors early and let the students
wait in the lobby out of the weather? Not
hereatFSU...that isn’t the policy! Policies
are created to make the administrators happy
and to simplify their duties regardless of
how inconvenient that policy is for the
students. Universities aren’t established
for the convenience of the students!
The problems of registration didn’t
end there. Even once classes began, other
difficulties persisted. Classroom difficul
ties will probably always exist until such a
Lime as new classrooms and buildings are
provided, or students get disgusted and
transfer to other universities. 1 am amazed,
however, that on a campus that is so com
puterized in most of its routine tasks and
duties, that a class of 50 could be assigned
to a classroom that seats only 30. Whatever
computer system the university purchased
to schedule classes and professors, a simple
subroutine for the comparison of class ac
commodations and student assignment was
overlooked and is now the consternation of
many students and professors alike. Our
posters should proclaim to all “Education
offered. Bring your own container...and
desk!” This computerization is just an
other example of how computers are uti
lized to make the work in each individual
administrative office easier for the admin
istrators who work there and not to make it
any easier for the students to register for
class, attend class, or obtain information
about their performance. I know that this is
true because every office MUST have their
own file for each student... interconnectivity
is unheard of here.
How do I know this? Easy. If I need
to submit or obtain something from the
financial aid office, that is the ONLY place
where I can do it. If I need to submit or
obtain something from the registrar, that is
the ONLY place where I can do it. If my
mentors or advisors are trustwMlhy enough
to help me make decisions that will influ
ence the rest of my life, why can’t they
retrieve copies of my transcripts from the
computer for me? Or just be able to view
a screen of my financial aid award letter?
Maybe the administration does not trust the
faculty?
Enough complaining; how about a so
lution? One of the policies that exists here
at FSU that may solve much of this confu
sion and frustration is the policy that a
group of ten or more students may request
a course at a convenient time. Utilizing this
procedure, students can eliminate the wait
for the normally incorrect and incomplete
schedule to come out at the end of each
semester. Many students in the same major
could utilize this policy to hold classes
convenient for each of them on days and at
times convenient for their group. Is the
university here to serve the students or are
the students to attend class at the conven
ience of the professors? Let’s find out.
Here is my proposal. For the Spring of
93 semester 1 plan on taking ENGL 211 or
ENGL 212 (World Literature), ENGL 231
(Advanced Grammar), SPEE 340 (Lan
guage Development), HIST 390 (N.C. His
tory), and POLI320 (State and Local Gov
ernment). Since the ENGL courses could
reasonably be expected to be conducted in
the Butler Learning Center, I will request
them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
I also do not like to come to class early or
stay very late, so I will request them in
sequence starting at 9 AM. This schedule
puts me out of class at noon on those days.
The history and political science
courses will probably be conducted in the
Taylor Socisd Science building or the an
nex. I will request those on Tuesday and
Thursday beginning at 9:30 AM. This
schedule puts me out of class at 12:30 PM
on those days.
Anyone interested in joining me in
this experiment on school policy, just drop
your name and phone number by room 121
in the Butler Learning Center with an indi
cation of when you want each class to be
conducted within the time periods stated
above. You do not have to be interested in
attending all of these classes. If you are
only interested in participating in the his-
tOTy class on T-R, drop off your intent for
either the 9:30 or 11:00 class. If you are
only iiiterested in the World Literature
class, drop off your name and number and
indicate whether you would like to attend
the 9,10, or 11 AM class. Finally, if you
have any recommendations about which
professor to request for each class, include
those names as well. I will request the
times that are agreed upon by the majority
of the names I receive and publish them
here in the Bronco’s Voice.
Once a reasonable amount of time has
passed and I receive enough names to sub
mit a request to the Registrar’s Office, in
any case, not any later than the end of
October, I will submit a request document
ing our interest in those classes at those
times.
I would expect that some professors
would ^preciate this procedure as well. If
we get 90 students for a single class on
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we could
send 30 to the 9 AM class, 30 to the 10 AM
class, and 30 to the 11 AM class, all con
ducted by the same professor. If we do this
in a round-robin fashion, three i»ofessors
could teach 90 students in 3 hours and be
done for the day. I think many professors
would like this approach, instead of plan
ning their day around some computer pro
gram that can’t even assign a group of
students to a room with enough chairs to
seat
everyone.
The classes indicated above are for a
major in education at the middle grade
level. Those of you in any other major
offered here at FSU that are interested in
attempting this procedure, stop by and see
me in room 121 of the Butler Learning
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Contributing Writers:
Earl J. Moniz
Barbara Beebe