Last night, had things gone as planned, honors students along with athletes and graduate students, would have been able to register for their classes. This early registration is a privilege that Schreyer Scholars and a few others enjoy and as usual there was a “registration party” in Atherton computer lab. Unfortunately there was a problem at the Registrar’s office yesterday. ALL priority scheduling – scholars, athletes, grad students, etc. were not activated for 9/10/09 midnight access as expected.
As a result I awoke to dozens of facebook messages and a few tweets of students in dire panic. At the time we did not know exactly what had happened and clearly students were very concerned about being able to register. A few emails and phone calls later we learned of the error and the Registrar’s office is working to have things in place later today. Registration will begin at midnight tonight. (Delayed only 24 hours.) I want to thank the Registrar’s office for handling this situation in a prompt and professional manner.
That being said, I would like to encourage our students to take a moment to consider whether some of their reactions were appropriate. I understand that those of you who stayed up past midnight were tired and anxious but that is not an excuse for losing civility. Mistakes occur and thankfully this was nothing more than a computer error. Furthermore the rest of the Penn State community will not register for another week so you will have plenty of time work on your schedule.
Learning how to cope with adversity is one of the best skills that anyone can develop. This was, in the broader scope of life, a rather mild challenge and one that will be easily overcome within the next 24 hours. So enjoy the beautiful day, come to our inaugural Founders Day at noon in the HUB and remember what a privilege we have to be a part of one of the best universities in the world and a member of the Schreyer Honors College.
I just wanted to say: THANK YOU for waiting until midnight tonight so that everyone would have a fair chance to schedule! There was a lot of talk about elion just randomly coming back up and having an unorganized free-for-all! Yes some of probably overreacted… (I stayed basically in my room so I don’t really know the full story yet!) But I’d also like too point out that as Honors students we REALLY care about our schedules and academic plans – that’s part of why we’re in SHC! Also the email list serve saying “relax the world’s not ending and the scheduling process will still be fair” could have come a little earlier to forestall some of the panic! But anyway thanks to all the people who are fixing this strange problem and who received panicky phone calls past midnight!
Thank you for your hard work in getting this situated. We really appreciate all the phone calls and emails that you and the awesome SHC staff made this morning!
Emma and Wil – I am glad we were able to get a fair and speedy resolution to this. Sorry for the heartache endured.
I think the real problem is not properly understood or addressed by this post. We are all very grateful for the fact that registration is at midnight tonight, and I don’t think anyone could complain about that solution. The issue that has all of us upset is that we weren’t told that this would be the case until 9am today, which was 9 hours to worry about whether or not we’d be able to get our classes.
I am reminded of my freshman year when the campus was stricken by a panic over a shooter in Atherton Hall that turned out to be an escaped convict somewhere down Atherton Street. It was, in fact, a non-issue, but since it was not addressed immediately, it escalated into a panic. All we needed was a little reassurance that something was being done about the problem so that we could feel less helpless.
Abby, I do appreciate that it took some time to resolve, 9 hours for those who were trying to log in at midnight. But even if I had been up monitoring facebook and emails there would not have been anything we could have done until this morning. Once it was clear to everyone that no one was able to register, which I understand was clear by 12:30, I would have hoped that people would have begun to realize that this was not isolated and that it was a problem that would have to be resolved during business hours. Even with this issue I don’t think there was ever any real danger that students would be able to get their classes scheduled with little difficulty.
The other issue you mention was a very real concern and we have worked hard to be able to have means to communicate quickly and effectively to our students. In that case, however, prolonged caution was the proper precaution.