The Badger Herald: Opinion: Timetable or labyrinth?

Opinion: Letter

Timetable or labyrinth?

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By Letters to the Editor
Thursday, April 3, 2008 1:10 a.m.

2 Vote 0 Votes

I completely agree with Ammar Al Marzouqi’s criticism (“Registration program slow, inadequate,” April 2) of the ISIS-based registration for classes. They have taken a step back on the automated registration process.

I logged in to My UW a couple of days ago to find that no timetables for the summer or next fall were available. At this point, I asked my advisor as to why they’re not posted as they have been in the past, and she tells me that it’s all on the Student Center.

Now in order to look up a class, I have to do some complicated search that looks more like a questionnaire than a search. It surely does not help those students who know which classes they have to take, and just want to see who is teaching said classes. The HTML-based timetable, in contrast, was far more convenient especially for these purposes.

Look at the “click count” for me to inquire information of a math course, for example. In the old system under My UW (assuming you’re already logged in), all you have to do is to click “Academics,” click “M” under the Timetable pane, click “Mathematics,” and then click whichever course you need, either open sections only or all sections. That is four clicks total.

Now, under the Student Center (assuming you’re already in the Student Center), you have to click “Add a class,” click the appropriate term, click continue, click the green search button — the drop-down menu next to that button takes you to the same place regardless which option you choose — and then make a whole bunch more clicks just to find the desired course. To find my desired math course, I had to make 13 clicks and scroll down two drop-down menus and one web page in order to find my information about the course.

Why has the Registrar implied that convenience in registering for classes is not necessary? Even MATC’s system of finding courses (which is nothing more than a .pdf file) is far more convenient compared to UW’s mess of a system. I guarantee that they have spent at least millions of unnecessary dollars on this beast that does nothing but confuse and befuddle students. No wonder why certain fiscal conservatives in the Assembly (read: Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater) get into a furor over UW spending loads of money on things that give back so little to its students. Can you really blame them?

Mike Pruden

UW senior, mathematics

mpruden@wisc.edu

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