Pre-registration hassles at Guilford?
Each semester students face the dilemma of choosing classes. Sometimes, due to allotted registration times, they don't always get
what they want. These students were asked to describe their registration experience and the number of classes they received.
'lt went well. 1 got all my
classes."
-Junior
Chuck Gault
Ellen Moore
Staff Writer
It is a commonly known fact
among Guilford College students
that pre-registration means one
hassle after another. The process
can be inefficient and frustrating.
Maybe there are a few Guilford
students who make it through pre
registration week with no prob
lems at all, but they are in the
minority.
Students will often stand in line
for half an hour with the schedules
they have carefully prepared with
the help of their advisors, only to
discover that one or more of their
Dracula revitalizes Coppola's career
Kitson Broadbek
Staff Writer
Last Friday, Francis Ford
Coppola released his latest film,
"Bram Stoker's Dracula." The film,
starring among others, Keanu
Reeves, Winona Ryder, and An
thony Hopkins as Stoker's eccen
tric Doctor Van Helsing, is if noth
ing else a tremendous show. Mr.
Coppola, whose last movies had
been often criticized as being
"puny," this time pulls out every
possible technical innovation imag
inable to enlarge the screen, en
hance its images' potentialities and
at times simply startle or confound
the audience. No image is ever too
small not to encompass the entire
theater and no scene is ever too
relaxed not to wield massive and
awe-inspiring portraits of darkness,
love, lust, evil, and all too often, a
While the visual effects were
often amazing, "Dracula" tended
to lack any delicacy or stillness
whatsoever and often there were
Jines when it mighthave benefited.
Often in motion pictures of tre
mendous visible appearance (from
Tim Burton's "Batman" films to
- ■ o
> J'> " \;i' ;
"Wonderful, 1 got all my
classes."
-First-year
Maggie Lezier
classes are already full. Let the
frustration begin!
At this point, a student must
obtain a drop/add slip and figure
out which alternative classes best
suit his/her needs. Many times this
requires rearranging other classes
on one's schedule as well. Stu
dents often have difficulty finding
classes which fit into the available
times on their schedules and fulfill
their requirements.
Not only do students have to
worry aboutcompleting Guilford's
distribution requirements, but they
must also be sure to take classes
which count toward their majors.
During pre-registration, one will
Lucas's "Star Wars" trilogy to
Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odys
sey") there are interspliced
throughout, moments of intimacy
and poignant realism that bring an
audience closer to the story's char
acters, and help to isolate moments
of special effects, giving them more
intensity and punch. "Dracula"
lacks these moments entirely.
Mr. Coppola also seems not sure
whether or not he wants you to
believe what you are seeing or
understand it as a grandly pro
duced reproduction of a nightmare.
All scenes were filmed at sets in
Northern California and most of
them look so. Whether the charac
ters were discussing vampires in
an elaborate English garden or
chasing Dracula's carriage on a
cliff in the film's dramatic conclu
sion, the surroundings always ap
peared as fake and fantastic as a
ir- Hon if And yet, there is -A
constant sober seriousness to ev
ery frame of the picture that pre
vents the audience any ideas of
campiness or emotional detach
ment.
This "Dracula" follows, as its
tide suggests, more closely to Bram
Stoker's original Victorian novel
Perspectives
"It sucked, I got one class."
-Sophomore
Leigh Hockett
Photo by Elaine Brigham
often hear students complaining
that they cannot get into the classes
which they specifically need for
their majors. Even worse, some
seniors find that the classes they
need in order to graduate are full.
The sophomores at Guilford
College have a particularly trying
time pre-registering. The sopho
mores register last, even after first
year students, leaving them with a
poor selection of available classes.
Many sophomores have recently
declared their majors, but find that
the classes they need for their ma
jors are closed. And then there are
the extremely unfortunate Sopho
mores whose last names put them
than any before it and for this Mr.
Coppola deserves much credit. As
to finding an undrelying psycho
logical or philosophical theme for
either the book or the motion pic
ture- nothing is obvious, it is all
supposition. There are many im-
ages throughout that present
vampirism as a dark but rich sexual
fantasy, and many have declared
in the past "Dracula" to be Victo
rian male's protection from
theblossoming independent
sexualities of women in the 1800's.
Beyond all of this, however,
Francis Ford Coppola seems to
have taken all the tools of movie
making and with the wild excess of
a burgeoning film student, created
a vast and fantastical show. It is
amazing to fathom that the mind
which produced the infinite and
grand subtleties of the two (and as
far as my conscience is concerned
there are onl v two) Godfather mov
ies could manage such a dazzling,
pure spectacle as "Dracula" un
doubtedly is.
It is, above all else, entertaining;
the obvious emphasis of the viewer
should be concentrated on the style
and not the substance. The perfor
mances by Hopkins, Ryder, and
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""Lousy, 1 got no classes."
-Sophomore
Daniel Motgomery
in the bracketof the alphabet which
registers very last, Thurday after
noon. They have virtually no
chance of getting all of the classes
they want —some are lucky enough
to get one or two. The registrar's
office closes Thursday afternoon
before many sophomores are able
to find available classes for next
semester. By the end of the day,
these students are very irritated
and discouraged. Some still have
another day of registration annoy
ances ahead, before their schedule
dilemmas are resolved.
Is it logical that first-year stu
dents, who have more flexibility as
to which classes they can take, are
Gary Oldman (probably recog
nized by a total of three people
from Oliver Stone's Lee Harvey
Oswald in "JFK") as Count Dracula
are fine and well-presented, but in
this extravagant production, the
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"Smoothly, 1 got all my
classes."
-First-year Juliet Trail
allowed to register before sopho
mores? Many First-year students
have not yet declared their majors
and are still sampling different
fields of study.
Registration at Guilford is a
time-consuming and bothersome
task. Students sometimes skip
classes in order to register and/or
spend a large part of their day
dealing with registration hassles.
Pre-registration involves a lot of
wasted time and energy which
might be eliminated if procedures
were made more convenient for
the student.
actors are a secondary concern. It
is for this reason and this reason
only that Reeves manages to be
present without destroying the en
tire film.
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